How do I adjust the timing on this car. I looked at the FSM regarding the jumpers under the hood but I don't think the label matches the jumper ports. The other is how do I know which of the spark plug wires to connect the timing cable to. It says wire #4. But, the person who had the car before me used generic wires. I want to check the timing because it seems to be using a lot of gas (200 miles on full tank of regular gas). I changed the oil, oil filter, fuel filter, PCV valve, and spark plugs.

 

You should change the O2 sensors if your mileage is that bad. You jump E1 and TE1. I dont get it when you say the label dosent match up Youll know when you get it right because the eng will rev a little and the C.E. light will blink. BTW youll need to un-jump those to see the advance when you rev it.. Assuming the knock sensors are happy. Connect the light to the #1 wire. not #4. That dosent make any sense. How many miles are on that 92 BTW?

Oh the firing order is 1-2-3-4-5-6 in case you were wondering.

 

The body has about 170k but the engine has about 90k on it. The previous owner through a rod on the original engine. I guess I did it right because the C.E. light was blinking. I didn't know if that was supposed to happen or not. I wasn't sure about the correct spark plug wire though. The correct timing is 10 degrees right. By firing order of 1-2-3-4-5-6, are you starting from the front then the back? Meaning the front bank would be 1-2-3 and the rear would be 4-5-6 reading from left to right?


Both of the O2 Sensors are brand new. But, I did get a code for the right bank knock sensor. I wasn't sure if the timing had anything to do with it. I asked the question just to be sure before I go and purchase the knock sensors as they are not cheap.

 

Yea its 10 degrees. I havent done knock sensors on mine but removing the lower intake dosent look that bad.

Rear bank is 1-3-5 left to right
Front bank is 2-4-6 left to right

So the previous owner never changed his oil or what? I mean, they dont blow themselves up.

 

Thanks for the reply. Actually, it was a woman who owned the car and she blew the engine due to lack of oil. When I removed the dipstick, there was no oil on it at all. It was dry like the dessert in Nevada! The car had 2 bad valve cover gaskets that were leaking very bad. I think that's what caused the massive oil lost. She said that she used to have to add oil all of the time. Go figure, it never occured to her to find out why.

 

The FSM says to connect the timing gun cable to number 4 high tension cord though.

I used number 1 spark plug cable to connect the timing gun cable as you stated to check the timing. The timing was off and I adjusted to 10 degrees. It doesn't seem to be idling as high anymore. I'll see how it goes since I filled up on Sunday.

 

Did you adjust it to +10 on the pulley scale? That is kind of high -- might want to make sure you are using 93 octane gas.

 

^^^^

I'll check that today. I adjusted it last night and didn't think about the +10 degrees.