Miata Mailing List: January 1996, Message #70
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   From: hal 
Subject: Re: 18 degree advance in 1.8L?
   Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 13:44:25 -0500

On Tue, 2 Jan 1996, wolov wrote:
> Question: Has anyone with a 1.8L engine advanced their timing to 18 
> degrees and if so what has your experience with pinging been? On which 
> octane rated fuel?

Mine is only at 13.9 degrees. It normally runs fine on most 87 octane
fuel, but I did get a bad case of pinging one hot day after refilling
with some off-brand fuel. 

In my opinion, you may as well advance your car to 14 BTDC and see
how you like it. I found the spark sensor's bolt on the 1.8 liter 
to be invisible to the naked eye and unreachable with my normal set
of tools. But once you spot it and find a wrench that fits, it's
relatively easy to set/reset the timing and experiment with different
settings. I've looked at the 1.6 liters, and there is a lot more
room there to access the bolt. I guess that's why Mazda over-tightens
that bolt on the 1.6 engine. :)

Harry