Timing Advance

[94EclipseGST]

Okay, I'm a little confused when people talk about advancing timing.

Is timing advanced when the * goes up, or when it goes down?

 

[kpt4321]

Timing advance is a measure of when the spark plug fires with regard to crank angle. Generally, the spark fires BEFRE the piston gets to top dead center, and the measure the distance before it fires in degrees of crank rotation. Therefore, if it fires earlier, then it fires more degrees of crank rotation from TDC, and you have more advance.

 

[94EclipseGST]

Kyle, thanks for the explanation, but I'm very thick-headed, so I'm going to ask a different question to help me get this clear in my mind.

Scenario 1
I'm at WOT and my timing is at 20* (which is what I get now).

Scenario 2
I'm at WOT and my timing is at 15*

Which is better? Would the 15* be advanced or the 20*? I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if advance means the degree of timing is a higher number or a lower number.

Please excuse my ignorance, but I'm really working at learning how to tune my car, and I just have these bits of missng information.

 

[9d2TSi]

Good stuff Kyle.

As for your question, when I'm tuning that's actually the range where I like to be. 15*- 20*. 20* is more advanced than 15*. You would like it to be in that range if you can. You don't want too much more than that if you can avoid it. For your situation, you could consider leaning it out a touch up top until your timing comes down. Your WOT tuning is actually pretty good though.

 

[Tevenor]

Kyle, thanks for the explanation, but I'm very thick-headed, so I'm going to ask a different question to help me get this clear in my mind.

Scenario 1
I'm at WOT and my timing is at 20* (which is what I get now).

Scenario 2
I'm at WOT and my timing is at 15*

Which is better? Would the 15* be advanced or the 20*? I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if advance means the degree of timing is a higher number or a lower number.

Please excuse my ignorance, but I'm really working at learning how to tune my car, and I just have these bits of missng information.

Advance means higher. The 20 degree run has MORE timing advance than the 15 degree run.

 

[tigerstalon]

Try this link out. It might help you see it "in action".
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/ignition-system.htm

HowStuffWorks is awesome.

 

[Gigaah]

More advance in timing(higher number) is something you aspire to get usually. If your timing advance is low or negative it usually is because of knock.

 

[94EclipseGST]

Now that's what I can understand. Thanks fellas. After setting my timing to 5* last night, I noticed that I am now getting 23/24* advance, as opposed to the 20* I was getting. Timing was obviously off a bit, even though I had set it properly before I installed my fuel pump, injectors and MAFT.

Now, is there a point at which you have too much advance and that's not good?

Thanks!