Im having trouble making sure the timing is set properly on my new to me 89 turbo. I turned the engine over to what should have been my yellow mark (the color was long gone on both of them) pulled the CAS set the gear dimple to the point and stabbed her back in as best i could tell it didnt rotate and appeared as the pictures I found searching said it should.

Car starts and runs but whenever I check the timing with my light it appears to be advanced much past the yellow mark which is up under the water pump pulley it seems. I have the single green pin near the battery grounded and the ground appears to be working (ecu flashes codes and such) and the idle is under 1000.

the previous owner and or his mechanic had painted a spot on the pulley near where it ends up showing it is so Im guessing Im not the first to have this issue on the car.

If I do turn the CAS enough to get it back to the normal mark the car will idle down some and stay idling but it runs horrible under any other circumstances. It also requires turning the CAS nearly its entire adjustment to get there.

I only checked the timing because Ive found multiple other things done incorrectly on the vehicle so I figured I had better check and maybe it was the cause of my occasional misses at idle.

If anyone has any insight into the problem Id appreciate it.

 

Bump

Still no luck figuring out why my car seems to be advancing the timing at idle speeds well under 1100 and the Green pin grounded, The pin grounding seems to be doing its job as the engine codes flash, unless maybe Im grounding the wrong diag pin?