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Hi all, Im back with the same fault. When I use the timing gun on the pulley it was off advanced pretty far. The Distributor was retarded all the way, and still was like 30 degrees Advanced. So I checked cams and crank timing again, I stuck ratchet extension into Cylinder 1, and at TDC, all the timing marks lined up. I've had the valve cover off before and checked 4 times too. I heard there could be play in the crank pulley it wasn't that. So I filed off the 3 distributor bolt holes, and now the timing is only 3-4 degree advanced, and runs alot better, sounds happy, except when warming up it has a big dip in power like a major misfire, struggles a bit, then runs pretty well, much better than before. When using the timing gun it doesn't seem to go retarded warming up, I thought id see the ECU adjust it, then go near base timing, I will check this again when its cold to make sure.
The only discrepancy I can see is there are two white wires to the Distributor, that I wired up to the old wiring, one is for the Igniter, and the other for part of the crank sensor. In theory could these be the wrong way round and the car runs? As both send signals? Theres nothing else I can think of other than maybe the cylinder head was decked too far. I've attached the Distributor wiring picture
Are the leads possibly all one hole out? Maybe you can change the timing by moving all the leads one hole forward which will retard timing by 90 degrees and possibly allow for correct adjustment?.
Thanks for the reply, I checked all the leads over a few times, they are all in the right place, good idea though. Its running so much better with it 4 degrees over advanced, but I will have to grind off more of the distributor holes, its a far way in retarded distributor position now haha, I'd just like to know the cause of the situation, its a bodge job right now as we say in England. Theres a cam sensor two wires, a crank two wires, and TDC sensor two wires all in the distributor that I joined together. I'm receiving no PCM codes though to indicate a problem. I've been driving with the newer engine a couple months now. The misfire I believe to be oil running down the inside the plug tubes, only a bit of oil but probably enough to make it slight miss occasionally. I had changed the 4 cylinder rubber seals in the valve cover but I heard always go with Honda on those, but I might just RTV them with a thin layer. Hopefully its not the piston rings, runs healthy though now, but be nice to find out the reason the distributor position is so far out. I've heard people say its 1 tooth off, but I've checked it so many times I know its spot on, other people say its these cheap distributors, but the original Honda distributor was doing the same thing, that was backfiring so I had to change it, as I put the engine in and didn't want any hassle after I did that, cheers
I took this from a VW possibly old Beetle website. Paul6004 replying about the position of the distributor wires 90 degrees etc had me thinking about the position of the distributor keyway into the Intake camshaft. Since the distributor has only one way of going in the intake cam, could it be 180 degrees out the camshaft? I've no idea how you can get the cam out 180 degrees though, as theres a woodruff key to the cam gear, though if it was upside down you could, would the car run well though 180 degrees out? as mine does haha.
Here's what the guy said,
check your pulley wheel is at tdc for no,1 cylinder. then see where your dizzy is at. remember 1 half turn of the pulley wheel is a quarter turn of the dizzy. could be if your engine has had a rebuild or been turned over with no dizzy in the gear could be 180 degrees out. the easy way to cure this is to take the dizzy out knock the pin out of the bottom turn the wheel at the bottom of your dizzy 180 degrees and put the pin back in. stick it back together and you should be where you need to be. but check your tdc is right first.
No it can't be off on the camshaft 180 degrees it wouldn't run well at all, but maybe the rotor was put together 180 degrees out even though its new. Also the Honda one I remember taking the rotor off, it was backfiring had red bearing dust failure, but maybe that one was 180 degrees out too on the rotor, and its just two distributors with the same problem, one old and one new
