Just found out the timing on my rx7 Was retarded pretty far... 6 degrees or so... was causing it to run like total crap... rich, misfires, high idle... set it back to TDC and all is well.

Just wondering, what would have caused this? Would the previous owner have done this for some reason?

Thanks in advance.

 

the only time i ever see the timing off is if someone previously touched the CAS for whatever reason. even 200k mile factory untouched engines are still always within a degree of the marks.

 

It was actually the CAS that I adjusted...

What now?

 

anyone...

 

Try Restabbing your CAS and set the timing?

 

6 degrees retarded wouldn't cause the car to run like crap but it would be noticeable. it would cause the car to idle lower, not higher so be sure you understand which direction is retarded versus advanced.

as long as the idle is below 1k and the split between lead and trailing matches the marks it is set properly.

if it won't line up and the CAS was previously removed it may be off by a tooth or more. in which case it needs to be removed and set properly before dropping it back in. there's numerous threads with this procedure up on this site.