Advanced timing on a 1.6 driver

[tobz.]

We fitted a replacement distributor on my mates 1.6 driver last night and set the timing up exactly as described in haynes. On the test drive afterwards the car was a LOT slower than it was previously so I concluded that the timing had probably been set quite advanced up til now.
Obviously my mate would like his nice quick car back but I warned him of the dangers of advancing the timing again (blown headgasket/melted piston due to pinking etc).
However, is it ok to advance the timing by a small amount if he only uses 98ron from now on and how many degrees would he be likely to get away with???

Cheers
Toby

[rubjonny]

if you are absolutly sure the rest of the timing is correct, you can set the advance by ear.  turn the dizzy till the engine starts pinking, then back off a bit.  Then take it for a test drive, listening for any pinking. If you get any, back the dizzy off a bit more

[maximous]

and thats what i did to my old driver, just do it by ear 

[tobz.]

Ah jonny just the man!
Been doing quite a bit of research on this and coming up with some conflicting info.
The haynes book we were using the other night said to disconnect the vac advance ONLY on 1.05, 1.3 & 1.8 so we timed his 1.6EZ with the vac line on. I'm now pretty sure that the timing is nowhere near advanced enough as it wont pull up hills etc. On checking my haynes last night I did find once reference to EZ timing and that was 17-19 degrees with the vac line off.
The plan is to dig out my light and re-time it with the vac line off and plugged, is this the correct method for an EZ???
One other thing we were using the pulley timing mark as opposed to the flywheel, I take it they will both result in the same timing???

Hmmm might try the old pinking by ear method, I guess that way you can dial up the maximum amount of advance possible before troubles start occuring.

[rubjonny]

aha, you should set it with the vac line off.  Also set it using the special ignition advance mark on the flywheel, if you don't it will be set to 0degrees BTDC, nowhere near enough advance 

[tobz.]

Nice one cheers jonny will have another go tomorrow night using that method.