I do not know how Westyman (Karl Mullendore) arrived at that recommendation for a timing setting. I can tell you how I've arrived at mine, tho. I have a diesel pulse adapter and strobe timing light with rpm and advance functions. The pulse adapter has a piezo pickup that clamps to the #1 injector line. When the pressure builds in the line, the steel line gets slightly bigger in diameter. That enlargement of the line compresses the piezo crystal and stores a charge in it. When the start of injection occurs, the line relaxes slightly. That relaxation of the pressure on the crystal causes a discharge and sends a signal to the pulse adapter box. That box transforms that signal into a typical spark signal that can be read by a typical gasser timing light. That timing light flashes a strobe light with each pulse. The advance function of the timing light lets me very quickly and accurately see exactly the #1 injector's start of injection. I have tested many VE pumps both TDI and IDI with stock nozzles set to stock timing specs. With calibrated stock injectors and the pump in good condition and set to spec, using my diesel pulse adapter and strobe, the start of injection always falls between 12° BTDC and 14° BTDC. Personally I find that 14° BTDC is to clacky on the TDIs. When building a pump I install it, use my pulse adapter and timing light to initially set it to 12° BTDC. I then adjust the fueling and set the idle. With the idle set I re-check the pulse adapter timing. When I have removed the injection lines I use my dial indicator to check the plunger lift @ TDC for each pump. The delivery valves affect the timing fairly significantly so the plunger lift of each pump will be different, even with a specific set of injectors. I can say that each mTDI pump that I have tested has had to have a plunger lift between 1.15mm and 1.45mm with the idle set and the pulse timing @ 12° BTDC. I attribute the differences entirely to differences in the delivery valves and the amount of residual pressure they hold in the metal lines. Similarly, changing injector opening pressure will change the timing of the start of injection as a higher pop pressure takes more plunger lift to pop.
...BTW your Bieber avatar is awesome.-Malone
Giles told me to set the pump between .90mm -.95mm. As I mentioned earlier I've been mislead by Giles about a few things. Thanks for the post; I seem to be on the right track.