Alright i checked the timing on my car today and it was advanced about 8 degrees, by the way my car is pretty much stock with the exception of headers and an open element so i decided to put it back at around 2 degrees advanced. so i read the tech article on how to do it and i did everything step by step. and it worked fine untill i disconnect the battery to let the computer rest and when i go to recheck the timing it goes back to about 10 degrees advanced every time. however when i dissconect the tan wire while the car is running and then plug it back it the timing drops from 10 degrees back to 2 degrees advanced and runs fine again but then my check engine light wont go off. any suggestions?

 

with the tan wire connected, it is adding timing.

whenever the ESC is disconnected, it sets a code, if you don't reset the computer, you will have the SES light from when you timed it.

 

when i set the timing i have the tan wire disconnected, then when the timing is set where i want it i shut off the car plug back in the tan wire and then dissconnect the negative battery cable for a couple minutes. isnt the way to do it or am i missing something?

 

that is how you do it.

 

so then why when i reconnect the tan wire is it adding timing? do i have to set te timing low to begin with and when i plug the tan wire back in hope it advances my timing to where i want it?

 

the tan wire is for the comptuer to take over timing, you set it with it disconnected, so there is no variation, it is a base timing only. the computer takes car of timing form there. once you reconnect, the computer is controlling timing.

 

ok still having timing troubles. i keep setting the timing at 2degrees advanced. then i tighten up the distributor. then i turn off the car. then i reconnect the wire. then i dissconnect the negative battery cable for about 2mins. then i reconnect the battery cable. then i restart the car and when i recheck the timing it keeps advancing it to about 10 degrees advanced. i know you said the computer is advancing it and that the computer takes over but it is running like $&#@ and you can tell the timing is way off. why does the computer keep taking over and messing up my timing. please help this is really starting to **** me off im about to throw a carburator on this thing and rip out this stupid computer

 

it's doing what it's supposed to do

 

then how am i suppost to adjust the timing?

 

what are you tryng to adjust? if you want to change the timing curve, etc you need to do it with the computer.

 

thats what im trying to do is adjust the timing. i didnt know you needed to do it with a computer. the tech article on how to adjust the timing on a fuel injected cars sounded like you could adjust the timing just like on any older car with the exception of having to unplug the tan wire with the black stripe. So i cant just adjust my timing with a timing gun?

 

You can set the base and thats it. Unplug the wire, set the timing with the gun, and plug the wire back in. The ECM will take over from there (adds timing to your base setting). To change the total advance and such you need to adjust the spark tables in the prom.

 

ok so should i set my base timing low so that when the computer takes over it will put the timing to where it should be about without advancing it so much? or where should i try and set the base timing so that my car will run normal again?

 

Maybe we need to take a step back here.... Sounds like you're saying the engine runs well @ 2deg advance (tan wire disconnected). But, it runs lousy @ 10deg advance when the computer is controlling timing? If this is the case, was anything changed on the engine that might be causing this difference? Any recent maintenance work that might be causing a vacuum leak? If your engine is basically stock and in good tune, I don't know why that 8 degrees would make much difference.....?

You'll want to be careful when setting the base advance to anything besides the factory specs. Any advance/retard you put in at the base will be applied equally across all other operating points, including WOT. Before doing this, you'll want to put some effort into determining why the difference is there......

 

before i messed with the base timing, which i thought was just the timing in general, i didnt know there was a base timing and then the actual timing when the computer takes over but any way the very first time i checked the timing it was set at about 8* advanced and the car was running ok. it wasn't running perfect with a smooth idle. so decided to move the timing down to 2* advance and when i did that the car ran even better so thats what i wanted to keep it at and every time after that when i tried to set it and then do all the other steps it would advance it a lot. i just did headers and an open element not to long ago and when i did the headers i pulled out all the emmisions stuff along with the A/C but the car was still running the same as it always did. what is the base timing suppost to be set at?

 

factory base it 0*

i had ALOT of success with 4* base timing.

guys here run as much as 8*, but i had the best results at 4* with my car.

the question here is why is your car running bad with normal timing.

 

i just did a tune up consisting of new cap, rotor, wires, plugs, O2sensor, and i did an oil change and it was running the best it ever had for about two weeks with the exception of the check engine light was on, i think it was code 53 wich was something with my vats but then that went away and everything was fine. then a couple of days ago it starting to run a little rough, so two days ago i checked all the wires to make sure they were on all the way and everything looked good. so then i looked at the timing and i saw it was at 8* advanced wich was high considering i read on here for a stock engine it should be at 0* or maybe just a little more. so thats when i changed it, but i even tried putting it back to 0* and it still runs bad and it keeps missing. could my distributor be going bad? i checked all my wires and none got burnt laying on the headers. everything looks good