Understanding Timing

[Church]

Im trying to better understand timing. I pretty sure i know the basics of timing like where mine should be on my logger. But why should it be there, i think a lot of us know what good advance is for our cars and what not but if I should decide to go with a stand alone or dsmlink sometime i need a better undertstanding of it. So any informative links or info would be really helpfull.

 

[BenHenthorn]

If you decide you want to use DSMLink for your tuning (which is highly recomended), go to www.dsmlink.com/forums, set up a user name and search for topics about timing. If you use DSMLink (or whatever tuning method) you'll need to make sure you get rid knock (no more than 1 degree of raw knock at WOT from 2500 RPMs through at least 6000 RPMs) before you begin to advance your timing. On average, every degree of raw knock you get your ECU will take away 1/3 timing advance. Hope this helps out a little.

 

[Boosted98gsx]

Knock degrees = degrees of timing retardation because of knock.

I tune the exact opposite. I tune my timing curve first, then adjust my fuel trims. You will get more power from a timing curve than from fuel (or as i've seen). I dropped .8 from my 1/4 mile time from a 13.5 to a 12.7 from timing alone. and only .1 after that from raising my A/F ratio to 12:1 on race gas.