Hey guys. I have an hx35 8 blade on my car. Stock 6 bolt block stock head (no cams or springs) and I keep having a problem of seeing knock anything after 25 psi on my turbo and the most timing we could get out of it is 3* peak timing. I have a 4"C xs power intercooler which I believe may be causing an issue with some knock but I still think the car should be able to see close to 30 psi on pump gas especially with only 3* timing! Could it be that my motor is worn out? When we tore it apart last winter it looked brand new.

My afrs are right around 11.8 wot car doesn't break up or anything I tried it at 27 psi at the track once and was seeing 6-7* of lnock the entire time down the track (Yikes!) my Dsmlink is saying I'm flowing 44 lb/min at 7000 rpm the car runs good but I'm not happy with the power. I know a good set of cams and springs would probably give me another 40whp if not more.. I was thinking of going up to an hx40 to give me more power at the same psi but I'm going to sacrifice lag then too.

This winter I'm doing a 4" ets race kit and a set of kelford 272s with kiggly springs. I want to keep this hx35 and make around 450whp on pump gas but with me having problems with knock I don't see it happening unless I can up the boost into the high 20s ATLEAST with some good timing.

Car is tuned by me and my friend I'm not sure if I have a log saved or not I can check tomorrow.

Post up a log of a good 3rd gear pull. Have you tried a step colder plugs or a tighter plug gap? If it where me I wouldn't up the boost anymore. Id actually lower it till you can get a good timing curve again. Running high boost with no timing is pointless. Anyway if you can post a log it will help a few of us help you more! You need timing around 15 or higher to make good power!

I have colder NGK plugs they cost me like 50bucks for them there the good plugs and if I remember right I think my gap is at 18 I can't remember tho. Ill look to see if I have any logs saved in my lap top if not I really can't do a pull since my car is down for the year. I mentioned to my buddy maybe richening up the car a little bit to see if we could get some more timing in the car. From what ive looked it seems I should have around 8-9 degrees peak timing. If I remember correctly too I kept seeing knock right around 5000 rpm right when the turbo started making peak torque

$50 for ngk's bro your getting ripped off!! One or two step colder bpr's are like $3-4 a piece! And 18 for a gap is a bit to tight if you ask me, 23-24 is a better gap. Anyway a log is about the only way I could help you bro and anyone else for that matter. Your definitely suffering the power loss by not having a good timing curve. When i ran my 16g even on pump I was getting 14* timing. With my race gas tune (100 oct) I could push 20-21* up top and run about 20psi boost and that was enough to get me low 12's at the track! Your even in a 1g which stock have a pretty aggressive timing curve already, so there's definitely some things holding you way back! Have you done a boost leak test lately?

What fuel is this? What octane?

I run shell 93 octane and no haven't done a boost leak test on it lately. I was able to squeeze a 12.0 at 120 out of the car at drag way 42 it's a fast track tho I know my car isn't a 120 car. I've got to be loosing a ton of power with the timing being so low

Boosted DSM 32 said:

This winter I'm doing a 4" ets race kit and a set of kelford 272s with kiggly springs. I want to keep this hx35 and make around 450whp on pump gas but with me having problems with knock I don't see it happening unless I can up the boost into the high 20s ATLEAST with some good timing.

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Its probably going to be tough making 450 on pump gas. Also the 8 blade doesn't flow as much as the 7 blade( you probably know that). With that being said make sure your base timing is set correctly. I set mine correctly and when I started tuning I kept running into knock (4 counts or more) and thats running E-85 with only 13-14* of peak timing. Once I rechecked it, it had gotten advanced somehow. Readjusted and the knock went almost completley away and I'm at 20* of timing from peak power to redline.

What NGK plugs are you running? At 50 bucks a set, Im thinking the silly parts guy talked you into the "fancy" iridium plugs, which is a big no no; try BR7ES plugs, gapped to .024 and drop the gap if you have trouble. 11.8:1 is too lean on 93 pump at that boost level, drop it to 11:1 and see if that allows you to add some timing without knock.

