Question about timing?

[mlfelch]

My question has to do with a friends car, non Porsche. When someone refers to setting the timing off from 10 to 14 degrees of TDC, what is being set and what difference would going from 10 to 14 degrees make.

[Scott R]

Depending on what kind of car you are talking about, the answer is this: If you have you timing at TDC (top dead center) then on some cars you can adjust the timing advance and retard. So on your timing quadrant you have a "0deg" marker for TDC, and if you wanted to advance it 14deg you would be bumping the time up. If you wanted to retard the timing the you would be in the -14 area. People seem to like to run a bit advance on the older type muscle cars, but on the 944 your timing is static set by the timing belt, and then advanced and retarted by the dme, which I understand can bet set internally.

[Bob's944]

In some cars the timing is adjustable by rotating the distributor, basically it is saying when to start the firing sequence for the spark plugs. Advancing the timing too far can cause detonation and piston damage.. most cars now control that electronically now by sensing the octane of the gas and adjusting the timing accordingly.

[mlfelch]

Damn you guys are fast, I barely had time to re-check what I posted and found two responses.