O.K., this is a timing question. Here goes. I replaced my transmission on Sunday, and while I was at it, I decided to change my plugs and distributor and such. I didn't have any wires because I couldn't afford them. Well, the wires turned out to be toast. I went ahead and timed my engine, and it all went well without problem. So today I buy new wires and put them on and retime my engine just in case. Now, the timing marks aren't even showing, WTF!?! The marks are now 45 degrees clockwise of where it should be!! It still runs great though!! I dont understand, I followed the FSM religiously and the se-r.net info, and I did it once before. HELP!!! I deeply apologize for the long post, but I'm going nuts.

I forgot to mention, it idles normal with the TPS connected, but when I disconnected it to set the timing, the idle jumped to 1500 RPM. I thought that was odd, it didn't do that before I changed the plug wires.

You gotta set the base idle first. It has to be below 900 rpm to get the ecu to go into timing mode. Hope this helps.

How do I do that? The idle is almost too low when the TPS is plugged in. It's just when its unplugged when the rpm shoots to 1500.

Originally posted by Inkorekt
How do I do that? The idle is almost too low when the TPS is plugged in. It's just when its unplugged when the rpm shoots to 1500. Get the motor up to temp and unplug the tps and set the idle. Then set the timing. I think se-r.net has it on there. Oh and don't forget to rev the motor 3 times to 3k or so to get it to lock into timing mode:)

I looked in the FSM and the description of the idle adjustment screw was kind of vague, where is it? Thanks for the help, by the way.

It's on the passenger side of the intake manifold. What year is your car? The low port 94 and up is easy to see. The high port is kinda down at the bottom of the manifold look for the acc it's down there.

Its a 93 G20. I didn't even think to look on the passenger side. I was looking all over the drivers side because I figured it would be by the TPS. So it's o.k. to adjust it with the TPS connector off? I guess it doesn't affect my timing after I plug the TPS back in and readjust the idle?

So did the increased idle speed I was experiencing throw off my timing measurement? It was off a lot, and I'm worried to drive it. I just want to make sure that it is normal, and that when I time it right, I won't find out I have been harming my engine driving it like it is now.

O.K., I have done the following: turned down the idle before timing, didn't work; used a different timing light just in case, didn't work; gone though the steps in the FSM over and over again for three straight hours, didn't work. I think I am going to light my car on fire.

Inkorekt, this might sound like a dumb question/comment, but did you put your wires on correctly? i don't think the car would run if the plugs are put on improperly. could it be possible that your timing light is picking up the signal from the spark of a another cylinder? i know this is pretty obvious, but the timing light plug needs to run off cylinder #1, which is the passenger-most side (<-- how about that for proper grammar?) of the car. make sure there's no interference or anything of the sort. have you also tried putting your old plugs back on and checking the timing?

I put the plug wires on right. :) I will try putting the other wires on. I probably did something stupid, but I figured if it was really as far off as the marks show, it wouldn't even run. I have to move the distributor as far advanced as it goes just to see the timing marks. I tried putting the timing light in different places and also used my friend's timing light, which is hooked directly up to the spark plug and runs between the plug and wire.

I tried the old wires and it didn't work. I slotted my rotor to gain more adjustment, but the marks are about 180 degrees of where it should be. I havent taken out the distributor, and it fires just fine. I have been at this for three days, I am getting extremely frustrated. It's not like I haven't done this before or anything, I got it to work on Sunday, I can't see anything I have done differently.

Is there any chance that when you re-installed the distributor that the rotor was put in upside down? The two slots in the exhaust cam should be offset to prevent this from happening, but perhaps the exhaust cam and/or rotor is different on a G20?

As far as your timing marks being off I've experienced this when the exhaust cam has been retarded a couple of degrees (I have cam gears and S3 cams).

Did you replace your timing chain tensioner recently? Any chance you rotated the crank with the tensioner out? If so, you might want to remove the valve cover to make sure the timing chain didn't skip a tooth.

Steve

O.K., I figured it out. I removed the #1 spark plug and found TDC. Turns out that the actual TDC is not even close to the indicated one, it is probably 30 degrees from it. I'm not sure if I screwed up the timing the first time I did it, or if the pulley moved between now and then. Well, tomorrow I'll finish it up. Thanks everyone.

hey inkorekt,
good luck with the fix. i'm still curious how your cams could have skipped that many teeth with the work you were doing on your car. could it have happened during the transmission swap? when you pop open the valve cover and adjust the cam gears/timing chain, remember that there are suppose to be 20 rollers (double check with the fsm) between the small round marker on the intake cam and the marker on the exhaust cam (when the marker on the intake cam is at 10 o'clock, the one on the exhaust should be at 12 o'clock). one other quick tip - you can deduce the number of degrees each tooth advances or retards timing by dividing 360* by the number of teeth on the cam gear. i beleive each tooth is worth about 5* the last time i calculated it - so if you think your'e 45* too advanced, then move the chain 9 teeth towards the front of the car. anyways, don't want to sound like mr. know-it-all (b/c i'm not), but i went thru all this sh*t once and it's a back breaking bitch to put on and remove the valve cover several times in one day. good luck!

No, you misunderstood, the cams are fine(thank god) but the key in the pulley on the crankshaft has come out or the key slot has wallered out allowing the pulley to move some. I didn't explain that too well in my last post because I was overjoyed that my engine wasn't screwed. I plan on getting a new key and fixing it this weekend. I have the car running well right now, the timing just isn't super precise as I had to tune it by ear. I'll get it right when I fix the pulley.

Is wallered an actual word? I like to think I'm halfway competent with the english language, but I cannot think of another word with the same meaning.