I want to advance my timing to get a little bit more performance out of my V6. How far can I go and still have a safe running engine that still gets decent gas mileage?

 

I ran mine at 12* BTDC and I had no problems with gas mileage, and it ran great.

 

I wouldn't go much more than 18* or you'll have starting problems...

 

What does BTDC stand for? haha

 

BTDC = Before top dead center. TDC is 0* timing.

 

 

Oh thanks haha I know what TDC is but I didn't get it with the B for before haha thanks guys, I'll give 12* a whack next time me and my buddy are in the garage and see how it goes.

What kind of mileage did you get out of yours at 12* Cj92Firebird? I get about 28 pretty consistently with mine on time.

Edit: What kind of a detrimental effect is this going to have on my car? Its got 88K miles on it now, and I want it to last. How do these things stand up to time with the timing advanced? I drive this car everyday and have for the past two years now. I don't want to hurt my baby!

 

Well, I never really had a benchmark for my car. When I got the car it had a blown motor in it, so the motor I got for it, I did a few things to that reduced my gas mileage and increased performance. But with my 12* and my mods I still got about 24 MPG on the highway.

I put 2,400 miles on my motor with the timing advanced before I blew a lifter (which had nothing to do with the timing), never had any abnormal effects with starting or anything. It ran like a scalded *** ape.

 

well maybe ill start with something conservative like 8 or 10 and go from there

 

Isnt 10* BTDC standard?

 

Killert's right, 10 degrees advanced is stock spec (engine won't run at 0 degrees, and I certainly wouldn't retard it down to 8 degrees or less).

Overadvanced timing can cause detonation- so check your spark plugs; if they start looking strange (or damaged!) then you went too far. If you flip thru a Haynes manual they'll have spark plug pictures; I believe a few are listed for detonation. And of course if the detonation was severe enough you could destroy a piston...

I played with my timing a lonnnng time ago, I tried 12 and 14 degrees advanced; didn't notice any difference, so I went back to the stock 10 degrees.

Let us know what you find out!

 

So if 10* BTDC is standard, then are you guys talking about advancing another 12 degrees or just 2 more degrees past TDC? What point are you using as your zero? Is 10* really 10* or are we just calling the 10* zero and then going from there?

 

We're calling 0* of advance (TDC) zero...

 

The stock timing setting is 10* BTDC. I'm talking just advancing it 2*s to 12* BTDC. I've heard of people running 14* with no problems, and they said they could tell a difference on the butt dyno without much effects to gas mileage and such.

 

does anybody know if we need to disconect any of the dizzy wires before timing the car ? my haynes is a bit shady, i have a 2 wire and a 3 wire connector.

 

There will be a single wire connector coming out of the wiring harness by the blower motor for the HVAC that needs to be disconnected before the timing can be set. Nothing is disconnected at the distributor.

 

Maverick's right about the wire location. The wire isn't anywhere near the distributor. When engine is off, disconnect it. Then start engine; it'll stumble but run; then you set your base timing. When you're done, shut the engine off, turn the key off all the way, then plug the connector back together. Be careful b/c it might be brittle and the safety-clip-tab might snap off (guess how I know!!).

Although I helped with an engine swap once (2.8 to 2.8) in an 88 Camaro- when we went to set timing, we couldn't find the connector anywhere! We must've compared his car with my Firebird for hours. For some reason it was gone. The previous owner had messed with the wire harness (there was some strange kill switch rigged up) so I think he either cut the wire out or rerouted it somehow. I wound up timing it by ear