neilb

Hey guys! I'm just working on my 86 camaro with the 2.8 and 700r4, and I'm starting to run out of things to boost performance without digging deep into the motor. Already have a cold air intake, Dynomax cat back exhaust, K+N filters, Energy Suspension bushings and I've removed the AC. What I was wondering is if I advance the timing will I get much of a performance increase? I've heard that 6 degrees BTDC is good for these motors, but I want to make sure before I go ahead wih anything. Plus whats a good spark plug to use. I tried to use the stock replacement ACDelco plugs gapped at 0.045, but it caused the engine to run like crap at low RPM so I reinstalled the old plugs. Any help would be great!

PS eventually I want to drop in a 3.8 turbo in this car to make it reall haul!

91greenbird

iTrader: (4)

im setting timing on my firebird for better performance soon to. Who ever told you 6 at btdc is crazy 10 is factory why retarted it unless you got a turbo?

neilb

10 degrees eh? wow I guess my source was bad. I thought it was factory set at zero!! Any idea what a good setting is?

91greenbird

iTrader: (4)

Im going with 13 or 14 in advance

Drew

iTrader: (58)

If you're looking for improved performance, all advancing the timing is going to do is maybe improve your throttle response.

I really don't understand why most thirdgen V6 owners try to milk every last bit of performance out of these cars. All these little tricks and tips don't have a noticable effect on power. If anything what you'll notice from all these easy/cheap/free mods is that the car won't be as dependable when you need it.

It's the same with the V8's, every meathead new to fbodies goes and guts his maf, guts his airbox, relocates his IAT, advances the timing, installs every sub-$100 part and runs maybe a tenth of a second faster in the 1/4. But hey, every bit helps right?

85f-bird

gotta agree w/ drew here to an extent...however, if ya wanna milk another pony, go for it. When you've done it, you'll say "***, it felt so much better" however, if you tracked ur car b4 hand, and then tracked it afterwards, i doubt you'd see even a 10th off the clock, and if you did, it would probably be from an improved racing style more so than it would be from the timing bump.

As a poor college grad, and while i was still in college by that means, reliability was the most important aspect for me. So, i stayed clear of aftermarket parts, fixed what was broke, and kept driving the car. She'll still give me grief about once a year or so, sometimes a tad more often, but, it's reliable enough to make 100 mile trips every weekend or so. And nothing feels better, than going 110 miles, going to the gas station, and refillin the car, to see it read 3.1 gallons and calculating 35 mpg out of your 1985 pontiac firebird, lol....really erks those guys who bought a honda to get the same result.

daves12secV6

iTrader: (3)

the problem is alot of ppl belive all the **** thesse part manufactures tell them like +20 hp by changing mufflers + power buy using thesse spark plugs instead fo these 10+hp by using this brand air filter.when they need to relize that if they want more noticable power they need to get inot the engine internals, well with the exception of a chip,and alot of ppl buy **** for there car but the stiff is mismatched i.e ported heads but stock manifold/ex system or they port there manifold and expect a huge increase in hp but they dont relize that u have to also do the heads and ex system to go along with that intake porting and so on </end ramble>

sorry for getting off topic lol

neilb

Thanks for the help, I'll try setting it at 13 and we'll see... I can alwayes set it back if I need to.

On the subject of squeezing out power, I say If its free take it. Besides what better way to learn about your car than to try something different... and if it breaks then fix it.

All I'm trying to do is have more fun with what I've got until I have all the parts needed for that motor swap.

85f-bird

best of luck neil, don't be expecting anything to special from this, but, do as you please. Be careful not to advance it to far, definately bump it up from six, if it's indeed there already. Learning more about your call and working on it is all cool, remember, the more you mod, the more youll break, the more you'll work on it, etc....So, have fun, and there's a decent enough chance that you're going to stretch that distributor o-ring seal when you loosen up the dizzy to twist it, so be prepared to be pulling the stupid distributor out in a week to get that thing back in their propper with a SBC distributor gasket helping it out.