Hey guys, I'm looking for info on the timing for my car. I've been reading on the forums for a while and I've noticed alot of people saying that advancing the timing a little will increase performance a bit and smooth out the engine. I have a mechanic friend who is willing to look at my car, more importantly the timing in my car this weekend and he wanted me to find out what timing settings are recommended for an LG4. As far as I know the car should be set to stock timing as it was driven by an older woman for most of its life. What settings (degrees of advancedment?) should I relay to my friend?

 

OE will probably favor anywhere from 2-6* of initial advance. The computer should take care of the rest. Advance it to what works best without pings/knocks (edit: in high gear cruising. It probably won't knock sittin out of gear but will rattle like crazy when you get it on the highway if it is too advanced.). The more you advance it though the more it will favor high-grade fuel.

 

If the EGR is working properly, you won't have any problems with 6 degrees BTDC.

Hope your mechanic knows to disconnect the ESC wire before setting the timing.

 

What is the ESC wire, just out of my own curiosity?

 

Single wire connector that is by the A/C evaporator. You should see it sticking out of the wire harness before it goes into the passenger side fender. Disconnect that before you check your timing or your readings will be all over the place.

 

the LG4 left the factory with rather conservative timing, but with your 2.73:1 gears, I wouldn't try for more than 6 degrees more than your emissions sticker calls for. That sticker is usually right near the hood release mechanism, once you open the hood. If you get more gear (like maybe 3.23:1+) and a looser torque converter ( like maybe a 2000 stall), then you can try more advance. Install a bigger cam, and it may need more advance, but if it's big enough to need more advance, it's big enough to also need, gear, converter, intake and exhaust upgrades.

 

One more question. I've been thinking about disabling the EGR and I've been told that I will probably have to modify the timing to do that aswell. Is that true? If so, I assume the same rule of "no more than 6*" would apply, nothing changes with the EGR off?

 

Why disable the EGR? It helps mileage, and doesn't function at full throttle, so it doesn't hurt power. Only weighs about 5 ounces. But disabling it won't require any significant change of spark timing.

 

You might get some pinging under light load/moderate throttle with no EGR and advanced timing. Found that out when I pulled my intake and discovered the EGR passages were carboned shut. When cleaned up and functioning, no problem with 6 degrees advanced and regular unleaded.

 

i have a 350, 2000 stall, 750 carb, and 3:73 gears. have mine at 9* advanced ... was just flipping through the "new posts" and read through this... not sure if it helps, but i put my 2 cents in

 

Some of the 5.0 Mustang guys run 14-16 degrees initial, it all depends on the engine. 57 kid is right. I forgot about the time I had that same problem. Only mine wasn't carbon, it was the vacuum line to the EGR valve. But that's not the point.