I've tried to research this, and i cannot find any good answers. During my car rebuild, i had the distributor off to do various maintenance items with the head. i marked it before i removed it, and reinstalled it matching up the markings. I finally got the car running again and i went to check the timing with the timing light. The timing grooves are in the crank pulley, however the paint has worn off over the years and i have nothing showing up with the timing light. How do i verify the timing to be at the stock setting, or any setting for that matter with no paint markings to verify when the timing light is active?

I had my code scanner plugged in to to check a code and i noticed that in the live feeds, there is a column for ignition timing. I'm not sure how accurate that is though, could i adjust my distributor based on the timing i'm seeing in the scan tool?

 

Vehicle information?

 

DOH! sorry about that. 96 Integra GSR

 

Is it a special type of paint that the timing light picks up, or would any paint work?

 

Any paint will work. I use a white marking pen, but Ive seen guys use white out and nail polish as well. It all works.

 

Yep I've had success with white out. Just make sure you mark accurately...

 

Yes, make sure you put the white paint on the single mark all by itself and NOT any of the three marks found all bunched together about an inch away.

 

white out.

 

i thought at least the middle of the group of three was red? the others aren't white and just pulley color?

 

You can paint it red if you so choose it doesn't really matter though, the white mark is TDC. Don't forget to jump the connector to tell the computer your setting base timing.

 

awesome thanks everyone.

i may go ahead and paint all 4 marks. white red white -----------------and then white for the TDC. its been a while since i've used my timing light, but i don't think mine is adjustable and i'll have to read the timing marks on the pulley for advancing the ignition timing to where it was before.

 

So, what I wanted to contribute to this was that adding paint onto my timing marks did help make it obvious where they were. I only used one color, red. On my setup, I used Hondata to lock in the motor at 16 degrees TDC and used a digital timing light set to 0 degree advance to set the timing. When I did mine, I could eyeball where the "center" line is for 16 degrees on my crank pulley and aligned that with the timing mark on the engine covers. I didn't really see a need for multiple colors and stuff because I could see all three lines clearly.

 

Paint it pink bro, show your true colors.

 

you know it!