can you advance your timing too much where it starts to hurt performance? i dont know if ive done that, but i think i advanced my timing at least 5 degrees, so i wondering if im hurting performance.

 

Yes you can. You should set it to stock and add a degree at time until you feel no more improvement in acceleration if that's what you are looking for.

 

yeah but its difficult to notice such a miniscule difference in acceleration.

 

i just retarded it a bit and its now only 2 degrees advanced. i feel a big improvement in throttle response. does that mean that before it was too advanced and was pinging? cause i had it at +5 degrees for A WHILE and i had been driving the car very hard during this time. could i have done any serious damage? whats a knock sensor?

 

Advanced timing=Loss on top end=Gain in low end

 

im not sure i understand why its a loss in the top end. care to elaborate?

 

Cause you are firing the plug too late early in the stroke and actually having the piston working against the rotating assembly. This is not good on the motor and you could have done serious damage to your rod bearings and other parts.
If you gonna advance, only go up like 2-3 degress. Also dont use anything less than 93 octane.

 

how could i tell if any damage like that has occurred?

 

anyone?

 

Base timing is the first thing I check when I feel that a motor is not running as strong as I think it should.

I have found that 18 to 19 degrees BTDC base timing works best on the long stroke Honda motors.

The reason why too much advance hurts top end is that as engine rpm increases mixture velocity increases, dynamic compression increases, and combustion turbulence increases. All of this leads to quicker combustion and you don't need anymore timming. Alot of drag racing motors have timing that is locked at say 28 degrees and make good power from 3500 rpms and up.

If your motor runs strong and you doesn't consume alot of oil your engine should be fine as the stock set-uo is pretty detonation resistant. If there is damage just build a pimper motor. Either way you win.