I need some help figuring out some things. I'm having to advance my distributor 3-4 degrees more then what I had before the build to get 16 on timing light.

The engine prior to the sleeving has never been decked before
Ge Sleeved b18 It was decked not sure how much taken off
Itr head surfaced not sure how much
Stock itr cams and gears

If I line up cam gears exact straight across then the crank pulley is roughly lined up at 2-3 degrees atdc

Now I thought it was possibly too loose timing belt causing this slight issue so I tightened according to oem spec again no change.

Should I just put the dizzy back to my stock timing line I had marked before the sleeve and decking process ?

I'm assuming I will need cam gears but really don't want to do that since I'm not looking to extract every ounce of power from this setup.

The engine runs perfect the way it sits now. No stumbles no idle issues runs solid and strong.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Forgot to add im running ati super damper street version

 

If it runs correctly now, don't fiddle with it. The block and head shaving was probably just enough to throw it off, but if you can get ignition timing within spec, and you aren't running tight P2V clearances, you'll be fine.

 

Well I just wanna make sure all is well before I get to the dyno. I've got it tuned good as is. And yeah it's running just the cp 10-1 Pistons flat top. Compared to the jdm itr it had

I just don't like having the dizzy so rotated throwing in the extra timing to my whole map. That's my thinking but I could be wrong.

 

Fyi the dizzy isn't fully advanced it does have few more degrees advance left in it. But I just thought it a lil concerning and needed to be verified

 

The distributor is adjustable for a reason. If it's within spec, leave it alone, and let your tuner do his thing at the dyno.

 

I would play with the belt some more.

Your mechanical timing is off. You're not doing any good compensating for that with the electrical timing.

Unless you dont give a **** about power output which is weird since you spent the money to sleeve a motor.

Dont be lazy and redo the timing belt. Advance or retard the gears one by one until it comes out right or spend a hundred bucks on cam gears.

I didn't need cam gears until i resurfaced the head about 3-4 times.

 

This is why I am a believer in restoring deck height which thicker head gaskets.

 

I had an ATI damper be off by a couple tic marks before. It was an early version street damper. The only way to truly verify TDC is with a cam degree kit or a dial indicator on the #1 piston dome. I have never trusted the marks since then.

Shaving the head and the block will do this to the dizzy since it also throws off cam alignment. Cam gears are the way to fix this issue.

 

Thanks for all the help. IM gonna go back to stock pulley and see what I come up with. It seems like the belt needs tightening even after doing it 3 times like oem.

Would turning it 5 cam teeth instead of 3 equate to a tighter belt ? When setting slack

And there's absolutely no way it's off a tooth. Because I used a cam gear holder which locks the cams in perfect position. Used oil pump line for crank then thru on ati.

Now would yall agree that I'm probably adding 3-4 degrees on top of my map since its advanced or should it be in sync?

 

I tried finding tdc with a rod but it was tedious and I kept finding different positions on either side

 

Thats because of the piston dwell at tdc making it really tricky.

If you think your damper timing marks are suspect, you could take the pulley and lower timing cover off and verify your timing with the lower timing gear and oil pump housing marks. After setting tdc based on those narks, put the cover and pulley on to verify the timing marks between the pulley and timing cover

 

Or you could do what you did and when the rod stops moving up write the number down, keep going till it starts moving down and divide by 2. That's TDC.

 

it seems that you are maybe thinking cam/crank mechanical timing are synonomous with ignition timing when they aren't really.

Ignition timing adjusts your distributor to set the the time when spark will happen in relation to the cam. It doesn't account for the crank at all.

The timing belt sets where the relationship between the crank and cam lobes to set the relationship between piston and valves.

When you removed material from the head and block, you changed the distance between the cam pulleys and crank sprocket. This means there is less timing belt required to wrap around. Less belt means the teeth in the sprocket and pulleys won't line up like stock. You can be a half a tooth off or whatever.
The only correction is to get adjustable cam pulleys or a thicker head gasket.


Rotating the crank 5 teeth instead of 3 won't do anything to make it tighter - you can spin it all day long and that tension on the front side of the belt will remain the same as with 3 teeth.

 

Thanks man that helps. I'm not really new to building engines stock engines that is. I'm venturing into uncharted territory with this new build so I'm slowly learning the small quirks to get this issue. Resolved.

So I'm just going to get the cam gears to fix this issue.

Would I use a cam degree kit just to set the cam gears back in alignment or could I just split the difference in degrees with both intake and exhaust cams?

Also lets say I were to leave it as is what would be the negatives to this ? I mean as is it runs like normal really strong actually.