Just checking if anyone on these boards has tried the "advanced timing mod". Basically you move the Ignition Advance sensor in order to advance the ignition timing on the car by ~ 4 degrees. I don't want to stop running 87 octane gas, but I thought I might give it a try. It seems easy enough to reverse if I get any pinging. Has anyone here tried it any seen any positive FE gains?
Advancing the timing is common in racing circuits and is usually done for performance gains. I would suspect if you see any fe difference it would be for the negative and not the postive.
I don't think I'd really want to do it without a way to read peak cylinder pressures, or at the very least a clear idea of what the knock sensor is hearing. 4 degrees is a lot when you're already riding the line as modern EFIs do. . _H*
4 degrees is probably overstating it, plus its adjustable. Alot of Mazda 3s have given it a shot as seen here . I just wanted to see if anyone had actually tried it on this forum. The timing is supposed to have been set conservatively from the factory.
when you're talking about performance mods, i think you'll see the biggest gains in the upper RPM bands. This guy (on the mazda 3 forum link) is talking about taking it up to redline. Most people on this board stay below 2500 RPM. My suggestion is wring every last bit out of your technique before attacking your equipment. I used to be so excited about doing aero mods, but i have been able to get almost 50 mpg out of my protege just working on my technique, and without instrumentation or aero mods.
I'd like to give it a try on my '00 DX. Advancing the timing usually helps on almost any car, as long as you stay out of detonation and the knock sensor isn't being activated. I probably would have tried this by now, but I haven't found out how to advance the timing on my distributorless 1.6. Greatwit, do you have a link for the advance mod? Mike
Here is the link to the advanced timing thread on a mazda 3 forum. It may be different on the '00 protege. I advanced my timing ~10k miles ago and have yet to ping (has been tested with a high load on a hot day). I was a little conservative and only advanced it ~ 2-3 degrees. Still running 87 octane.
I did the advance timing mod on my 3. Could not tell a thing pro or con. Also did the throttle body ground mod. No difference. The ground is still in place. The timing advance i moved back to the OEM setup. My understanding is both of these mods seem to be better for AT cars and not really useful on MT 3's. Mine being a MT I could not tell one way or the other.
