RE: timing questions

["Aaron Ness" <aaron@makuta.com>]

I understand that detonation can occur before you hear the pinging, and from
what I've been told, by the time you can hear it, damage has already been
done.  This is hearsay; I haven't verified this with research or experiments
or anything.

Do you have a timing light?  This would allow you to verify whether the
timing is actually changing.  If you're suspicious that the dizzy is
actually rotating a bit over time, you might even be able to somehow scribe
a line when you time it and watch what it does over time.

Regarding your oil change question, I like to do all my vehicles at 3k mile
or 3 month intervals, whichever is sooner (I live 2 miles from work, so the
miles don't rack up fast).  Some of the newer, more expensive cars (M-B
comes to mind) are including sensors to determine the level of acidity in
the oil to help stretch it out as long as possible.  Since my newest vehicle
is my '87 Nissan, I don't have any of those newfangled gadgets, so I figure
the 3 mo/3k mile oil changes are cheap insurance.

HTH!
Aaron
'84 Scirocco - Woo-hoo!
'70 Bug - hibernating
'87 Nissan truck - Soon to be for sale

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> [mailto:owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org]On Behalf Of smiley pie
> Sent: Friday, March 03, 2000 11:44 PM
> To: scirocco-L@scirocco.org
> Subject: timing questions
>
>
> Hey all, How come when I time my engine it runs excellent for
> a while then
> starts to ping (maybe 4 months or so) Does my timing slowly
> slip? Is this
> normal? I was all ways told to run as much advance as
> possible without
> pinging. When I start to hear pinging I either retard the
> timing or retime
> it. Is this a safe practice? Or do I need to due a tune up
> (new plugs, cap,
> rotor?) when it starts this?  I put about a 100 miles a day
> on the poor
> beast. Oh yeah and I use good gas, 76 supreme every time no
> exceptions maybe
> chevron once in a while always supreme (starting to get a bit
> expensive). I
> have been using the Bosche platinum plugs but I am going to
> try the ngk
> plugs after reading some of those posts about the plugs.
> Thanks
> dave gray
> BTW- I have been changing the oil every other month. Is this
> to much or too
> little for the amount I am driving?
>
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