I was wondering what is the difference between Igintion timing and Cam timing? Is it pretty much the same thing? Like if retard/advance my igintion timing through my distributor, or retard/advance timing through a adjustable cam gear?

 

You move the distributor you move your ignition timing.

You change your cam gear you change both (cam runs the rotor inside the dist).

 

Cam timing adjusts your valve timing, ignition timing(Distributor) adjusts when your spark is. Adjusting your intake cam(DOHC) or cam(SOHC) will in effect adjust your ignition timing.

 

I have a SOHC motor, so your saying if i get a adjustable cam gear and retard it, it will have the same effect as retarding through the distributor.

Reason why i'm asking is because my car is a 96 accord ODBII and i'm running nitrous, and i cannot adjust the distributor at all unlike ODBI vehicles. I'd rather not spend money and upgrade my entire igition at the moment. I want to just get a adjustable cam gear which will allow me to retard like 2-3 degrees and run a higher shot of nitrous.

 

If you retard your cam gear 1 degree, it will retard your ignition timing 2 degrees, and shift your power band to higher RPMs.

 

I've actually had trouble with trying to change the timing with my cam gear.

With the service connector jumpered and the cam gear retarded by 8 crank degrees, the timing light still reads 15 degree advance.

In my experience the ecu will always put the ignition timing back to stock, but I can only check it at idle (no datalogging for me yet).

Cliff notes: cam gears and moving the dist doesnt move my timing. F22 OBDII.

 

oh really, so how did you work around this?

 

On OBD2 cars, is the distributor still run off the cam by gear? It would seem that the ECU couldn't change ignition timing on it's own if it was. How could it change a mechanical link between the cam and the distributor?

gonna check helms when he gets home

 

Same way it retards with a BTM.

Its all electrical through the ecu (after the rotor get a signal from the cam)

 

i'm getting a little bit confused... i have a skunk2 cam gear and msd btm waiting to be installed on a turbo'd accord... it sounds like they do almost the same thing..? was getting the cam gear a waste..? i think niedejb was using an aem cam gear and msd btm...

 

No.

The cam gear will change the valve timing depending on position. (The ECU will dial in timing regardless of cam setting in my experience.) Retarding my valve timing NA got me a 5whp gain.

The BTM will retard ignition timing under boost only. (interupts the ecu signal and retards it).

 

Also with cam gear you can tweak where you want your power band to be.