So I notice the dizzy can be advanced or retarded on these d-series engines- loosen 3 12mm bolts and it can be clocked a little bit either way... does anyone know the bet way for performance? Usually it's advanced (spark comes a little before TDC)... any help would be apprecitated.
-Matt

 

You are kidding right? If you are then Ha... Ha.... funny (not). If not then, you should consider this a laugh. If you are worried about clocking the distributor for more performance then there are some major problems.

My answer is a question to you. Have you ever seen a car gain power by retarding the distributor?

 

just put a b-series in ur car for performance

 

well, according to honda it's supposed to be at 16* btdc

 

Yeah, but he wants "performance". So go one notch advanced and run it 18* BTDC... LOL
(even that is still within factory specs)

Hell screw it all, just rock that ISH all the way back and watch the manifold glow red.

 

um... can you say fire hazzard? i can see the news now... a fire erupted on the freeway today when some honda newbie thought it would be a good idea to rock his timing all the way advanced and it caught his car on fire

 

all the way advanced doesn't seem very bright... obvious one there!
I do know on musclecars they'd advance the timing a bit on the dizzy and get more power out of them, and also adjust the advance curve would help.
I guess they don't get any better than the factory setups, or do they?

 

Set it 16* - 18* and be done with it. Detontation is extremely hard to hear from these engines, so set it factory and leave it be. Unless you're on a dyno and you're tuning, leave it be and let the tuner decide if you need more timing.

 

WTF, are you guys serious? Advancing the timing a little bit is a great way to get a little bit "extra" for next to nothing in cost. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book

I wouldn't crank it without a timing light... you need to know what it's at. Definitely play with it at the track and see what works with your engine. Generally a couple degrees advanced helps a bit, some engines like to have it cranked.

A far better way to do it is to have the ECU chipped and advance the WOT timing that way - play with it and find what works. Adjusting the dizzy adjusts the entire timing range for all load levels and engine speeds.

 

The correct way would be to get a custom tuned chip like "raene" suggested.
Not all tuners do a great ignition map tune so it depends a lot in your tuner's abilities.
One method is to hook up a knock sensor and advance the ignition at WOT until you get knock and then back it off one or two degrees.
That sets your WOT ignition map, but your low RPM (and everything in between) will not have this advance.

Just turning the distributor and hoping for a dramatic power increase on the stock mapping seems lame to me.
You take a loss in your low end to gain a little in the top end. This might work for road race, but I'm not feeling that it will do much for a drag strip.

 

Wow...

You can usually advance the timing a degree or two for small performance gains. With advancing the timing though, you may need something other than 87 octane gas.

Muscle cars are ALOT more forgiving with timing. If you throw some more timing into a d-series honda motor, you will detonate and destroy it if you aren't careful.

 

So you're saying advancing your timing will cause your car to just spontaneously combust on the freeway? I don't know if I would insult someone if I didn't fully grasp the concept I was jabbing him about.

 

All my vehicles are/were either newer GM (distributorless) or 10 year old Jeep (non adjustable timing outside of initial due to how the computer is set up, but it has a dizzy), so I really don't have a lot of experience with Hondas...

 

Just leave it set to factory, it's not worth the hassle, and you wont notice any difference.