I just finished my school-is-over marathon installations of an LT1 cam, valve springs/stem seals, new intake (Performer TBI), new timing set, etc., etc. It felt very nice to hear the engine turn over and sound great first time (well, second try - 1st I forgot to plug in the fuel pump connector ).

I initially set the timing to 6 deg BTDC, but it didn't feel too great, so I tried it at 12 deg. The car was pulling better, but now I've gotten code 43 twice.

Is this probably just b/c I have the timing too advanced? Or should I look into a potential knock sensor problem?

With my mods, does 12 deg sound like way too much?

 

Oh yeah, when I set the timing, I just did it in park at idle, w/o disconnecting anything from my distributor (I couldn't find the tan/blackstripe ESC wire I read about). Was that a mistake?

 

if you dont disconnect the EST then your timing wont be right at all. the EST is the plugs right above the heater box (big black box on the pass side firewall) diconnect it, turn the car on then start adjusting then plug it in and tuirn the car on and go from there

 

you gotta unplug that wire. congrats on the swap. did the car smoke on startup before the new valve seals, does it now?

 

Yeah, it smoked a bit (light blue) on startup if it hadn't run for almost a day, that's why I changed the valve stem seals... I'll let you know if the problem is fixed after I start her up tomorrow.

 

actually it will just make the reading appear with teh bbase advance already in it.
it is fine to set the idle timing with the est still plugged in, just turn slowly and listen for it to knock or gurgle through the exhaust.
12 degrees with teh est still plugged in shoudl not be too much timing to start with. you will want to let it warm up and then mess with the fuel and timign together to find a good compromise to start driving the car untiul you can get a chip burned.

later
tim

 

brody - I fired it up this morning... No smoke! Very cool.

Thanks for all the advice re. the timing/code 43... what I'm taking from this, then, is (correct me if I read wrong) that when I set it to 12 deg, I actually set it to 12 deg plus whatever the base timing already was? I'll fix all this when I can get back to a timing light...

 

The reason you got code 43 is because you don't have enough timing.

The ECM performs a knock sensor test by ramping the timing up to force the engine to knock. If the ECM doesn't hear knock you get code 43.

Most TBI bins I have looked at idle at 18-22 degrees. Setting timing at 12 degrees without the EST disconnected will give you aprox 6-10 degrees less timing throughout the entire timing curve than if you set it to the factory spec of O degrees with the EST bypass disconnected. Performance will be bland at best.

Set the timing to 0 with the EST bypass disconnected and go from there. Then you can start to increase timing in small increments.

Setting timing by ear will not give you good performance. You have to test your changes in timing against performance gains/losses. Performance measurement comes in the form of dynos, Gtech, Vericom, and drag strip.

 

When I had your combo I ran timing at 8* and liked it.

 

brent is absolutely right. You are running the equivalent of about 8 degrees ATDC thats RETARDED timing like 8 degrees retarded. That 43 is going off for precisely the reason brent said


disconnect the est wire and no its not by the dist you are thinking of mustangs and then reset the timing correctly

 

Thanks again for the info, everyone, esp. Brent & Pablo - you guys were exactly right... when I redid the timing earlier this week (this time disconnecting that EST wire), it was a bit retarded (and I felt that way, too). Brent, I saw you refer to this thread for psycho305, so I thought I'd just confirm... I'm running about 7 degrees right now and loving it.