Hey all,
I have a question for you expert tuners out there...My mustang (a 90lx 5.0 conv.) is detonating I believe under a load, say pedal down and rolling through like 3k rpms...I'm embarrsed to say that in the almost two years i've owned it I have never given it a tune up...I just don't drive it that much...But today I got a wild hair and decided to check the timing b/c I believed that was the problem...When I checked it with the sensor unplugged the base timing was set at 12 deg. BTDC...The car is bone stock by the way...Anyway I turned the distributor clockwise (Haynes manual said that is how to retard timing) and it bumped the timing to 14 deg. BTDC and test drove it, it didn't seem much different...So I went to about 16 deg...Didn't really notice anything different, then went to about 18 deg BTDC and the problem (pinging noise) seem to get worse, or at least come on earlier than 3000rpms...So I'm stumped am I actually advancing the timing instead of retarding it???...Should I go beyond 18 deg. or am I going the wrong way...A tech article I read on here said when the numbers go up say from 12 to 14 degrees that I am advancing the timing, but my stupid Haynes manual said to turn the distributor clockwise to retard teh timing and when I do the numbers go up...So I am in the middle of a contradiction and now I am really confused...I know at 18 degrees the car seemed to do it worse...I just set the timing at 15 degrees before I packed it in tonight and decided to ask on here for help before I try to do anything else...What are your cars set at...Could other things like needing plugs/wires/cap/rotor/air filter be causing this problem regaurdless of the timing and I need to do all that tune-up work before even attempting to set the timing...Please help I'm really frustrated, Ford says that it is "spark knock" and it is normal and that even new Cobra's do it...From some discussions in the "power adders" posts I believe Ford is full of SH#T...Oh and I always run premium fuel btw...
Thanks for any help,
Jason
I have a question for you expert tuners out there...My mustang (a 90lx 5.0 conv.) is detonating I believe under a load, say pedal down and rolling through like 3k rpms...I'm embarrsed to say that in the almost two years i've owned it I have never given it a tune up...I just don't drive it that much...But today I got a wild hair and decided to check the timing b/c I believed that was the problem...When I checked it with the sensor unplugged the base timing was set at 12 deg. BTDC...The car is bone stock by the way...Anyway I turned the distributor clockwise (Haynes manual said that is how to retard timing) and it bumped the timing to 14 deg. BTDC and test drove it, it didn't seem much different...So I went to about 16 deg...Didn't really notice anything different, then went to about 18 deg BTDC and the problem (pinging noise) seem to get worse, or at least come on earlier than 3000rpms...So I'm stumped am I actually advancing the timing instead of retarding it???...Should I go beyond 18 deg. or am I going the wrong way...A tech article I read on here said when the numbers go up say from 12 to 14 degrees that I am advancing the timing, but my stupid Haynes manual said to turn the distributor clockwise to retard teh timing and when I do the numbers go up...So I am in the middle of a contradiction and now I am really confused...I know at 18 degrees the car seemed to do it worse...I just set the timing at 15 degrees before I packed it in tonight and decided to ask on here for help before I try to do anything else...What are your cars set at...Could other things like needing plugs/wires/cap/rotor/air filter be causing this problem regaurdless of the timing and I need to do all that tune-up work before even attempting to set the timing...Please help I'm really frustrated, Ford says that it is "spark knock" and it is normal and that even new Cobra's do it...From some discussions in the "power adders" posts I believe Ford is full of SH#T...Oh and I always run premium fuel btw...
Thanks for any help,
Jason