Well, I dont know what housing you're running but from the mods i assume t3. Still, on pump gas you have to expect a limit. I have a comparable sized turbo and around 25psi was my limit on pump gas. Started knocking too much. Switched to e85 and knock went away and i was able to go past 30psi.
Now everyones setup is different so take it with a grain of salt, its anecdotal, ok? hx35, pump gas, and 25+psi i just dont see it happening.

Gapping down to .020 is ok for high boost. Also you need to go a bit richer on the afrs.

I was in a similar boat with my HTA Green. I was seeing approx. the same airflow as you, on 93 oct. 24-26psi, 11:1 AFR. I was seeing about 7° peak timing. I switched to E-85 and was able to run a conservative 17° peak timing, and it make a very noticeable difference.

What kind of intercooler are you running?

Needs water meth in my opinion. The water that's mixed in will raise compression and make more power, the water will also cool intake air temps, the meth that's mixed in has octane value and will magically turn your pump gas into a lot better gas. I run a hx52 turbo with direct port alcohol injection, I see 38-40psi boost and timing ends up right in the 19* neiborhood. For plugs, NGK br8es gapped small at twenty. That recipe seems to be working great for me. Good luck man

Thanks for the replys guys! Yes I did buy the iridium plugs . I running a 4" xs power fmic it's probably junk. I personally don't know anything about tuning my one good buddy with a 9 second Evo tuned my car for me he never used link before just kinda went along as we messed with it. Is there a special recipe for setting base timing? Ill also relay to him that we may have the afrs to lean maybe richening it up a bit would allow more timing like stated above?

Also I don't want to run water meth I've seen too many horror storys of it not working correctly, a kid front town just blew his Evo up a few months ago because his meth quit working. I'm sure it's safe 95% of the time but I don't want to run it

EDIT: just talked to my friend that tuned the car he said he had it in the high 10s low 11s and was still seeing knock at the same timing

You really should post up the log. We can better help you that way.
If you can get e85, IMO, its better than water/meth. Less things to go wrong, right?
I may have missed it but what CR pistons are you running? That can have quite an effect on timing. You simply may be asking too much from pump gas. What hotside on that holset? Bep .70 t3?

Side note: You NEVER want to see 6 or 7* of knock and keep your foot in it. Let up before shit gets burned quick. Im sure you know this but i saw in your 1st post you said you ran it all the way down the track at that level. You can melt stuff like that or burn valves.

Knock sensor oozing any goo? How old is it? Probably not your problem but its worth checking.
Also, how hot is your coolant temp?

Boosted DSM 32 said:

Is there a special recipe for setting base timing?

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Not at all, just make sure it hasn't changed on you and its set at 5* btdc.

I know all setups are different, but I couldn't run no more than 7* on 93.

AEM water/meth kit has the smart box controller with dumby light for fault codes. Its aboute the safest system on the market. Just saying...

boost97gst said:

You really should post up the log. We can better help you that way.
If you can get e85, IMO, its better than water/meth. Less things to go wrong, right?
I may have missed it but what CR pistons are you running? That can have quite an effect on timing. You simply may be asking too much from pump gas. What hotside on that holset? Bep .70 t3?

Side note: You NEVER want to see 6 or 7* of knock and keep your foot in it. Let up before shit gets burned quick. Im sure you know this but i saw in your 1st post you said you ran it all the way down the track at that level. You can melt stuff like that or burn valves.

Knock sensor oozing any goo? How old is it? Probably not your problem but its worth checking.
Also, how hot is your coolant temp?

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I have a stock 6 bolt block and I'm running the stock holset t3 twin scroll hotside. My knock sensor has less than 1000 miles on it its brand new oem.

And I know you never want to see that much knock I stayed in it because it was a good pass and because normally I would just see 2-3 degrees so I figured it was something small, and almost lost my lunch when I looked at the log. I ran my best pass on the run with the knock. It was because I did a few passes within a few minutes of each other and I think I heat soaked my intercooler.

E85 really isn't an option closest station is 40 min away from my house.

Honestly, we can give suggestions until the cows come home, but unless we have a 3rd gear pull log to look at we can't really offer solid advise.