ericliley1993

Hey guys I hope this is the right thread to post this in but, I have a 94 civic ex I recently did rod and main bearings got everything buttoned up but was a dumbass and forgot to mark the timing belt and gear needless to say after fighting with it I got it in time it has a aem adjustable cam gear that was 3 degrees advanced I set it back to 0 but I think my ignition timing is off because I can mess around with the distributor but if it gets to a certain point I can hear a knock in the engine and she use to run like a raped ape but now she bogs a little and doesn't want to hit like she use to the power isn' t anymore. Any advice or help is greatly appreciated

DumpdEJ6

First things first, use a timing light to set the base timing at 16 degrees BTDC.

ericliley1993

This may be a really dumb *** question but by base timing do you mean to set the ignition timing at 16 degrees? And what do you mean by BTDC?

DumpdEJ6

Correct, base timing is set with a timing light and the distributor. There should be a small 2-pin connector near your ECU, it's probably "connected" to a green rubber piece. This connector has to have a jumper wire connecting both pins or the ECU will try to automatically correct the timing as you're trying to adjust it.

BTDC stands for Before Top Dead Center, there should be two different sets of marks on your crankshaft pulley: one mark off by itself, and 3 marks close together. Make sure the car is at operating temperature with the RPM around 750, bridge the pins in that connector, hook up the timing light to the battery and the #1 cylinder plug wire, then use the timing light to look down the little plastic "gun sight" on your timing belt cover.

Adjust the distributor until the "gun sight" lines up with the middle mark of the 3 marks close together. Shut the car off, pull the jumper wire, then restart the car and verify with the timing light that it is still in time.

WES1023

I agree with dump, the knock may actaully be a rattle caused by the engine shaking during the misfire.