Timing Marks

[black33gtst]

Hi all.

Went and got am el cheapo timing light to check the base timing on my series 1 r33 gtst, I have no timing marks whatsoever on the engine side there there is a mark on my balancer but none on the engine anywhere WTF!

Is there another way to check the timing?

any plug ins like greddy info meter?

[Kinks]

no, your base timing must be checked with a timing light. info meters, consult etc assume that your base timing is set correctly.

there is a timing mark on the front of the engine, to the right of centre. it's basically just a notch, and you line that notch up with the marks on the pulley (which you can see once the timing light is correctly hooked up).

see pic (arrow pointing towards timing notch, mine is painted white from the factory)

[black33gtst]

cheers mate will take another look but i couldnt see it before will try glasses this time

[Duncan]

the timing marks should be on the rear lip of the balancer, 5marks from memory 0 is orange the rest are white.

we had an issue with our balancer and had to machine that rear lip which meant we need to put new marks on it, was a bit of a pain (and a balancer off job)

[siddr20]

^ yup 5 degrees each white mark you see.

Check your ignition timing by a timing gun and shine it down to where Kinks pointed out!!

[raps86]

sorry to but in on this topic but with my 34gtt there is a white wire at the back of the motor that ive been told 2 use but will the timing light work straight up with the inductive pickup of it or do i have 2 get another peice for it 2 work

[Duncan]

yeah you just use the loop at the back of the motor.

but I've had touble in the past with some cheaper timing lights they read twice as high as the actual number, ie it reads 30o when it is only 15o

[SevenAngryPenguins]

sorry to but in on this topic but with my 34gtt there is a white wire at the back of the motor that ive been told 2 use but will the timing light work straight up with the inductive pickup of it or do i have 2 get another peice for it 2 work

you can use the loop but some timing guns have the problem of reading double, i have a super cheap 50 buck jobbie and it reads doulble the actual setting so the gun lights up at 30 deg but its actually at 15 deg

Edited March 24, 2008 by SevenAngryPenguins

[SevenAngryPenguins]

yeah you just use the loop at the back of the motor.

but I've had touble in the past with some cheaper timing lights they read twice as high as the actual number, ie it reads 30o when it is only 15o

you beat me to it

[Duncan]

muahahah 4min is all it took.

[Kinks]

my timing gun does double blinks, so the marks seem to jump all over the place. one way around it is to buy a short spark plug lead from an auto store, and put it on the #1 spark plug and plug the other end into your coil pack, you can then put the timing light around the actual plug lead and then it works fine.

i then found out that if i put the pickup loop only half around the white wire on the ignition pack, that it works properly. so now I just do that

have not heard of it reading double the actual timing, that sounds very strange to me. the timing light has no concept of timing, it simply strobes when the spark fires on #1 cylinder. so i can't think of a reason why it would fire at 30 deg instead of 15deg, unless you forgot to unplug your TPS (in which case the timing would be jumping around anyway, because the ECU uses timing to control the idle speed).

[Ultimategtr]

hey sorry to hijack this thread(it had info which i needed and didnt want to waste opening up another thread)

i just had my timing checked at a local garage.... the notch on the crank case lines up with the 2nd white mark on the balancer/pulley. Basically i see th yellow(0degree) and 2 other white lines match up to the crank notch... Does that mean my timing is only at 10degrees? i thought the BT was 15?

plz help.

[Ultimategtr]

BUMP

[BHDave]

someone is impatient!

yes, it sounds like it has been set to 10.

[Ultimategtr]

haha yeh i was a bit.

alright i just went to see my tuner and the timing was ALL over the place.....?? he turned the AC on and then the timing settled to 15. said to me the CAS is probably faulty(hitachi unit).

is there a way to test the CAS. would it generate a fault code which would show up on a diagnostic?

are there any dangers to having a faulty CAS?

(Sorry to hijack thread!!!!)

[Guilt-Toy]

i seen a car with a fauly CAS once, it backfired out the exaust so loud it scared the crap outta me 100 meters away, and then it blew the exaust mufflers up.

Wasnt funny when it scared me, but it was funny when it came past and the exaust was dragging on the ground.

[Ultimategtr]

lol that bad huh. i hope mine isnt that bad. ill run a diag and see what it comes up with.

[Kinks]

alright i just went to see my tuner and the timing was ALL over the place.....?? he turned the AC on and then the timing settled to 15. said to me the CAS is probably faulty(hitachi unit).

He probably didn't unplug the plug on the throttle position sensor. As I have said earlier in the thread, the ECU uses timing to control the idle speed. So if you leave the TPS plugged in your timing WILL be all over the place. This is NORMAL.

If your TPS is unplugged and the timing is still everywhere, and it's DEFINITELY not your timing light, then you have a problem.

[frozenwaffles]

i have been having base timing issues and i am pretty sure my timing light was indicating double, while the car would run fine with 15deg indicated (and 7.5deg real i would imagine) its pulls heaps harder on 30deg indicated and 15deg actual. bloody cheap $50 timing lights from supercheap, or rather actually shitty timing system from nissan....

i like the spark plug lead idea from coilpack to actual plug...i mean after all thats what they are actually meant to read...high voltage signal...

[Kinks]

After doing some reading, the only time a timing light reads double is when you have a "delay" timing light and you are using it on an engine with waste spark. I think the way those work, is that you set the timing on the timing gun and then rotate your distributor/crank angle sensor until the 0 mark on the pulley lines up with the notch.

With a waste spark system, the spark plug is firing at TDC but also at BDC (minus however many degrees you have) but since there are 2 sparks per cycle, the timing light thinks your RPM is twice as high so its calculation for the delay is wrong.

With a simple timing light that just triggers when it gets a pulse and has no delay/timing setting on it, you should be fine. I don't believe the stock R33 ECU uses waste spark, but an aftermarket system might.