Base timing and wasted spark questions, LEM G1 V5

[0R10N]

God damn this aftermarket ECU garbage is confusing the hell out of me. I'm on the verge of ripping out this Link and going back to stock ECU setup, as stupid as it sounds.

 

The other weekend I shot down to Bombay to meet up with Alienprobe to dial a slightly more drivable tune into my 4WD TX3's Link (so I can take it down to Tauranga in a couple weeks' time to get the new exhaust fabbed.) We managed to smooth out a lot of the niggly issues with the fuel map, but we're having no luck with the ignition map as the car performs very sluggishly at anywhere above quarter throttle.

 

One reason I believe this to be happening is that the Link G1 V5 instructions are very vague as to setting the base timing. What we've done is set the "Advance Limit" to zero, ticked the little box in PCLink that says "Set Static", rotated the CAS until we reached the amount of required ignition advance (confirmed with the timing light), then locked it in and entered that number into the "Static Ign" field in PCLink.

 

I think we've done it correctly, but can anyone confirm this?

 

But wait, there's more... I was speaking to someone earlier and they mentioned that as I'm running a wasted spark setup (MX-5 CAS with Mitsubishi coils and igniter) the base timing figure will be half that of what I'm seeing at the crank pulley. In other words, if the timing light is flashing at 12 degrees, the base timing is actually only at 6 degrees.

 

Is this correct at all? It seems to make sense when you think about how a wasted spark setup fires once every 360 degree revolution of the crank, rather than once per 720 degrees.

 

Cheers for any advice that may help in getting this stupid car running the way I want it!

[eke_zetec_RWD]

That half theory is not correct. Ignore that. It reads correct.

If u set your ign limit to zero then your light should be on zero. It will run like shit while doing this.

[downtrail]

If you are using a timing light with an advance dial on it then itll be half of what you set the dial to. If your using an ordanary light then itll read correctly

[kpr]

After setting the base.  you should confirm with timing light, that the  timing in the ignition map matches the actual timing with timing light.    eg: if its idling on 15degrees in the ignition map should also read this  on timing light

 

wasted spark setup will have no effect  on the timing.  all it does is fire 2 plugs at once rather than 1

[downtrail]

It will with fancy lights with advance knob on them as itll think motor doing 2x the rpm it is doing and work the advance as 2x what it actually is. At least this is what the snap on one does i have. Was a pain the first time i used it as i would set adv fixed to ten deg line it up with the tdc mark then you would wind the knob to 0 but you would see it sitting at and it would be sitting at 20deg on the marks. did my head in the first time i used it.

[0R10N]

Cheers for the guidance folks.

The timing light is one of those fully automatic ones with no adjustment for TDC or dwell or anything like that. I'll disregard any talk of halving the values then.

What still confuses me is the act of setting the base timing - so if I change the "Advance Limit" to zero and set the base timing to 12 deg BTDC (factory static advance for the B6T engine) by moving the CAS and checking it with the light, the Link will forcefully retard the timing back to zero degrees?

Ughh. I think I will have to do some more tinkering tomorrow.

[kpr]

if you want a 10deg base,  set the advance limit to  zero.   adjust base to 10 on timing light. take advance limit off.    put 10 degrees in link as base timing   - all this does is correct the numbers in the ignition map.

 

recheck that the light reads as the ignition map says

[kpr]

also as i said above; if you are putting 12degrees in as the base timing in the tuning software, after setting it to 12degrees on the light.   it will reduce all the numbers in the ignition map by 12 degrees.   so the ignition map reads the actual timing.  not timing + base timing.

 

you should have the base timing in the link set to zero. when you are setting it up. or it will mess with your head

[0R10N]

you should have the base timing in the link set to zero. when you are setting it up. or it will mess with your head

 

Ahh, gotcha. Sweet. I'll redo all of the values/timing figures tomorrow and go from there.