Timing question

[skippy124]

Hi Guys.
A question on timimg..... I have fitted a second hand engine (A20A4), and replaced the timing belt (and other seals etc), and swapped over the distributor from the old motor (put it in roughly the same position). Went to check timing, and it was at TDC. Loosened dizzy and turned.... and best I could get was about 12- 13 deg before i ran out of adjustment, should be 15 deg. Thought the timing belt might be out by 1 tooth so I rechecked the cam sprocket alignment with crank at TDC.... and everything lines up. Anyone else had this problem?? The motor runs fine but I would like to track down why adjustment is out of range.

Thanks

['89AccordLX(Rus)]

Did you disconnect the vacuum advance and plug the lines during the adjustment? With the advance disabled you should adjust the timing to be at top dead center. Reconnect vacuum advance and make sure that it gives you the correct amount of ignition advance at the proper RPM. I think that should be the correct procedure. Correct me if I'm wrong. Hope you find this helpful.

[shepherd79]

yes it is the correct procedure stated above.
if you have the timing set at TDC and it is not right with vacuum advance lines pluged back on, you have a problem with vacuum advance in distributor.

[skippy124]

I set the advance as per the haynes manual, which I have now found out to be a bit misleading. It says to disconnect the vacuum hoses and plug them, then set timimg as per the emmissions control lable on the underside of the bonnet (15 deg in my case). On looking at the PDF manual it is a bit confusing, but I think that what the PDF manual shows is that the 15 deg figure is when the vacuum hoses are connected. A couple of paragraphs on in the PDF manual it gives some advance figures with the vacuum hoses disconnected and plugged - either 4 or 9 deg depending on the model. Based on this I have set mine at about 13 deg, a bit high but it doesn't ping and it is running really well. I'll recheck as per the PDF manual and reset it just to be sure.