slow revvin..... easy fixin????

Hi im new to the forums, but ive been reading them for about a year now. I use my s12 ca20e for a pizza delivery car, she has about 205000 miles on her. I got it with 200200 so it probably has a rebuilt motor i suspect, no smoke or nothin. Getting to the point, this thing is pretty slow, out of first it starts to take off, but off the line its a real slug. I just did a tune up and it runs top notch, I dont want to race the thing (execpt mabey the occasional stop light run) I just want to avoid traffic.

Ive seen some s12's with short ram intakes on them. Perhaps my motor needs more air? Ive heard of people using 60mm throttle bodies on um could this help? probably not ... I just want a little bit more pep if anyone has amy tips please let me in on it. thanks!

When i used to have a CA20e i found that with factory timing (it's 0 degrees BTDC in australia) it was terrible :S. I advanced it a fair bit to see what would happen and it was much better, changing anything on your inlet side prolly won't make a great deal of difference cos the stock S12 AFM is so damn restrictive anyways :(. Where are you located? From memory cars outside of oz already had their timing more advanced than we got.

How hard is it to advance the timing? Could I do it, or is it best to let a mechanic handle it? How many degrees you go?
Thanks!

Well you need a timing light and a 12mm spanner basically, although if you don't know how to do the timing it'll be best if you can get someone to show you, it's the same on all cars (except ooold ones where the timing marks are on the flywheel...). being dodgy with my banger S12 i did it by ear though..hmm that sounds good off we go :P Anything is better than the 0 degrees BTDC that the manual tells you to use.

it could be your cat. i took mine out and now it revs great.. before it would rev to like 4.5 and like hit a wall.. and then take a really long time to get to 6

Be warned, if you take the cat off the CA20E it will start to sound more and more like a honda...make more power, but the sound drives me MAAADDDD!!!

Ive drove the car around for a while with no exaust system on it from the down pipe back and it was just as slow. I have since then put a cat on it when my emissions test (indiana smog compiance) came up. Got the autozone 70 dollar universal one and it is exactly the same.

As far as "advancing" the timing would this effect my milage in a negitive way? Or make things less reliable? Remember i use this heap for work. Also does anyone have any good website articals or links that would help me to get more info about it??

Well, a stock CA20E isn't a barn-burner even if it's running perfectly, do you notice that it's slower than it used to be? Running with no exhaust you might have gained a bit of high-end, but with no backpressure you lost your low-end torque so the car probably "felt" slower.
Since your cat is new that's one thing you can eliminate as a problem. Since you've had the car awhile I assume you've done the basic tuneup stuff, filters, plugs, wires, distributor cap & rotor. I notice you said you passed inspection, I don't know where you're located, but it that included a tailpipe sniff, and you passed, that's actually a pretty good indication of the overall health of your engine, depending on how strict the test is where you are.

Remember i use this heap for work.

:kicknuts: you wouldn't be slamming on the s12 would you?

man it could be ya cat, when they clog, they slow the engine down untill it stops it (cat full!!) but advance the timing, its good for the ca20e, i did it and it starts, idles, revs and runs better!