I am trying to get my gsl-se engine swap to pass smog so I can register the car. The problem I am having is that the smog referee wants the timing to be perfect before he'll give me the sticker. He wants the little marks to line up where they are supposed to ( yellow-leading, red-trailing) and still pass the sniffer test.

He let me play around with the sniffer adjusting the timing a little bit. The car runs really bad when I line up the marks correctly, and won't pass the snif test. If I alter the timing so that it passes the sniff test and runs really well, then I'm off by 25 degrees. Is there anything that could cause both leading and trailing to be off by the same amount consistently? The only thing I can think of is that the distributor is stabbed wrong or something. Is this even possible to do?

 

Are you sure the timing light was connected to the leading wire for front rotor, and not the trailing?

 

lol...

yes, I do hear clicking noises and freak out about them, but between myself, the smog ref, and his assistant, I'm sure we got that part right.

It just seems like the marks aren't synched with where the engine likes to be, really. I'm tempted if I can't figure it out to just borrow some of your nail polish and paint on new marks.

 

One tooth off?

 

that's what I'm thinking... I'll have to see after work.

There's what, like 16 teeth?

 

That sounds right, maybe a little less.

 

i once saw a distributor cap forced on backwards and the car still ran. do you have a factory workshop manual? use it and start from the begginning. it is easy to do. make sure you figure out which coil is the leading coil. check all the wiring. if someone had the car before you they could have messed with all that stuff.

 

yep, i've triple checked everything. I constructed my harness during the swap according to the FSM diagrams. The only thing on this setup that I *haven't* done yet is stab the distributor. That was done when I got the motor, and I assumed it was right. I'll check that tonight.