Advancing timing on a orbII Northstar for performance gains

[1997BlackETC]

I have access to a Tech II scanner as my brother has one, I was wondering if it can be used to advance the timing on my 1997? was thinking if I bumped it up a few degrees I might get better performance. Car does not ping at all right now, guess the knock sensor is doing its job.

Also anybody know where to go in the tech II to add a custom message in the dic when I turn on the key. Do I go into the IPC mode on the tech II?

[dkozloski]

Originally Posted by 1997BlackETC

I have access to a Tech II scanner as my brother has one, I was wondering if it can be used to advance the timing on my 1997? was thinking if I bumped it up a few degrees I might get better performance. Car does not ping at all right now, guess the knock sensor is doing its job.

Also anybody know where to go in the tech II to add a custom message in the dic when I turn on the key. Do I go into the IPC mode on the tech II?

You have to modify and reload the entire ECU program to change any operating parameter. Everything is encoded in such a way that even for experts it is a very daunting task.
I have read somewhere that if you screw up the message in the DIC it crashes and there is no way to fix it. Not even the factory can undo it.

[1997BlackETC]

Thanks, I guess advancing the timing more than likely would not help anyhow as the knock sensor backs off the timing accordingly on the northstar, unlike on my 4.9 in my 1993. I would not attempt to advance the timing on my 4.9 as it pings like crazy already even on 93 octane, always has, if anything I should be backing off the timing on that one, but its gone 125,000 so far with no problems so I guess I wont mess with it.

[darien99]

*It will only back down timing if it reads knock, not for the heck of it.

*The tech II can only read codes, a few diagnostic related tasks, and software updates on new cars.