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Ok, on the weekend I got ambitious and performed the proceedure as indicated. I used MMO as the oil, as it is bright red and easy to see in the tubes. First for a couple tips:
1: Add the oil slowly! I had nothing coming out of the top tube then it suddenly rocketed out and both tubes were overfull! Pain in the ***, but an easy (and messy) fix.
2: I rocked the engine back and forth by leaving the car in gear and pushing it with my knees. Effective? Yes. Accurate? No. It was hard to make it a smooth process so a couple times I sprayed oil out of the tubes at high velocity! Again, messy. If I were to do it again, I'd definitely take the fan off and use a socket to turn the engine - way more precise.
Anyway, on to the results. As a bit of background I've been having a really hard time timing my car properly, and the mileage has dropped to almost half what it once was. I'd also get intermittent studdering under WOT. Every time I tried to time it, it would never seem to help anything, and it was really grating on my nerves.
So on to the TDC finding. What I found was this: According to the proceedure, My TDC Was way off from the marks. Here's a pic:
In the Pic, the red mark represents what I found to be TDC using this proceedure. You can see the leading and trailing marks (cut grooves) in the pulley to the left. They are FAR from the 5 degrees and 20 degrees ATCD that is stock. After using the "new" TDC as reference and restabbing the CAS, the car runs WAY better. I have to drive a few tanks to see how the mileage goes, but all signs point to an improvement. I'll let you guys know.
The real question is how the hell did it get this way????
I'll probably redo the whole proceedure again at some point to be sure, but for now I am going to leave it and see how she runs!
You should have used a socket on the pulley bolt (like you mentioned). And also remove the lead plug from the rear rotor so the engine turns smoothly back and forth. With plugs removed from both rotors there should be no resistance/compression, when moving the pulley back and forth.
I'm not sure why you got oil shooting out the tubes except for turning the pulley too fast. I'm not sure how you turned it if not at the large pulley bolt. Maybe the alternator pulley? I agree it takes some effort and is messy to do this. I wan't satisfied that I'd found TDC until I could repeat the results five times in a row. I'm talking about finding it once, then turning the pulley a good ways counterclockwise and doing it again.
At one time I had a wrench on the alternator pulley to turn the engine back and forth. I found that at times the belt would slip and cause confusion. I'd be turning but the level would not be moving up or down. Not the place to turn the engine back and forth imho.
If it won't repeat each time, think about airbubbles in the lines being the problem. That caused me problems with the results til I figured out the air bubble was the problem.
When I'm moving the shaft back and forth, the fluid in the tube is only moving up/down maybe a quarter inch or so til I get it gradually move the pulley where the fluid is JUST moving down from its highest level.
By the way, I stepped the half inch tubing down to a smaller size at the top of the tube for better accuracy.
Looking at the TDC mark you found and looking at the factory marks makes me wonder too. You might consider getting a RACINGBEAT pulley/hub. Cost a bit, but that'd be pretty sound way of assuring TDC. Trouble with that is you end up with a undersized pulley (racing bs).
In fact I'd recommend a RACINGBEAT pulley if the next time you try this method, the results are flakey or inconsistent.
And as a side note, fluid will be leaking by the apex seals ever so slowly as your doing this. Do not be alarmed. That's why water isn't a very good fluid to use. Thicker the better. How thick? Got me. I used that premix stuff. Maybe 30wt oil would do better.
02-27-08, 08:52 PM
