BABY NSX

So I was at the tuners yesterday to begin the dyno tuning for my new engine.

Before we began tuning we decided to double check that the timing was set correctly. I had carefully set the timing myself but felt that since we were about to start the serious work we might as well double check it.

First… the ATI damper came with two sets of timing marks. One was painted bright white and the second was not painted at all and was offset from the painted set by 3 positions. When I contacted ATI about this they said that there had been a manufacturing error when cutting the first timing marks They re-cut new marks and painted them white. Ok… They also told me that the marks started at 0deg TDC and ended at 15 degrees. There are 16 total marks so that made perfect sense…

So when I set the base timing (with my basic timing gun). I set Hondata to give a fixed timing signal of 15 degrees and simply lined up the distributor to hit the final timing mark on the pulley. Simple enough

Well yesterday when we check the timing (with a Snap-On gun with timing readout) we find that what should be 20degrees turns out to be nearly 29 degrees. Confused by this we decide to pull plug #1 and check the pulley’s TDC mark. We find that the mark is off by nearly 3 marks, and actually corresponds precisely with the original timing marks that ATI said were wrong.

Next we discover that the marks themselves are separated by 2 degrees not 1 as indicated by ATI. I confirmed this with the timing light and also when I compared the timing mark spacing with my OE pulley (something I should have done before, and not trusted ATI)

So considering these two issues when I thought I was setting the timing to 15 degrees (the last timing mark on the pulley) I was actually setting it to 24 (30-6). This means that I’ve been running with my timing advanced 9 degrees more advanced then my timing tables indicate.

Last week I was suffering some pinging issues between 2000-3000 RPM… ummmm guess where that was coming from. And no wonder that removing about 6 degrees of timing in that area cleared that up…

Luckily for me I removed 5 degrees of timing at WOT from all my base maps to be conservative. Luckily I have headphones plugged into my knock sensor so I can actually hear knock. Luckily I was running 94 octane fuel. Luckily I asked the tuner to double check my timing….

I’ll be calling ATI to discuss this with them… I’m more then a little upset at this, but understand that I should never assume anything when it comes to aftermarket parts. But they DID tell me that the timing marks were spaced one degree apart and they did cut the timing marks wrong (after actually getting it right the first time).

At least now I know that I have some margine in my timing tables…



Modified by BABY NSX at 12:59 AM 4/6/2007

STREETWERKZ

wow!


i was about to purchase an ATI damper for my supercharged build.


timing like that would cause detonation like a ****!

Supahr_Ed

YEAH, I heard the customer service at ATI is not the greatest...or at least from what i "heard" people tend to get bad answers from them

BABY NSX

The funny thing is I bought this thing to protect my engine and it almost killed it. I'm sure if I had a better timing light I would have cought the 2 degrees per mark vs 1 degree per mark confusion sooner but the fact is the timing marks were still cut wrong.

Oh well... the engine is still healthy and running strong and that to me is what counts. I’m still happier with the damper on the car then without it.

Suck my DX

yikes...thats why im afraid to go with anything other than the stock piece.

ITRnorway

maybe the fluidamper would be my choice now. or could go with the ATI and check the marks to be sure