Timing difference

[Jarrod Power]

I've recently fitted a new engine to my RS Legacy/Liberty (AUDM) and when I took it to my tuner he found that the timing the ECU saw and the engine timing were 10 degrees different accross the entire tune. THe engine timing with a timing light was in fact 10 deg. higher than the ecu saw. eg 36deg = 46deg. Is this an engine or ecu fault, and can it be fixed? The engine underperformed in comparison to my expectations, so I'd like to know if this would be contributing to it. Thanks

[Simon]

The 10 degrees you are seeing is likely to be the static timing of the engine.

On older ECUs you mentally had to add this number into your maps. So lets say the ECU is asking for 20 degrees the total timing you would see on the timing light will be 30 degrees.

 If you want 20 in total then the ECU needs to only add 10 degrees to the base of 10.