Can the ignition timing be checked static or must a timing light be used? I've never heard any pinking or pre ignition on mine even with the cheapest 95 octane supermarket fuel. Made me think it was maybe set up well retarded. Also notice a hesitation on 2nd to 3rd (auto)when cold. The autobox sends a retard ignition timing signal to the ecu at the change point to damp the change and it seems to me that the hesitation could be due to retarding an already retarded ignition even further. Dont notice any hesitation when warmed up.

Hi Willie,

 

I'm not sure about checking the timing staticly but I've used a timing light on several Zeds and found that every single one was set to a different (and wrong) setting! The worse I saw was set to 10 degrees BTDC! They were usually retarded 2-5 degrees.

 

Sorry I'm not much more help on this issue but I thought I'd share my experiences with you. It could very well be that your timing is excessively retarded.

 

Cheers mate,

 

Danny

15 degrees is correct i think.

Yup, that's right, a standard engine should be set at 15 deg BTDC with a timimg light on cylinder 1. Make sure the engine is at normal running temp too.

Shouldn't a modded z be at 13.5 btc. Do you have to disconnect any pipes or anything?

A modded Z can be set at whatever it takes to make the engine/mods behave correctly. That would need to be set for a specific engine, it is difficult to generalise in these circumstances. Bear in mind that you are setting the 'base' level that the maps in the ECU use as a reference. If you mess with this then all the good work that has gone into writing the maps will be affected. Ignition changes should be done in the mapping, changing the base level is a bit of a sledgehammer approach.