i had my "97 civic tunned on a dyno, they had advanced the distributer all the way,and the cam gear by 4 dgrees. it runs good and got great horsepower to the wheels at this setting. however my plugs are black and my rpm idle is high and runnig rough. I need to know if this is normal or not. HELP!!!

 

anytime you change ANYTHING involving cam timing, your motor isnt
tuned at the ECU for those settings. if you didnt monitor the AF mixture
while on the dyno, and have no understanding on why you did what you
did and why what you did made or didnt make power... if you are
going to second guess yourself, put it back to stock. if your plugs are
black that usually means either you are burning oil or running too rich.
then again, if you dont have that dyno with the AFR reading, how would
you know? hmm. advancing and retarding arent in competition with who
is better or who makes power. it is all about peak efficiency. if your motor
is most efficient in the 14-18BTDC range, then keep it there. within those
4 degrees the cylinder pressures can be very different. you cant go wrong
with stock. if your idle is running too high, I would think your timing is too
far advanced or your idle and or timing has not been properly set. for each
degree of cam advance or retard you have to compensate with the ignition
timing. hence, if you advance the cam gear 1 degree, you must retard the
ignition timing 1 degree to compensate. It depends on the gear also. Some
gears are laid out differently. If I were you, I would bridge the service connector
put in the stock cam gear and set the timing to stock I am guessing it is 16BTDC.
I dont know the D series engine as well as my B.

Put the stock cam gear on, and set the timing to 16, then make a mark on the distributor. Be sure it is visible enough to see between the end cap and the distributor so it can be lined up. Now, reinstall the aftermarket cam gear set at 0. Check the timing and DO NOT ADJUST IT to be sure it is a true "0" at TDC. Some gears are not properly etched. If there is a discrepancy i.e. the timing moved from where it previously was with the stock gear, you need to make a new etch mark on your cam gear. Do that by turning off the car and adjusting the gear to line the timing up without adjusting the timing at the distributor, i.e. moving the cam gear to find true TDC.

Once you have established true "0" or TDC with the aftermarket cam gear by moving the cam gear until you find 16BTDC, then you can start tuning. Reset the ECU and make a base run at 0 and base (16)timing. Typically, if you advance a gear you will pick up some bottom end TQ and sacrifice top end power. There is a compromise. Each time you move the cam gear 1 degree when going for a desired setting, you need to do the opposite with the ignition timing. For example, for 16 timing to stay the same while advancing the cam gear 2 degrees, the ignition timing should read 18degrees. If you check it now and it is 18deg, then you have a true 2 degree advance at the cam. If you want to maintain 16deg timing, you would have to retard the ignition timing 2 degrees to do so. Understand? Good. I reccomend resetting the ECU each time you make a run on the dyno after cam setting changes.

Be sure and not advance your ignition timing too far, if you do you can make the engine work harder and wear out your components, i.e. make for eminent rebuild.
It wears your components when set wrong because the flame travel and the time it takes to burn the mixture... there is an time when the exlposion is at peak pressure. if your motor is at TDC in that cylinder when the exlposion is at peak pressure, the piston gets jolted down at TDC and can damage everything in a line, your pistons, rods, and bearings due to the engine slamming itself to wear prematurely. what you want to achieve is peak pressure when the motor has crested over TDC and the piston is on the way DOWN. that means you ignite the mixture later, i.e. with less than too much advance so that it is "helped" on the way down. This is how you make power from timing. It comes from the properly calulated ROD ANGLE that your motor makes and how long it takes based on estimates I dont fully understand in how long it takes for your motor's mixture to travel across the combustion chamber. I.e. if you dont know, keep it stock or +2 deg of timing at the most. That is why honda engineers do what they do, because they know all that stuff