My honda accord 94 non-vtec engine sometimes just dies.

I checked my ignition timing today and something odd happens. I point the light to the crankshaft with the ecu connected and the red mark is a bit off, then I jump the ecu connector and the red mark is right under the marker, where it should be, right?

I had the impression that if I get to align the red mark my timing would be correct. Note that my car did not have a label under the hood so I only jumped the ecu service conector.

What could cause this behavior?

Should I assume that other gears are out of timing? Again, I thought that if I had the red mark right under the pointer my timing would be correct.

 

With the engine fully warmed up, make sure the fan kicks on at least once, turn it off and jumper the two wire blue connector. This prevents any timing changes. Verify correct idle speed and then set the timing to BTDC ignition mark and you are done.

With the ECU test port not jumped the ignition timing will fluctuate for correct load changes. Watching the timing move about while the engine is running is normal. However, if the engine is cold, not set to correct idle rpm, or has some other issue, setting the base ignition timing will not allow the engine to operate correctly.

 

My RPM are at about 750.

I researched later and it turns out when the ECU kicks in it will change my timing due to other variables.

1 - With the ECU jumped the red mark IS ALIGNED with the pointer. From this, I can say the my timing is correct, right? I should not mess around with this again, right? One more thing. I checked the timing assuming that my other gears (camshaft and others) are aligned.

My car sometimes dies at idle speed or when I stop. What I'm going to check now is the resistance in my distributor module and clean my fuel injectors, which I believe are the ones that came with the car and have never been cleaned.

Please confirm #1 above and, any advice on cleaning injectors?

Thanks.

 

Is your timing light adjustable? The red mark is 15 BTC which is what you want, again when the service connector is "jumped".

Either way, it would be very stange (IMO) for timing being off to cause the car to die.

Can you give us more details about what happens when it dies?

 

The light is not adjustable. When you say 15 you mean 15 away from the white mark (tdc), but aligned to the pointer on the engine, right?

The car dies when is idling or comes to a red light. Notice that it doesn't happen often and I can restart it without problems. Also when it idles rpm might sometimes drop down to 500 and then quickly come back up to 750 or close, but it doesn't fluctuate as to blame the iacv, which I believe works since there is a small difference in rpm when disconnected.

I have also cleaned throttle body and fast idle valve. Checked fuel pressure. Checked compresión-3rd is a little lower than others, but still within spec.

 

The white mark is TDC (zero), the red mark is 15 BTDC. So if you light is "zeroed" or a non-adjustable, you should see the red mark lined up with the pointer.

Again, just me but this does not "sound/read" like a timing issue. I know you say it is not a IACV issue but that is exactly where I would start - pull the thing and clean it.