Lude Generation

evening lads

i am sure i've read on here people self adjusting their timing?

i just read the section in the 5th gen manual and i quote
"If the ignition timing is incorrect,replace the ECM (there is no way to adjust ignition timing)"

firstly what is the ECM?

im positive @vanzep adjusted the timing on his car or am i imagining it?

help me out lads

Yes, you can adjust the ignition timing. ECM = ECU?

i thought so

in the manual it tells you to plug in the SCS service connector,so would i need to paperclip it and i thought you weren't meant to start the engine with the plug bridged?

do you turn the distributor slightly to adjust it?

so confused

my timing was slightly out when i replaced the distributor - i just undid the three bolts and rotated the distributor a small amount - pure guess work and only had to do this as i had moved it slightly out of alignment when fitting the new disitributor late at night in the pissing rain
totally different thing to what your looking at doing i think

are the three bolt holes not slotted to allow slight movement ?
i thought thats how you adjusted it along with a strobe of course?

yup thats how i read it but as i say it was to correct the mistake id made when knocking it slightly out of alignment- your talking about adjusting your base idle i think which is a bit more involved
im no expert so wait until someone who knows what theyre talking about can help you out.

Most of the 5th Gen's will be OBDII cars (96+) which have fixed distributor mounts. There are no slots which makes the distributor fixed and non-adjustable. IIRC.

4th Gen's are OBD1 and you bridge the service connector to stop the ecu from adjusting the timing all the time. You can then use a timing light to set the timing using the 3 flywheel markers (17-15-13) whilst idling at 750rpm. The 4th marker is about an inch away on its own and this is TDC. You time it up to the middle of the 3 marks (15degrees) not the TDC mark.

I was really just looking to make sure the timing was correct
Cheers for the input guys

Im sure some fly wheels have different marking to others but yes this is something I do myself, 15 degrees @ 750 rpm is right, although I have found that it does not seem to make any difference if the service connector is bridged or not, never noticed any differences at the fly. I have checked and double checked, but do it anyway.

There is a V groove on the right hand side of the bung, get the 15 degree mark smack in the middle and you know its right. The car HAS to be at running temp, if you do it on fast idle it will be wrong, some strobes like mine give a read out of RPM and you set them at what degree you like for the car ludes being 15.