Anyone toyed with Timing on a Z5?
It got a little cooler today, so I decided to fill up with premium octane and started tinkering with the ignition timing. I advanced it 4 degrees...I was at 9, now it's at 13(10 being OEM target). Made a nice improvement in power.

So how far has anyone taken it?

 

if you have not noticed ,, any advancements or retardation of the time is automatically corrected by the computer
Bruce

 

So how does the ecu do this? And why does the seat of my pants tell me it's working. I'm pretty objective...this car is my daily beater so I guess my expectations are low.
Maybe because I was on the low end of ideal timing(9) and now the ecu retards it just enought to be on the high end(11)??

Regardless, it's an improvement.

 

I have tried this ,, I also have the 1.5L ,, and to be honest it makes no difference.. I just left the timing in the center ,, maybe +1 ... I just use higher octane gas from sunoco if I have to .. maybe your elevation may be different and you may have different factors that give you that seat of the pants feal ...
Bruce

 

Austin TX is rated around 600-700 ft above sea level...I don't see elevation playing a big role. It's not the weather. While finally a little cooler, there was a noticeable difference(maybe 5 hp at most) before and after the change. I'm guessing because it was slightly retarded at first.

If I was feeling really industrious, I'd dig out the G-tech. While it's accuracy is doubted by some it is a good measure as a before and after thing. I might do that this weekend

Anyway, that's why I posted...I wanted to see if anyone else had experienced the same thing or not.

 

I'm set at 13-14deg and use 91 octane and it feels torquier in the low-end.