Ok I know that this topic has been discussed to death on this site, but for the sake of my sanity I am going to ask this again. So here goes. Does advancing your timing increase or decrease the running temp of your engine?

AND is there a point of diminishing returns where you will advance it so far and it will run cooler but if you keep advancing it will again run hot. This is of course before you start running into pre-ignition.

I appreicate the help. And my current state of mental well-being appreicates your help.

Thanks.

rule of thunb : Advancing your timing will enable your engine to run cooler. Retarding your timing will cause your engine to run hotter.

Its all about when the burn occurs and how much cylinder wall is exposed to the hottest amount of the burn. Later timing exposes more cylinder wall to actual flame as opposed to hot expanding air.

[QUOTE=JM
AND is there a point of diminishing returns where you will advance it so far and it will run cooler but if you keep advancing it will again run hot. This is of course before you start running into pre-ignition.
[/QUOTE]

There is a point where too much advance will increase temps but not for the same reasons that too little advance increases temps. In most cases, other problems will be obvious before temps become an issue. Keep in mind that a low compression engine with premium fuel may not ping even though timing is so advanced that it's killing power. A common mistake is using too much advance based upon low-mid rpm performance. Even though you can feel a power improvement before the distributor reaches full advance, once it does the engine may be losing serious power.

That helps. Thanks for the insights.

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