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1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I use a regular inductive timing light with no advance wheel. It first helps to paint some timing marks on your flywheel. White nail polish works. I've tried to time the car without the marks but its VERY difficult to see. Here is an easy way to do it:
1) Move the AIC valve out of the way. Just unplug the electrical lead and pull it out of the bracket. This will help you see the flywheel.
2) If you look down, you will see a line on your flywheel cover and a circular hole. It's the line on the flywheel cover and NOT the hole that is the reference mark. Paint that line white. Note, make sure your flywheel cover is bolted down correctly or the reference mark will be off.
3) Put your car on a level surface and put it in 5th gear. Take the parking brake off! Now push the car or have a helper do it. As you nudge the car forward, look for the timing marks on the flywheel. You will see numbers like 0, 10, 15, and 20 with tick marks. If you don't see these numbers, keep on moving the car ever so slightly.
4) It's up to you how you want to mark these numbers. On my car, I painted a dot at the 0, a dash at the 10 deg, 2 dashes at 15, and a long solid line at 20 deg.
5) Hook your timing light power to the battery positive and ground, then hook the inductive lead clip to the no. 1 spark plug wire, the one thats closest to the firewall. Don't let the wires sit on the exhaust or turbo!
6) Unplug the vacuum line connected to the vacuum advance and plug it.
7) Take a 10mm? wrench and losen the bolt holding the distributor down. Just make it loose, don't take if off. It also helps to scribe a mark on the distributor and the head to see where you started just in case you need to move it back.
8) Turn the car on and point the light at the reference line on your flywheel cover. For a turbo 16v, it should be about 16 deg. If you are below this number you need to rotate the distributor clockwise (looking from the front of the car) to increase the advance. The distributor only needs to be rotated about 1 deg for about 2-3 deg of advance so only turn it slightly.
9) To optionally test the function of your boost retard, hook up a bike pump to your vacuum advance and put some pressure on it (10 psi). You should see your timing retard by 5 degrees (i.e. was 16 deg, now it will be 11 deg).
10) Turn the car off, unplug the timing light, plug your hose back in and your done. If you want more torque, you could advance your timing up to 20 deg but watch out for detonation. When you get it smogged, put it back to 16.
I've wondered how accurate the line on the flywheel cover is as a reference for TDC. I guess the more accurate way to mark a reference line is to rotate the engine, determine when the no. 1 piston is at TDC on the compression stroke and see where the 0 deg mark is on the flywheel. Anyone try this?
posted by 209.203.69...
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