# Advancing Timing on a GA16. Worth it or not?



## glowsentra (May 27, 2003)

I have a 1991 Sentra GXE, with a GA16DE in it. It currently has 156,000 miles on it. I've been reading up on timing advances, and i've noticed most people say you need to run premium gasoline, or you will blow the engine. With Premium being 20cents more a gallon, this would be costly, and i don't know how my engine will handle a higher octane. Is it worth it for that extra gain, or should I leave it?


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## sentrapower93 (May 11, 2002)

PROS = 3-5HP gains, CONS = Premium gas. Bottom line it's your call...


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## BikerFry (Jul 31, 2003)

I always ran premium anyways cuz I got pretty decently better gas mileage out of it versus the cheapest shitty 87 I could find. It balanced out the cost to the point that it was maybe 50 cents more per tank, which to me was worth it to have less carbon build up. Since I was running premium anyways, timing advance was a no brainer.


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## toolapcfan (Jul 10, 2002)

You only have to run premium if you advance it to like 15 degrees. 10 degrees +/- 2 degrees is within specs, so 13 should be fine, 14-15 and you're risking detonation and probably not gaining anything over what you'd make at 13 anyways. So put it at 13 and you'll be fine. I run premium gas anyways simply because it doesn't cost that much more.


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## glowsentra (May 27, 2003)

I guess the main question i'm asking is that this car has run on nothing but unleaded; will it be able to handle premium ( a signficant change in octane)?

Remember it has 156,000 miles lol


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

Yup. Going higher up on the octane ladder will not harm your engine.


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## glowsentra (May 27, 2003)

Yea, i'm gonna go ahead with it......but i'm waiting till spring. i want as most traction as possible, without the tires squealing. thanks for the help guys :cheers:


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## 2SR20DE (May 17, 2003)

glowsentra said:


> Yea, i'm gonna go ahead with it......but i'm waiting till spring. i want as most traction as possible, without the tires squealing. thanks for the help guys :cheers:


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

^^^

Ditto.


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## BikerFry (Jul 31, 2003)

Go ahead and do it now. You'd be less likely to get detonation in the cold weather anyways, so it'd be theoretically ideal to do in the winter. Don't expect a huge bottom end gain, it won't hurt off-the-line-in-the-snow traction. If you're that worried about drivin in snow, get a set of snow tires. They really do help a lot. I might do it myself, and if I do I'm gonna look into gettin a set of rims at a junk yard for as cheap as possible and just have the snows mounted on the extra rims. That way I can change them myself and not pay for mounting and balancing every time the seasons change.


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## SentraE (Jun 28, 2003)

if this helps any. i decided to bump my timing to 15deg and didnt have any knock or ping. i even accidently set it past the 20deg mark(i think it might have been 25deg) but i still didnt get any knocking or pinging. put compared to timing set stock theres a little difference. it seems to pull a wee lil bit harder.


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## niky (Jul 20, 2002)

I know a guy who has a secondhand SR20... thing is royally f*cked up, won't even crank unless the timing is at 19degrees... runs 14's, though... so I guess that's something... he can only run it on high octane, though.


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## 2SR20DE (May 17, 2003)

SentraE said:


> if this helps any. i decided to bump my timing to 15deg and didnt have any knock or ping. i even accidently set it past the 20deg mark(i think it might have been 25deg) but i still didnt get any knocking or pinging. put compared to timing set stock theres a little difference. it seems to pull a wee lil bit harder.



I think that's what the knock sensor is for... it will automatically retard the timing. So we don't really have to worry about it so much... just it won't run as well if the knock sensor is activated... who knows what it retards it to.


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## glowsentra (May 27, 2003)

2SR20DE said:


> I think that's what the knock sensor is for... it will automatically retard the timing. So we don't really have to worry about it so much... just it won't run as well if the knock sensor is activated... who knows what it retards it to.


Does that apply to all b13 sentra engines? Or is it only 93-94?


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## toolapcfan (Jul 10, 2002)

I think all OBDI engines are setup to do that, probably all OBDII as well. I'm pretty sure that the knock sensor retards it enough that you completely undo any advancement of the timing. There's no HP gain when you go way over spec anyways, 2 degrees over spec is likely to be ideal and if you've got a lot of other mods you've spent decent money on, it'd be worth it to go do some dyno tuning to get your timing in the best spot.


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## johnand (Apr 30, 2002)

GA16DE engines don't have knock sensors, only SR20DE's.


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## 2SR20DE (May 17, 2003)

johnand said:


> GA16DE engines don't have knock sensors, only SR20DE's.


You hear that GA16 guys? There is another good reason to just go and buy an SE-R.


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## viprdude (Jun 27, 2003)

2SR20DE said:


> You hear that GA16 guys? There is another good reason to just go and buy an SE-R.



knock sensors suck though! :cheers:


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## 2SR20DE (May 17, 2003)

viprdude said:


> knock sensors suck though! :cheers:


Your just jealous of my knock sensor...


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## viprdude (Jun 27, 2003)

2SR20DE said:


> Your just jealous of my knock sensor...


im more jealous of the engine, so in a way, yes, yes i am jealous of your knock sensor. but oh well, i have 221,000 miles on my engine


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## BIGBALLER (Nov 19, 2002)

..


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