timing advance

[highbrid]

i am all motor right now and want to advance my timing. i never really thought of doing this before but one of my friends was telling me that it will give me noticeable horsepower. are there any sort of adverse effects to my engine by advancing it too much? How much should i advance it? I have a gsr with itr cams, port, mill, and all bolt ons if that makes any difference to answering my quesions.

[drift]

a difference? yes. a noticeable one? not really. very minute amount of power, maybe 5 at the most in your application.

to advance, twist the distributor clockwise.

to do it right, get a service manual, get the required tools, and follow the instructions.

[Rice-Rocketeer]

And the advserse affect of too much advance is knocking because of sub-standard fuel.

[Tofuboy]

By doing the correct degree of advance or retard the ignition timing will give your engine a heather life and provide you maximum power output, put doing it incorrectly will shorten your engine's life spend and experience power lost.

What kind of ignition system does your car use? You will probably need someone who has the proper tool to do that for you.

[highbrid]

i have the stock ignition system. i've read some how to's on timing advance and from what ive gathered is that i dont need a timing light. all i have to do is turn the distributor towards the firewall and then take it for a drive with the ac on and if i dont hear any pinging then advance it more until i do then move it back to the last step where it wasnt pinging. correct me if im wrong because i probably am.

[Tofuboy]

I am not sure what type of ignition system it is, but I am guessing it would be an electronic system. You will need to know the factory specs and manuel to know the maximum advance for your engine (usually 6 degree is max put don't quote me on this).

The method you mention will not do you any good (probably will damage your engine or result in power lost) since you don't have access to a deno.

The pinging noise is actually coming from the piston trying to come up during the compression stroke. Since the ignition timing has been over advance the air fuel mixture is being ignite while the compression storke is not complete and trying to go up against the explosion. By doing that you will damage the crank shaft and other parts inside your engine and lose power in result.

[Perfectionist]

Definately not the type of thing you want to do without a timing light. The ECU will compensate somewhat for timing, and your method of advancing until it pings and then backing off is much too crude and inconsistent.

[highbrid]

http://integra.vtec.net/engine/timing.html

I thought that sounded a bit crude but according to this web site they do this sort of timing and it works fine. One of my friends did this to his b16 and it works fine and he has had his engine for about a year like that. I'll probably use a timing light to be safe. No sense in blowing up my engine for a few horsepower

[Moppie]

Winding up the advance then taking it back slowly till the engine stops knocking works really well on stock or midly tuned British cars that are PRE 1980.

On a new Honda with an electronic igntion system then its simply a good way of ruining a good engine.
Get a shop manaul and set it properly, or do it on a dyno, with a timing light.