slow_90firebird

Well, I went to the carwash today, and used the high pressure sprayer. When I left, the car started running shitty again, and bucking. It always happens about 1/2 mile after I start it back up after washing.

Anyway, back at school, I was letting it idle, and my buddy was working on his jeep. I borrowed his timing light (never used one before) and shot my timing. What I did was disconnect the tan/black wire, start the car, and put the clip on the #1 wire. Since I disconnected the tan/black wire, the idle was surging a little. If you look at the timing indicator from leaning over the driver-side fender, you see the biggest trough near the bottom. The mark was right in the middle of the biggest trough at the lower RPMs, but when the idle surged up, the mark would move up the tab a little (maybe 1*). So this means I should be good, right?

Also, does anybody have the link to the thread that had the diagrams and pictures of that metal tab, with the advance/retard spelled out for each trough? It would be nice to print out and use if I decide to change the base timing. Thanks.

deadtrend1

iTrader: (1)

If you clean it off really well, the numbers are stamped onto it. Hard to see, but they are there.

standing in front of the car, looking straight down onto it, the biggest valley is 0*. the first peak to the left is 4* advanced, each other peak is 2*more.

And even with the wire unhooked, the timing will still advance....

slow_90firebird

Alright, thanks. So I am at 0*, right where the emisions sticker says I should be.

Is is possible to gain any power on the LO3 by giving a few degrees advance on the base timing?

deadtrend1

iTrader: (1)

yea, you can go to about 6* advanced and not have a problem.

EDIT for reference:
Took a picture of mine, best I could get. You can see the numbers on my tab....

slow_90firebird

My tab looks a little different than that, and has a tube thing attached, and no numbers.

Well, I will get a timing light and a dizzy wrench, and start playing around! What I will try to do is go to 6* advance, and then go for a drive under heavy load at low RPM's. If it pings or knocks, I will slowly retard the timing untill the noise stops. Thanks.

Oh, back on the other note. Can you think of any reason my car would keep sputtering and locking up after I wash it, or on a rainy day? It would be nice to be able to drive in the rain.

I was thinking, is there a seal somewhere in the dizzy that can go bad, and let water in. Also, would there be any vacuum lines that might be liable to cause the motor to lock up and backfire if a small amount of water leaked in? It has to be simple, because after I wash the car it takes a minute or two to run bad. Then, it wont go away unless I park the car and let it idle for 20 minutes at 220* temp. Also, it usually isnt bad when I wash the car with a hose. When I use a pressure washer, it runs horrible. Same with the rain, light drizzle is ok, but heavy rain, I park the car for the day.

titchener

In my experience, poor running when wet usually means an ignition or electrical issue. Messing around with the timing is not going to fix this, something else is wrong. Check your distributor cap, rotor, plug wires, coil and coil wiring. When you pop the distributor cap off, see if there is moisture or corrosion inside. Check the connectors to your ignition module and all other wiring going to the ignition, pop connectors off and look for corrosion or exposure to moisture.

Good luck-

Paul T.

slow_90firebird

Thats the same thing I was thinking. The reason I thought it might be riming related, is because when wet, it will usually drive fine if you are cruising gently. It only locks up and bucks under high load at low rpms (like if you are cruising at 35mph in 4th gear, and you try to accellerate without downshifting to 3rd, it will be really bad). I was thinking timing, because I was looking at some tables in the PROM for beginners thread, and the computer throws the most timing in at high load - low RPM (unless I was reading wrong).