My old stage 2 motor liked a lot of initial timing (45*) then get backed down after the converter hit (38*) then a gradual drop to 32* at 6000rpm. That was a low compression engine setup for nitrous use being run without it. Cam was designed for use with nitrous and the head exhaust flow was higher percentage than normal for naturally aspirated engine. New car has iron heads and is built with more compression and built to run without power adder, retarding timing back makes no improvement. The old engine needed the help of the extra timing to get moving but wouldn't pull through the RPM without backing off timing. Good test is to adjust timing to optimize 60' times then adjust to reach max MPH trap speed, if the two are different than you can improve with timing control, if the two match you don't need to spend the extra money. I haven't seen too much improvement with retarding timing on a high compression engine unless running very high RPM.
Its been my experience that all buick 455s like 32-34 degrees total timing. Weather Stage 1 or 2.I can say that a lot of times the timing light may be inacurate causing someone to see better ets at 40 degrees timing.I run 37 degrees timing at launch and then retard it to 34 degrees.Hope this helps. Rob
I finally got around to turning up the timing yesterday..... Baseline was 9.67 at 137 with 31 degrees,Then at 34 degrees I went 9.64 on back to back passes......Same lane,Same 60' 1/8 mile dropped from 6.13 to 6.10 so it seemed to really pick the car in the middle of the track. I just wish I could have all my best incrementals on the same pass......I went 9.630 with a 1.33 60' and a .64 with a 1.31 60' but was driving into a stiff headwind
