I have a near-stock 92 GS-R with 148,000 miles. Babied until 138,000 miles (daily driven on highway to work), I even had to break it's vtec in. Anyway, when I first got the car I turned the distributor all the way towards the back, towards the fire wall. Some people have told me thats really bad and they wonder why it hasn't blown my engine yet. I was wondering if thats killing my top end, or if I will blow something soon, or its not even giving me any gains or what it would do. Any suggestions?

 

It's not maximum timing advance that gives you the most power, it's the right amount that does it. I'm mostly a domestic guy, so I'm not sure how hondas/acuras work in this department, but I would assume that the timing is controlled by the computer, not so much the distributor, similar to how it works in domestic fuel-injected cars. I don't think anyone's used mechanical advance since carburetors.

What octane does the manufacturer recommend for the car? If it's programmed to burn premium already, you don't want any more timing since it will only hurt the car. If it burns 87 from the factory, then pay someone to reprogram the computer for 93. You'll pick up a few horsepower this way, and you won't be guessing whether or not you have the timing right. Too much timing in any engine will kill it pretty quick, usually either by burning a hole in a piston or breaking off spark plug pieces and scoring the cylinder walls.

 

okay my spark plugs wires are shot, and now they pop out just driving around. I had to clean out the holes they go into from all the rubber that came off the wires. My spark plugs seem okay, just a little black, but they've been in for like 7000 miles. Should I just set my distributor to basically the middle and then take it to a shop to get it retimed when I have the money? Its programed to use Premium from the factory (I onl have 91 available in my area), all GS-Rs are. I figured since stock was 16 BTC I could bump it to 18 BTC no problem, but I know its way over that right now. I don't want to blow anything up so...


[Modified by milanoGSR, 1:28 AM 1/1/2003]

 

stonebreaker, try to get a straight answer on what TOTAL timing should be, even with a ECU.

Nobody will be able to answer it.

 

You mean you just turned the distributor all the way back and just took that to be the timing advanced without actually using a timing light to see what you had set it to????? I have my 94 JDM Si (GSR) set at 18degress advanced which is the optimal setting i was told, but the distributor is still fairly centred and not screwed all the way back, i'd get someone with a timing light to set it properly for you as i'd say the way you have set it is definetly not doing the engine any good!

 

You need to get a timing light and time it. $30 for basic one, $70 for advance one at sears, or free rental at autozone. Too much advance can cause detonation, or if your knock sensor senses knock, the ECU may overcompensate the retard and put you more retarded than if you had it in spec. But the most likely result is detonation or preignition, which results in less performance and damage to motor.

 

hehe, i feel like a ricer. could this be whats making my wires pop out? too much pressure in the cylinder wall? i'm going to buy new ones anyway...

thanks for all the help guys. i appreciate you guys being able to help a newbie without flaming.

 

ummm I highly doubt that this is why your wires are popping out (icould be wrong but I really hope I'm not, wouldn't make sense if I was?)
are you running factory wires if not you should IMO.

good luck with it, & yeah I always **** with my dist. hoping for an extra couple ponies but it just seems to shift my power band around?

 

It doesn't really 'make' power. It just moves the point of absolute pressur to a sooner point in the compression ignition cycle. In others words you may be igniting you mixture before your pistons are reaching TDC on the compression stroke. Not a good thing at all. I'll be suprised if you didn't blow a head gasket or fry your rings. Consider yourself lucky if neither happened.

 

advancing ignition timing does not hurt a motor unless the compression ratio is too high and or the octane of gas is too low. by advancing you distributor you will gain low end response but the motor will peak off quicker. on most of the engines we build around 11.0:1 comp we can get away with 20-21 degrees. this is on 91 octane pump gas and two steps colder on the spark plugs.

 

this morning i set my distributor in the middle. my wires still popped out, so i went and bought some Ractive wires and oh **** they are nice. They dont pop out, great look, very nice. My car doesn't feel like its going to die anymore. The guy at Tokyo Images also showed me a test and the Ractive wires blew any other wire away, it was crazy.

 

best wire ULTra 8 jdm wires. they come on 99 spec type-r