How much advance are yous guys running on your KR 16v's?

[MillSpeed 0]

Think mine's a tad too advanced....going to get the strobe on it this weekend.

[flusted 0]

mine was set at 9degrees by stealth but i now have vsam so cam programme as much advance in as i like where ever i like in the rev range!

[olly elworthy 0]

anything from 9-13 degrees seems to work well for me on the mk2,, 13 is too much in this hot weather though,,, back down to 10 for the time being,,

[davidwort 0]

anything from 9-13 degrees seems to work well for me on the mk2,, 13 is too much in this hot weather though,,, back down to 10 for the time being,,

 

Blimey :shock: your engine will be running backwards soon!

 

VW spec is 6 deg +/- 1 degree advance at idle, in my experience a couple of degrees more is about optimum on good quality fuel.

If you read the Club GTI forum that's about what the 180-200bhp 2.0 16v golf mk2's are running without V-Sam, K-star etc.

I've also read on there that any more than about 8 degrees and although you might get a hp or two more at the top end, pinking will start to occur and you don't want holes burnt in the top of your pistons!

GVK had his mk2 set up at Stealth I think with about 8 degrees, any more and there was pinking starting, he's got a non-cat 2.016v with a flowed head, very similar to the spec of my engine which I run at about 7.5deg.

You will also make starting the car a struggle with too much advance.

 

David.

[MillSpeed 0]

Mine was pinking quite badly so I retarted the ignition a tiny bit at a time until the pinking stopped. She's still having problems starting though which makes me think it's still too adavnced. Was going to set it to 6deg on account of the fact that I run it on regular un-leaded.

[davidwort 0]

Mine was pinking quite badly so I retarted the ignition a tiny bit at a time until the pinking stopped. She's still having problems starting though which makes me think it's still too adavnced. Was going to set it to 6deg on account of the fact that I run it on regular un-leaded.

 

Depends very much on the engine, some 1.8 16v's pink like crazy at standard advance on regular unleaded, others are fine, I've never had pinking problems on mine, in fact I use tesco unleaded most of the time with 7.5 deg of advance, I have to say it feels a lot smoother on Optimax though.

I really need to get it on the rolling road to get it spot on though.

Admittedly my flowed, polished head probably reduces the chance of pinking.

I've seen 16v's many-a-time with timing belts jumped a tooth too, often the result of a garage not paying attention when fitting a new belt, so it's worth checking the engine timing as well as the ignition timing.

 

David.

[MillSpeed 0]

Really? I wouldn't have thought there was enough piston to valve clearance for the engine to run a tooth out. Will defo check this weekend.

[Henny 0]

MillSpeed, there is enough clearance for 1 tooth out as long as you don't try and rev it to redline... ;)

[corradophil 3]

Mine is running 6 degrees, to be honest, I didn't gain anything noticable on the road by advancing it further. Mine has Ke-Motronic which also has knock sensors to retard the timing if pinking occurs.

[MillSpeed 0]

Holy Shizzle! It's a good job you told me to check my valve timing, the cams were 1 tooth advanced! That was my fault too, God only knows why I missed that one, school boy error! So there we have it, proof that a 16v will run (surprisingly well) with the valve timing a tooth out. Set the advance to 6 degrees and she's running nice now. However, from time to time it'll feel really under-powered and then all of a sudden it'll just clear. It's especially noticable on acceleration, one second it's as flat as a pancake and the next it's pulling like a train! Think I might get a new fuel filter and run some redex through the injectors.