advanced timing, anybody else doing it? Options

[6strngs]

so, after having read about how advancing the timing a couple of degrees on this car can make a difference, I decided to advance mine. took only a couple minutes and my timing was set at 15 degrees BTDC. my idle now sits at about 900-950 as opposed to about 750 like it's supposed to be. but when I started driving I felt the difference right away! it's not uber dramatic but it's noticable. especially in the low rpms, from like 1-4K, and it feels like the normal power drop at 5500 isn't as sharp, I mean, it's still there it just doesn't feel like it drops as sharply. I'm running 91 octane gas with and I didn't feel/hear any detonation, even when I tried to put the car under load by riding it 4th at 1400 RPMs I didn't notice any. I'm thinking of either going back out and setting it to 16-17 or just using 89 octane. anybody else done this?

[Bitter]

it will affect the idle quality, but shouldn't affect the idle speed that much.

you advanced using a timing light or you just guessed as you turned it? 5 degrees is like 1/16th of an inch of movement of the distributor and didnt affect my idle speed one bit, however i do have a slightly different motor.

[alltracman78]

It won't necessarily shorten life.
It does increase the chance of detonation and will somewhat increase initial cylinder pressure, so it could.
But so will pretty much any performance mods....
As long as you watch out for detonation I wouldn't worry too much about it.

it will affect the idle quality, but shouldn't affect the idle speed that much.

It will directly effect the idle speed. Advancing it raises idle, retarding lowers it.
Up to a point. And every engine is somewhat different.