Did I waste my money buying a timing light for 99 GST?

[truwarrior]

In a desperate attempt to see why my car is not fast, I bought a timing light. Thing is I don't know how to use it and I heard with 2Gs you can't even adjust base timing.

So, can I use this, and if my timing is off, what the hell can I do about it?

Thanks.

 

[98spydert]

Take it back, you can't adjust it.

 

[Burnett03]

In a desperate attempt to see why my car is not fast, I bought a timing light. Thing is I don't know how to use it and I heard with 2Gs you can't even adjust base timing.

So, can I use this, and if my timing is off, what the hell can I do about it?

Thanks.

unless you have a 1g head with a 1g cas then yes you wasted money

 

[DSMTalonAWD51]

or a 2g head with 1g CAS

 

[truwarrior]

Well I check it anyways and it's at 5-10 btdc but mostly 5

I did notice though that the light flashes twice as fast when connected to spark plug wires 1 and 4. 2 and 3 makes the light flash slower...this normal?!

Time to keep on search why my car is slow

 

[DSMvroom]

get a logger and go to the dyno . . . start from there.

 

[boostyGST]

how do you check to see if the 2G CAS is bad, or malfunctioning?

 

[truwarrior]

I guess I wanna know why 1 and 4 flickers so much and 2 and 3 doesn't.

I need my horsepower back! So much shit has changed I'm not even sure when the problems started or if it ever worked right in the first place.

This is what I know:

Base timing 5-10
A/F 11:1
stock timing
Boost leak at the manny makes 18+ psi but drops down to 0 in 30 secs or so.
No noticeable leaks but air coming thru the valve cover with the PCV blocked off
150,160,150,150 compression
Idel sometime varies between 850-1500 to sometimes 2000rpms
EVOIII turbo use to creep up to 20psi but after taking out 10% fuel adding a FMIC and a greddy EBC it seem to only creep up to 15-16psi.
console light for the fans and such just happen to not work soemtimes during the past 2 weeks
oil full
fairly new ngk plugs and wires
changed fuel filter 30,000 miles ago

I wanna say this MIGHT have started to happen after I burnt up my stock clutch about 3 months ago (must have been making some decent power to fry a fwd clutch right? )

Some DMSers helped me replace it with a 2100 and lightened flywheel. We also install swaybars and motor mounts.

Anything I can check related to this? Do you know how many ground wires are usually disconnected during a clutch install? I havn't double check the work since they did most of it I'm not sure what could be wrong.


MODS: Hahn FMIC, Dave Brode UIP, 1G BOV, 16GEVOIII, injen intake pip, apexi intake, rsr catback, rsr down pipe, slow boy ported 2G o2 with center milled out, greedy MBC, DSMLink, PLX wideband, 680 injectors, new fuel injector insulators, battery 2 years old.

Only thing I havn't done was a leak down test

 

[djpast]

because you need to attach it to 1 or 4 (preferably 1). thats how it works. you also need to ground out the timing plug so the timing doesnt bounce around.

You should seriously get a haynes or chilton manual. by just putting the light on and shooting the timing and not having it on wire 1 or not grounding out the timing plug its not gonna tell you jack squat.

So in this order:

1. Get a repair manual (haynes or chilton)
2. Attach the appropriate connections of the timing gun (power/ground/sensor on wire 1)
3. Ground out timing plug located near the battery (this will be pointed out in the service manual)
4. Start Car
5. Now point timing light and get an accurate reading. The line on the pulley should not bounce around at all or very little. If your gun has an adjustable knob on it for timing advance, set it to zero.

there you go.

 

[truwarrior]

because you need to attach it to 1 or 4 (preferably 1). thats how it works. you also need to ground out the timing plug so the timing doesnt bounce around.

You should seriously get a haynes or chilton manual. by just putting the light on and shooting the timing and not having it on wire 1 or not grounding out the timing plug its not gonna tell you jack squat.

So in this order:

1. Get a repair manual (haynes or chilton)
2. Attach the appropriate connections of the timing gun (power/ground/sensor on wire 1)
3. Ground out timing plug located near the battery (this will be pointed out in the service manual)
4. Start Car
5. Now point timing light and get an accurate reading. The line on the pulley should not bounce around at all or very little. If your gun has an adjustable knob on it for timing advance, set it to zero.

there you go.

Well I hooked up the ground to the engine hanger and attached the + to the red on the battery. I then clamped that clamp thing onto spark wire 1. Next I started the car, let it heat up then pointed the light at the pully and pulled the trigger. It was about at 5, everytome the engine changed speeds to seemed to go towards 10 then back to 5, but for the most part it stayed around 5.

Just wonder why 1 and 4 would flash any faster then 2 and 3...? Isn't it flashing when ever it picks up current thru the wire?

 

[Burnett03]

Well I hooked up the ground to the engine hanger and attached the + to the red on the battery. I then clamped that clamp thing onto spark wire 1. Next I started the car, let it heat up then pointed the light at the pully and pulled the trigger. It was about at 5, everytome the engine changed speeds to seemed to go towards 10 then back to 5, but for the most part it stayed around 5.

Just wonder why 1 and 4 would flash any faster then 2 and 3...? Isn't it flashing when ever it picks up current thru the wire?

you are only supposed to check 1 or 4 when checking timing... if the engine changes speeds yes the timing will increase

 

[Hitchhikkr]

Just out of curiousity, what kind of lube did you use on the input shaft of the transmission when you put the clutch in? If you used anything other than light motor oil, your clutch may be slipping...

 

[truwarrior]

Not sure what kinda, but the HP est from my logs where would be higher and the rpms would spike.

 

[gman991057]

It really doesn't matter whether you connect your timing light to 1 or 4 or both because with dsm's electronic ingition they use the waste spark system where the coil pack sends a voltage through both 1 and 4 at the same time but the most resistance is at the cylinder on its compression stroke so that is where the voltage is used. still I;m not sure why 1 and 4 would be any faster than 2 and 3, I think you should test spark strength at each cylinder, maybe a plug or wire could be bad. Check the strength of spark and your wires resistance along with your plug gap. Goodluck

 

[djpast]

its not that 2 and 3 are going slower, but you are prob not seeing every pulse with those wires in correspondence with a timing mark. every timing light that i have ever used is calibrated to use the wire off piston #1. that piston is used to determine TDC (top dead center). The flash indicates how much before or after TDC the spark is occurring. Again... this is calibrated ONLY for the #1 wire as almost all car manufacturers use this cyl for TDC. So attaching to wires 2 and 3 is a complete waste of time and wont tell you anything.