situation: i detonated at 12 psi on pump gas. i was told to retard the timing to run more boost.

question: if i retard the timing, wouldn't i lose power at the same amount of boost. and when i turn up the boost, doesn't that make up for the loss power?

i made about 274 hp on 11 psi on my ls turbo. i want to be able to have about 300+ hp on pump gas. is this wishful thinking?

 

you either have to retard the timing or give the car more gas. which ever loses the least amount of power. what engine management do you have???

 

give it more gas?

but, i use the hondata

 

Essentially you make power retarding the timing, and upping the boost pressure. Reducing the amount of timing keeps the cylinder pressures down, which keeps the stresses place upon the ring lands, cylinder walls lower. Lowering the timing lowers the amount power produced by the engine, as well as making the engine run hotter. You have to balance your air/fuel and timing to give the appropriate numbers you would like to see. Using this method of tuning you make the turbo produce the power, not the engine (timing). This is where an egt gauge and a wideband come in sooo handy. I was running 15lbs for a year on my stock block ls before i cranked it up to 18lbs and blew it. This was tuned on 93 pump gas, and was raced everyday...putting the engine to its limit.

 

Thanks for sharing the info. Doesn't too far advanced timing can cause your engine to overheat as well? I read another post that said retarding ign will raise egt and advancing it will lower egt. Ok im flipping back and forth bw these posts and my brain is starting to freeze up. Maybe in 5 min ill start thinking clearly again... But like i asked in the other forum, theoretically speaking, too much timing advanced on a turbocharged engine would run too lean/rich and end up in detonation or even melting a piston ? heres the thread link https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=179326

 

From tuning my car with an egt and wideband using haltech, the egt would register lower #'s when i would advance the ignition. In general though, retarding the ignition does produce lower egt readings, advancing produces high egt readings. I should have been more clear upon my posting. You just need to dial in the air/fuel readings with a wideband, then play with the timing and watch the egt to get the optimal balance of heat created, power produced and detonation supressed.

 

very good info boosted hybrid. so, which is the best bet: keep timing advanced and run 11 lbs on the street and create less heat yet more stress on ringlands and cylinders as you have stated?

or retard timing run more boost but run a higher temperature?

if i retard the timing does it not produce as much stress?

btw, could you explain to me the difference between cam timing and ignition timing through adjusting the distributor?

thanks.

 

I would first check the a/f ratio. If its good like 12.3.12.50 or so then you know you need to retard ignition. Retard ignition until it stop detonating. But dont let the motor detonate, so retard first then work your way up.

 

"Think about this. Ignition timing is when the spark is lit, in relation to the piston and crank location. The more you advance the timing, the sooner the spark lights the a/f mixture. The earlier it's lit, more and more of the a/f mixture is burnt.

This has a direct correlation to EGT. Not all of the a/f mixture is burnt, as dictated by the use of oxygen sensors. Some of it is pushed out into the exhaust. But it doesn't just all exit out the tail pipe. The a/f will continue burning, inside your manifold/header, turbo, downpipe and on back until conditions are no longer favorable. So, using that knowledge, it makes perfect sense that if air/fuel mixture is correct, high EGT's are a sign that ignition timing is too retarded, as too much a/f is burning inside the manifold. Cool EGT's are a sign that ignition maybe be too advanced, as there are only small amounts of a/f are burning in the manifold, and this means that most of it is burning inside of the combustion chamber. While this would seem ideal, it's not. This causes high cylinder pressures, and thus, detonation, and we all know what that can do.

You would want to retard ignition timing in a lean condition for that very reason. It's actually very simple to understand once explained I think "

Thank VaporTrail for that info.