I have had my FC's timing advanced and not only did the car feel awsome, i ran great times at the track, and right now my timing is "retarded" because T&R racing didnt want me to blow a motor again.

all i kjow if my low end sucks, and i dont have much power anymore through the band.
i dont know if its the compression, the clutch, or because of the timing.
i know i need to replace my clutch soon, but it cant be that bad that it would screw up my power, its not slipping that bad.

anyone good with this?

 

http://www.howstuffworks.com/ignition-system1.htm

 

yeah i know how it works in a piston engine.

can it be the same in a rotary?

doesnt make sense

 

its the same concept

 

Someone else asked something similar ages ago and I wrote this:

Don’t flame me for this but I’m going to explain it in terms of a piston engine because it’s easier to visualise, but the theory is exactly the same for a rotary.
You want the ignited fuel/air mix to reach peak explosive pressure just after the piston has passed top dead centre (TDC) and started to travel downwards. This will impart the maximum downwards force on the piston for the longest time. If that peak pressure is reached a bit later, you’ve wasted some of the piston’s stroke, resulting in less power. If it reaches peak pressure to early, i.e. before the piston has reached TDC and is still travelling upwards, the pressure actually slows the piston down and wastes some of the charge’s energy (because it’s not pushing the engine in the right direction), plus this places massive stresses on the engine resulting in wear and damage.
The reason the spark is fired before TDC is because it takes time for the spark to ignite the mixture and for the mixture to burn. Obviously it’s only a few fractions of a second but as the cycle duration gets shorter as revs climb (60ms @ 1000rpm, 8.57ms @ 7000rpm) you need to fire the spark earlier at higher rpm.
So there is a “sweet spot” for your timing that produces max power. Retard it form there and you will lose efficiency and power, advance it and you’ll lose power and do mucho damage to your engine. The stock timing setting will be slightly retarded in the interests of safety.
Sorry for the long-winded post but I hope that answers the original question.

 

So to advance 5deg, do I turn the "distributor" clockwise or counterclockwise by a 1/4"?

 

where would a perfect setting be where the power and safety levels are the same?

 

Clockwise to advance, anti-clockwise to retard. To get an idea of how far, just look at the timing marks on the pulley. Lead is at 5degrees after tdc. and Trail is 20degrees after top dead center. So I'm saying you've got fifteen degrees between the two marks. You can look at that distance and approximate how much you have advanced you're timing from stock. Make sense. Should. You are not just turning the cas willey nilly, not using a timing light? Nah. You wouldn't do that.

 

It's different for every car depending on engine condition, mods, fuel octane/quality, plus a million other variables. This is what dyno tuning is for.