When tuning, if you don't see any knock retard are you advancing timing as much as you can?

Or is there a point where adding more timing, even without knock, causes power loss?

 

Depends on what you have done. Bumping the stock timing can give you a little more but really the only way to tell if you have gained anything would be to adjust it on a dyno. If you have a mild cam i think 26-28* would be good. Every setup varies though.

 

Everyone seems to be saying 26-28 degrees of advance. We had the car on the dyno and I'm pretty sure I had 40 degrees of advance, but with no knock retard.

So I'm wondering if even though there was no knock retard, backing the timing down to 28 degrees of advance would yield power gains.

Motor is an '02 SS LS1 with the LS6 intake and t body, shorty headers, dual 2.5" exhaust, intake and Comp 224 cam.

 

Well it could be 26-28 at WOT. Some points on your ignition table can be 40's... dont lower those to 28.

 

what areas should be that high?

 

Some deceleration areas with high vacuum where theres not much air to burn. Although Im not sure the 00+ stock tables had anything quite that high. Maybe though, Its been a while.

 

2000 LS1 spark table is a LOT different than 2001-2002.

 

Sure, but weren't the 98 and 99 tables notoriously high IIRC? I didnt mean that 00+ used the same table.

 

The light crusing range, 1600-2200rpm and up to 24g/cly can be in the 40s
Not really feasible to have 40* at WOT

 

At WOT you want the timing that gives you the most power and that is more like 5 degrees before knock. If you are knocking you are way past good power.

 

I wouldn't go any more than these numbers on a stock engine!!!

 

Mean Best Torque is obtained before the onset of knock. The amount before is more often than not directly related to the amount of cylinder pressure.. ie around peak torque, MBT and knock aren't far from each other. At peak power they can be quite a few degrees apart. You want to run the least amount of timing to generate the most MBT as possible.