advancing and retarding a cam

Alright, anyone want to explain to me real quick exactly what retarding and advancing and cam does to the car/engine/perfomance. I am putting in a cam and camshaft right now and I can't recall exactly what that does. Thanks

and whats the cam gear going to do for me as far as improvments, i bought it off a friend for 30 bucks AEM cam gear and si camshaft, so im putting it on right now and then taking off the cam once i get the si to put on the si.

my friend did that to bend his valves, it was soooo cool.

bend his valves?????????? explain

Hi, Lisa.
When you set the timing on a car using a timing light, you are advancing or retarding the spark, changing the 'time' when the spark comes to the plug. I believe that retard means to have the spark come after the piston has hit top dead center (TDC). Advancing the spark means having the spark come before the piston reaches TDC.
Changing the cam will change how far the valves open up, and how long they stay open, and how fast they close. Changing the cam will not in anyway change 'when' the spark comes to set off the explosion in your cylinder. That adjustment is made at the distributor.
I'm sure someone here understands it better than I do. If I've made a mistake, please correct me.
Flunky

PS-If the lobes are too tall on the cam your are installing, they will push the valve open so far that it will strike the piston when the piston gets to TDC. When a timing belt breaks, this is also how valves get bent, by making contact with the piston. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time=Damage.
Fllunky

thanks flunky, well obstacle #1 my boyfriend, hes doing this with me as we speak, forgot that your not supposed to take the four bolts at the top out because then the rocker assembly falls apart, so it fell apart, now hes having a hard time getting it to directly come together without any little space,

i have an extra rocker arm assembly from a blown dx but im pretty sure nothing was wrong with the rocker arm assembly, but its pretty old, in the way that its been sitting for a long time, any reason why i cant just put this on my dx, obviously i should clean off the old dried up oil and lube it up with new i suppose. anyone know???????????????/

There's nothing wrong with using the other rocker assembly.
Flunky