Timing?

mickb · Post by **mickb** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 1:54 pm

Hia, just bored and have no money, but a tank of petrol.

Whats the gig with advancing the timing on a Mk3 GT, I think its 5degree but you can go to 7degree? if I stand beside the NSF wheel looking in the engine bay (the back of the car to my right) what way do I turn it to advnace Clock wise or anti clock wise?

Also if I have a chip in will it make any differnce?

cheers,

metz · Post by **metz** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 9:14 am

Clockwise the way you are stood mate.

With the engine running unplug the blue temp sensor (under distributer cap) then adjust the timing and plug the sensor back in. Remember not to switch the engine off with it out though as it will log a fault.

Or so i believe anyway.

If death is caused by any of the actions above...can i have your inlet manifold

mickb · Post by **mickb** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:05 pm

can you do this on an SPi engine, my mate wants to know, it did make a bit of differenece on mine.

Also why cant you do it with the engine switched off? cheers

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:15 pm

You can do it to any engine, it does make a difference, makes it feel a bit perkier and more responsive although I imagine the actual power gains aren't enormous. You probably could do it with the engine switched off, but it's easier to tell if you're pushing the limits if the engine is running as it'll start to idle more roughly.

mickb · Post by **mickb** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 4:34 pm

Okay, I undone the 10mm bolts and moved the distributor clockwise, is the blue temperture sender a rubber thing on the end of a tube that goies to the exhanust manifold??

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:17 pm

Nope. It's a blue socket on the thermostat housing, 2 pin with a blue plug connected to it with a rubber sheath over it.

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:41 pm

the blue rubbery thing on a tube is the thing they measure the exhaust emissions thru on the MOT apparently

look to the left of it and you'll see two plastic things about the size of 10p coins, one blue, one black, with chunky square plugs in the top of them - those are your boys. almost straight down from the distributor in fact.

and if you need a light to check the advance by when you turn it - as it'll only be the tiniest of movements - you can have the one i'm buying for 2 quid from a guy at work tomorrow, once i've had my 5 minutes of fun with it

LogIK · Post by **LogIK** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 7:53 pm

Tahrey1043 wrote: look to the left of it and you'll see two plastic things about the size of 10p coins, one blue, one black, with chunky square plugs in the top of them - those are your boys.

Look to the right of the blue rubber bung on the exhaust manifold.

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 2:49 am

gonna stop monging it up one of these days

mickb · Post by **mickb** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 12:49 pm

Cheers , I got it, only thing is I done it when the engine was switched off and moved it clockwise about 5-6mm, it still runs fine and seems more responsve, if it stops raining I am going to put it back to normal and start again.

No mainfolds yet Metz!!!!!

metz · Post by **metz** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 12:58 pm

haha, maybe u should wet your hands first then mick

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 4:53 pm

think that shows how knackered mine may be then

started it up to use time light, it was actually pretty damn good

retarded it (? made it a bit earlier than TDC anyway) by a miniscule amount to get the marks finally lined up proper

began running like crap instead, and even putting it back where it was didnt fix it (though improved it)

5-6mm movement with little impact on smoothness sounds great by comparison!
is it quicker, did you go for a run yet?

mickb · Post by **mickb** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 9:59 pm

There defo more low down, but the top end is similar, but when you look at Â£o.00 for the improvement its worth it. Maybe optimax compared to normal 95ROn plus a smidge more. Gonna have a better crack at it now I know how to properly.

Hope you get your's sorted soon!!! let is know

later

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:19 pm

considering the price of BP ultimate (and therefore i reckon Optimax as they compete) is now 97.9p a litre at my local filling station o_O compared to an almost cheap sounding 90.9 for "regular" (ie premium 95) then thats definately a top tip!

from what i can gather in the manual the polo engines are set up quite conservatively so that they can run on the poorly mixed crap (as low as 91 RON*) that passed for mediterranean and french unleaded at the time.

* the GT/G40 I think are reccomended to always be run on 93 or higher if possible, but i bet they drink the scooter juice just fine as well if you don't pound them at the same time
Aside: In comparison, my dads cavalier, during a trip to france around 1990, proved to be a lot more highly tuned and less tolerant. It was already crippled by a caravan, and started to have serious power to weight issues after our tank of british 4-star ran out and was replaced with the naff european stuff... And he likes his engines on the big side, too!