Need HELP with SR20det Timing ISSUE!

[harsh tymes s13]

i'll try and explain this the best i can. three different techs with three different timing guns have encountered the same out come. whenever they go to set and adjust timing. the car is telling them that 15 degrees is damn near turning the CAS fully counter clockwise. i had problems while it was set like that. the motor over haeated and ran like shit. so i adjusted the CAS after pulling over on the side of the road until the bolt was in the middle of the slot by eye balling it. the motor ran better and didnt over heat. but while in that position the timing guns are reading that the timing is 30 degrees. im using the loop in the back of the valve cover to hook into. the swap is an sr20det redtop in a 1990 240sx.

[4x4le]

dont use the loop. get a kade plug wire, remove number 1 coil pack and stick the plug wire up in there and stuff the other end down in the number 1 well on top of the plug. Then use that wire to get your timing reading off of.

[harsh tymes s13]

ill try that. thanks for responding with some advice or instruction. ill let you know.

[djcobra]

^^^ totally agree with 4x4le.

Steve.

[harsh tymes s13]

any other possibilities. i looked down in the block with borescope and my pistons have a bit of brown coloration around the edges, but the center is pretty much silver. are they str8 or could they b fucked?

[harsh tymes s13]

i looked at my pistons and they have a brown coloration on the edges. maybe from running rich. the middle is still silverish. shuld they str8?

[harsh tymes s13]

man appreciate that. we took timing from the number one cylinder and got a good reading. so we set it around 14.5-15. why does that happen? is that loop really not there to read timing?

[4x4le]

The loop is there for timing, but I guess its just not as good as nissan intended it to be.

It may have worked better when new too, but possibly just fades with time. Or maybe its just not as crutial on a stock one. I dunno, but rule of thumb is dont use the loop.

[Homer_Simpson]

Originally Posted by 4x4le

The loop is there for timing, but I guess its just not as good as nissan intended it to be.

It may have worked better when new too, but possibly just fades with time. Or maybe its just not as crutial on a stock one. I dunno, but rule of thumb is dont use the loop.

The loop never did it for me. I got rid of it when I rewired my coilpack subharness. The KA spark plug wire works every single time.

[4x4le]

Yea, my split fire ignition comes with a new subharness to use and it has no loop to speak of, you have to do the ka plug wire trick if you want to set your timing.

[harsh tymes s13]

well that shit worked and now im ready for tune. waiting on the rest of the stuff to come in. how is the split fire system. was it really worth it?

[4x4le]

Originally Posted by harsh tymes s13

well that shit worked and now im ready for tune. waiting on the rest of the stuff to come in. how is the split fire system. was it really worth it?

Well your setup and needs will decide weather its worth it for you or not. Supposedly there is an increase in power even on a stock motor, I dunno though. It was part of a new setup so I dont have before and after results to show power wise.
However with my setup I think it did help me. I run e-85 and they do seem to help with that fuel. For starters cold starts can be a little harder on an e-85 engine and they helped with that. Another thing is my car does tend to sit for a few weeks sometimes with out being started and I run a small battery, with that said stock coil packs dont like to ignite with low voltage, even if the motor cranks. Anyways I have had really cold temps, my car has sat for a couple weeks and the battery had lost some voltage. The motor barely cranked but after a revolution or 2 it fired up and spuddered for about 15 seconds and picked up a smooth idle where as when in the past running e-85 with stock coils in the same situation I would have had to have the battery on a jumper box or cables and crank the crap out of it and have to deal with it dieing all the time.

Now anyways I know I didnt have a whole lot to say about the performance increases there, but that should be enough to tell you that they are a stronger more powerfull set of coils right?

Another thing that I have heard and makes sence is you can run some more dwell on the ignition with these coils without them overheating like the stockers. Im not positive how much but Im going to look into this and this next go around when I tune Im going to try this. I have toyed with it but set the dwell back to stock because without a dyno or without someone doing the math (which im not the best at) I had no idea how much more dwell to run. What I do know is the amout I was running was enough to pop the ignitor chip if I were to have been using stock coils but it didnt get much hotter than normal. We will see the next time after some math is done and when I get the car on the dyno. Im waiting on some parts and some custom stuff before I hit the dyno again with my dual pumps and 4.0 bar setup.

One reason I got the kit was because since Im running e-85 and it is known to be harder to light (one of the perks of it actually) I knew I wanted a stronger spark in order to be able to light it when I wanted it to light. Aside from it being harder to light there is a much higher fuel to air ratio in the chamber which makes it harder to light too as well as 30-40% more fuel being in the combustion chamber raises the overall compression as well (once again a perk of the fuel, however increases the need for a stronger spark) and another thing that makes the compression higher is that the heat from the engine once warm makes the fuel turn into a steam like vapor. The vapor builds more pressure and energy. So several things factor in and I didnt think a stronger spark sounded like a bad idea.


Now with that said, I have a completly reasonable explation for my need for the kit, however my short answer of "yes its worth it" might have been a lie in your case.

Something that I felt was wierd was I was actually unable to Increase the gap on the plugs over what I was running on the stock plugs. Blow out seemed to happen the same with both sets of coils. Im thinking Im going to add extra engine grounds this time too and see how large of a gap I can get away with (on a street tune) before hitting the dyno.

Hope I could help, and sorry for being winded. I tend to want to over explain things in order to help as much as I can instead of providing worthless short answers.

[harsh tymes s13]

thanks. actually that did help.