87camaro kid

when i was looking at the timing of my car with the EST wire disconected my timing was at 4* advanced or BTDC and when i would give it gas it would go to 2* before and then almost to 0* TDC i thought it would advance and go from 4* to 6* and so on?

this is a picture of what im talking about

fireball451

Guess the question would be is the car running right?
Got good power?
I am having a serious timing retard problem.
I don't know what in the crap is going on with mine.

The knock sensor can cause the timing to retard if it picks up noise, detonation, or a knock.
I've got mine grounded out through a 3.9k resistor and it is still retarding.

87camaro kid

i have pretty loud exhaust and i have a cut out could that cause it and how can i fix that?

1MeanZ

iTrader: (9)

I think this is normal from everything I have seen. My car drops a few degrees right off idle too. it has always done this and it runs fine. My truck does it too. hopefully someone who knows more than me chimes in here.

87camaro kid

i have no idea, i dont no if this would have anything to do with it also but i had to retard the timing from 6* to 4* because the car would surge at crusing speeds i guess from being to lean so could the o2 sensor be bad or tps or something is wrong with the vacuum

Vader

With most stock (and custom) programs, the timing tables do not change timing in a linear fashion. It generally starts relatively high at low load values, then drops off as calculated engine load increases. One RPM catches up and load decreases, the timing increases again. This is usually appropriate, and just one reason EFI systems have inherent superiority comapred to a mechanical/vacuum distributor advance scheme.

A vacuum advance can try to emulate this necessary drop in advance under load, but there is always a compromise in either initial timing, mechanical advance limit, vacuum advance curve, where they cross, or total advance. Being able to plot it out on a table with no necessary relevance between engine vacuum/RPM/load is far more flexible that spending half a day playing with advance weights, weight cam tailoring, weight sppring rate and pull, vacuum spring tweaking, and ending with only the best compromise on a distributor machine. It's still a compromise.

87camaro kid

does that mean my car is acting normal then?