i have read a lot of posts about you guys advancing the timing on your sr20's and a little about cleaning the throttle body with tb cleaner.

this sounds like something i would love to tackle one weekend, my car could use it since it doesn't have a lot of mods, but it does have a lot of miles on it (78K).

i would like to advance the timing to 17° and cleanout the throttle body. Any info you could give, maybe some do's and don'ts, on actually how i should perform these very basic procedures would be great (everyone else is smarter than me)!
the main reason i'm asking about these is because i've never done either before, and i dont have a timing light. i will probably have to pay some one to advance it or go buy a light for $20 and then i could do it myself, that would be great!


98 sentra se
jacobs wires & wai

"if i'm so dumb, why r u so smart" :D

well, i suggest buying the light and do it yourself. one reason is, unless you watch somebody else do it CORRECTLY, you'll never know that it has been done. secondly, nothin's better than workin' on your ride knowing her every little shimmy and shake. there's an excellent write up on advancing the timing here (http://www.geocities.com/n_dahi/timing/timing.htm).

the method i used was this(from that website):
PS: When I was at the SoCal February 19th meet, Mike Kojima set my timing. The procedure that he followed was a lot simpler than the one listed in the FSM. He warmed up the car to normal operating temperatures, disconnected the TPS while the car was still running, revved the engine three times to about 3,000 rpm to lock in the engine in timing mod, and then adjusted the timing. I like this procedure and I will use it in the future.

correct me if im wrong, but 15* is stock right? i have mine *around* 18*, go for 17 if u want to run regular gas... or go higher like me and run 93 each tank!!!

15 is stock yes. I have mine at 19and its fine on 89 on cool days. and I run 93 or 94 octane on hot days.

well, 15* is SUPPOSED to be stock. more often than not i've heard timing around 13*. i put mine @ 17*, i didn't see any difference on a dyno 'tween that and 19*, so i left it @ 17.

Well, the stock spec is 15* +/- 2*. That's why 17* is ok with normal octane gas. It's still within the specification, It's just on the upper spectrum:)

cleaning the throttle body is very. you just unplug the sensors on your air intake, remove the air intake from the throttle body, and unbolt the throttle body. i wouldnt try to remove those hoses on the tb though...there are hard as crap to get off..i just left em on when i did mine. an old tooth brush will come in very handy. you might also want to replace the throttle body gasket; i didn't replace it when i cleaned mine so now i have a vaccum leak. btw that thing was covered in carbon. does the egr valve cause that?