What can I adjust the cam sensor to?

[e36bmer]

I know how to adjust the cam position sensor and I set it to about 5deg at idle. It kinda bounced around a little, but I assume that is ok.

But, I was wondering if 5deg is made for 87oct. What could I turn it to, if anything if I ran 93oct everyday. Could I advance the base timing to say 8 or 9deg safely? Or would that not run well?

 

[crimsondragon]

You don't run 87 octane on a turbo. You don't run it either when you advance timing. Advancing timing makes the engine hotter and causes detonation more likely to occur. The most you can safely advance is +-5 degrees. Any more and you lose power. Read the free mod guide.

 

[e36bmer]

You don't run 87 octane on a turbo. You don't run it either when you advance timing. Advancing timing makes the engine hotter and causes detonation more likely to occur. The most you can safely advance is +-5 degrees. Any more and you lose power. Read the free mod guide.

I just kinda thought that since on the gas cap it just says UNLEADED that 87 would be ok to run in it. I do run 93 usually though. Sometimes 89 and it seems to run just fine. I read over the free mod guide, but all I saw was where it says to set your timing to 5deg. I think I may try to advance it just a couple degrees and see if it starts to pull timing and leave it if it runs well and take it back if it runs bad.

I was under impression the reason advancing the timing is more likely to occur was because you are igniting the fuel earlier? and the heat is just a byproduct of having the combustion last longer.

 

[c4uldr0n]

The stock 1G timing is rather aggressive to begin with. I would leave it at the 5btdc setting. If you increase or decrease the CAS timing, it affects your whole RPM range by whatever you adjusted your CAS by. The only time I would ever adjust the timing is if you have the proper tuning tools (DSMLINK/AEM) where you can tune out knock or add timing for more octane... etc.

-c4

 

[NN4S]

The stock 1G timing is rather aggressive to begin with. I would leave it at the 5btdc setting. If you increase or decrease the CAS timing, it affects your whole RPM range by whatever you adjusted your CAS by. The only time I would ever adjust the timing is if you have the proper tuning tools (DSMLINK/AEM) where you can tune out knock or add timing for more octane... etc.

-c4

I run 87 octane in my DD with my base timing set to 5 degrees BTDC, but I am using DSMLink and have detuned the car to allow it to run at stock boost levels w/o knocking. It's driveable and gets about 5 MPG more than I was getting on 93 octane, but that's mainly because you stay out of the boost more when driving with that sort of tune. It's definitely not for everyone because it's pretty much like driving a NT car. I just figured that I'm not always racing around trying to out run everything on the road, so why spend the extra $$ on the higher octane fuel if I didn't need to? The tuning process is the same that any car with an ECU goes through, the goal is just different.

You should NOT try to do this if you don't have the self-discipline to stay out of the boost on a regular basis! Even with the adjusted fuel, airflow & timing maps, you can really screw things up trying to drive like a bat out of hell on the lower octane fuel. While this works for me, don't come whining to me when you screw things up because you couldn't restrain your need for speed...