TIMING ADVANCE (range of 0 to 50 degrees)

This is the real-time spark timing the ECU is using. While at cruise speeds at low throttle settings it can maintain as high as 40 or more. This is a very usefull tool as you can really "see" the timing affect power. The more advance the better up until knock occurs. Ideally you want to maintain around 15degrees advance at WOT high rpms. Any higher advance and you probably can afford to increase boost a little bit, any lower advance and you are knocking and it's being retarded too much. It's very easy to see the relationship between the knock sum and the timing advance.

This is my personal favorite gauge on the TMO gauge package. You can watch your timing retard as you go through the gears. The more it retards the more knock you have. Ideally you want around (no less than) 15degrees advance (maybe slightly more) at WOT. As stated on the main page, any more advance and you can probably turn up the boost a little more, any lower advance and you are getting too much knock and it's killing power. This is the same for race gas and pump gas. Putting in race gas and not turning up the boost or not leaning it out will get you more advance but assuming you want to go as fast as possible, you should make more boost and/or lean it out more and then the advance may go back down depending if you have knock or not. Personally I wouldn't let the timing advance go to less than 15 degrees total advance at WOT. With race gas you may not get it to go below 18 or 20degrees even at 25psi boost.

This value is directly related to knock sum however it's not so with actual boost. The amount of boost you can run depends on a lot. Most people think about the amount of fuel, and they are right. But you can't forget about charge temps. Let's say you don't have an intercooler at all. You won't be able to run as high of boost even with plenty of fuel, you'll get knock because of the higher intake charge temperatures. Getting a good intercooler (front mount is best) really takes the charge temps down and will allow you to run a little higher boost than without it. The efficiency of the turbo you have also comes into play. A 14b turbo is not as efficient at 20psi as a 16g is, and the 16g is not as efficient at 20psi as a 20g is. If you push a small turbo too hard, all it does it heat up the air too much.