Tuning gurus, need advice!

[Mr.Venom]

Looking for some good information regarding tuning Cobras, specifically full bolton ported blower cars. Now I'm no tuner and I don't claim to be, I had my cobra tuned by a local guy and was extremely happy with the work. :rolling: I'm not knocking his ability to tune, but I know its conservative on the timing side.

My car left the shop with about 17 degrees of timing at 11.7ish across the board. I personally feel like thats conservative after seeing many many cobras on 93 pump leaving shops with 20-23 degrees and it not getting ready to blow up. From my basic understanding since I'm running 13-14 lbs, I should really be able to run more timing. Basically what I'm getting at is, I feel like theres power left in the car for sure without being on a ragged edge tune.

Discuss. :burnout:

 

[MalcolmV8]

What it boils down to is every car is different and you need to do some testing on the dyno to find the limits.

There will be two reasons to stop adding timing. One is that you've reached MBT. This would be the sweet spot where YOUR engine makes the most power and additional timing has diminishing results and looses power. Google "spark hook test" if you want to know more.

Second would be because you reach the limits of your fuel and the engine starts to knock.

So while on the dyno and you're adding timing in search of MBT you clearly need to watch out for knock which has traditionally meant putting in a fresh plug before each pull and reading it for signs of knock or detonation. It would seem most tuners are not bothered. The amount of time and effort involved for a few extra HP is not worth it so they just leave it at a conservative number and call it good. The downside is sometimes that's not just a few extra HP but could be 50+ whp left out.

What I personally do is hook up a J&S Safeguard. It eliminates reading plugs and you can dial in MBT or levels of timing that knock really fast and painless.

So really what you need to do is get the car back on the dyno and pay the tuner for his time to sit and find it. It'll take a little while if done properly and safely. Is that cost worth it to you? Might be just as cost effective to get a J&S Safeguard installed, setup and then go back to the dyno.

 

[Mr.Venom]

Then I will discuss it with him. If he can provide me with data coming from my car that suggests any more this or that is detrimental that I would understand. But on average I still feel like there can be somethin more to it and it won't be ragged edge. I talked to another shop in maryland and the shop owner agreed the timing in the car was conservative. I just want my car to be all it can be with my current setup. :beer:

 

[Danno44]

What power did it make?

 

[SVTRAT]

Now if you dont have good cooling mods ie killer chiller, those 23degrees quickly become 17degrees of timing when the ecu starts pulling timing because things like aits and engine temps are getting hot.

Also dont forget, with those 23degrees of timing, all you need is a bad tank of gas, then you start melting stuff, hence why some of us like the J&S safeguard.

 

[Mr.Venom]

What power did it make?

Mods in sig but it was just after my longtube install and retune, I'll have to find my sheet for the weather but it was cold out, high 40s low 50s I think. On 13.5 lbs it made 508/504 STD.