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Decided to give the timing a bit of a tickle on my NA yesterday. When I checked it it looked to be closer to 9deg rather than 10. I have found it sluggish down low (haven't dríven many to compare to though).

Advanced the timing to 14deg, running 95RON in the tank. Took it out for a test drive and noticed the difference right from the minute I drove out the driveway. Very happy with the result. No pinging that I could notice and an improverment through the whole rev range all the way to 6000rpm.

Next tank of fuel will be 98RON, mainly just for insurance, but you never know it might make a bit more difference.

Yeah, makes a great difference.

When I first checked the timing on my import NA it was 8 degrees, which I read somewhere was the Japanese spec. Advancing it 6 degrees made a huge difference.

emexv wrote:Next tank of fuel will be 98RON, mainly just for insurance, but you never know it might make a bit more difference.

.. i run my daily corolla sportivo on 98.. it loves it!!

do it!!!

gets costly though!!

L.

emexv wrote: Very happy with the result. No pinging that I could notice and an improverment through the whole rev range all the way to 6000rpm.

You do know that the redline is much higher than 6000rpm?

Just thought I'd check as not everyone seems to know that.

J

Juffa wrote:

emexv wrote: Very happy with the result. No pinging that I could notice and an improverment through the whole rev range all the way to 6000rpm.

You do know that the redline is much higher than 6000rpm?

Just thought I'd check as not everyone seems to know that.

J

Nope, it's about 6250 from memory on the tacho. What is the real redline ??

Do they keep making power much past 6000rpm ??

emexv wrote:

Juffa wrote:

emexv wrote: Very happy with the result. No pinging that I could notice and an improverment through the whole rev range all the way to 6000rpm.

You do know that the redline is much higher than 6000rpm?

Just thought I'd check as not everyone seems to know that.

J

Nope, it's about 6250 from memory on the tacho. What is the real redline ??

Do they keep making power much past 6000rpm ??

hmmm 7200rpm on our Import NA6... now with the limiter removed it keeps going until just below 8k rpm
Not that there any power up that end

Red line starts at 7000rpm. Fuel cutout kicks in at around 7250rpm. Adjusting the timing moves the point where maximum power is made. Where that point moves to I cannot remember.

J

Have read of this post.
Long winded, but it does cover at lot in the timing space.


http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.ph ... ust+timing

It actually reminded me of something that was tried during a club dyno day a few years ago. After moving the timing around on a few NA6s It was found that 13 deg BTDC was the sweet spot.

J

If your really pushing the car between 4000 and 7250 rpm is fantastic, it just keeps on going and doesn't seem to drop off at all. I cant believe how much this engine loves to rev! And if you rev it right out in first it only drops down to about 5000 rpm when you change to 2nd meaning you can actually take of pretty quickly (relitevly) when you really want to. Just give it a go once, it wont flow up as long as you dont do it all the time.

I really need to advance my timing, I just cant find my bloody timing light and dont really want to do it without it... As a matter of interest can you still run the car on 91 with the mod? Or will it ping?

Interesting reading Juffa. I might have to have a bit more of a play with the timing and see what I come up with. Good excuse to burn up some fuel.

Ben, from all the reading I have done that question is impossible to answer. Every engine behaves differently. Temperature, humidity, altitude, load will also effect the combustion process so one day you might be ok the next you may get pinging. Remember too, you can't always hear it ping. In my opinion I would run 95RON as a minimum at 14deg just as insurance, if nothing else.

I have a NA6 and just set the timing to 14 deg and run 98 ron. Had a run up the Bells Line of Road chasing a NB8B which could not shake me. The driver thought it was a NA8 but was suprised it was a 1600. I also installed a high flow panel filter.
The next test will be how it pulls up the hill at Wakefield.
I would suggest if you are thinking about doing the timing it give it a go.

Shells Vpower 100oct has 5% ethanol in it. not really a good thing in the old NA6/8 rubber fuel hoses.

you're not really testing it under load tho , are you. and pinging can destroy your engine.... i'd be very careful following that advice

(we don't have dizzies in our cars, either. i assume you mean the crank angle sensor)

you're right every engine is different. some people report being able to advance their engines a lot more than others....

don't get so defensive mate i wasn't having a go. just pointing out to be careful, thats all.

Thanks for the advice steve, although I think just to be safe I'll use a timing light and set it at 14 degrees to start with, I may then play around with it a bit until I get the best setting for my car. I'm planning a day just to do things to my car on Wednesday so i'll probebly end up doing it then.

Cheers guys
Ben