Well, before having my car in at R-Speed to have a Link ECU put in,
I wanted to have a final look at the effect of timing advance using
the J&S on max power. So, *of course,* the Tallahassee Dyno went out
of business. (no surprise to me – who would start up something
like that in Tallahassee anyway?) Having learned somewhere that there
was a dyno in Marietta (same place as R-Speed), the solution was clear.
I would dyno the car, while I was in Marietta anyway, before bringing it
in. Some searching on Yahoo located the Dyno. A call brought the result
that the owner would show up at the shop at an early 9, giving me just a
bit of time to dyno the car before driving it down to R-Speed at 9:30.
With this tight a schedule, of course it was obvious that I needed to
check all beforehand, so I headed out to my car with my timing light
in my hand. I could not remember exactly how I did the timing advance
5 years ago, but I did have some vague memories.
Problem 1: Triangulated strut brace solidly in the way of access of bolt that
needs to be loosened to set timing.
Solution 1: After much trying to avoid the inevitable, strut brace had to go.
(Not very fond of this idea, since I already had dressed, showered, applied
deodorant, lots of sunscreen, etcetera, for the trip.) Removed strut brace,
trying not to sweat to much in the Florida sun. Strut brace does not want to
come off. Finally loosened power steering unit to get brace off. Try avoid
sweating too much.
Look up torque values for shock tower nuts. Value is off the scale for normal
ratcheting torque wrench, but almost zero for other, 3 foot ratcheting torque
wrench. Threads seem to have suffered a bit from exploits with various strut
braces in the past. Even with a ratcheting 3 foot torque wrench, screwing
a nut down an inch or so is a chore. Try working slowly to cut down on sweat
while giving 3 ft torque wrench 30 full turns in 30 degree increments. Forget
that one replacement nut needs to be tightened with a 13 mm socket instead
of a 14 mm. Round replacement nut some more.
Problem 2: Moving stuff out of the way, I can locate the long bolt that allows
the timing to be changed. But I cannot find the type-out I used six years ago
to indicate the factory setting. In fact, I cannot even find the boundary
between the rotating (when changing timing setting) and the fixed parts to put
new type-out on. It is unclear which parts moves when you change the timing and
which part stays fixed.
Solution 2: Problem is ignored since I have achieved access to the long bolt
and can change the timing from whatever it was anyway. Also, I burned my finger
trying to swipe grease off the Cam angle sensor trying to find the old type-out,
so I was not that interested in trying again to find the old marks. Cold water
avoids serious burn.
Problem 3: After hooking up my Sears timing light, and connecting TEN to
SGND with a piece of wire (a very hard and frustrating task, but I will skip
details) and trying to get some decent idle rpm set using various short screw
drivers, and finally accepting whatever it wants to give me as being close
enough to 850 rpm, (certainly some of the time,) I restart the car for the
tenth or so time (thank God I just put in a new battery, thinking the OEM was
bad, though the problem was in the Priority Start after all,) and hooked up my
timing light. No marks to be seen! This was because I had not hooked up the
positive terminal, so the unit was not giving any light. But after hooking
up the positive terminal, and spending at least half an hour looking from all
sorts of angles at the crank pulley, while trying to keep hair, clothes, timing
light, attached cables, etcetera from getting caught up in the moving engine
parts, I could neither locate the timing marks, nor even identify the scale!
Solution 3: Recognizing dirt was obscuring things, I went and searched my house
top to bottom for the Simple Green I had bought at the supermarket a couple
of weeks ago. After finding it, spraying it on and then putting the water hose
on it to flush it off cleaned the timing scale, it allowed me to distinguish
such signs as "T" for TDC, and "10" for 10 degree timing advance. I also
cleaned the area near the Cam angle sensor and located the boundary between
moving and nonmoving, and even found some of the old type-out. The
flush-water actually sizzled on the metal: no wonder I burned my finger. I
put on new type-out so that I could see what the timing had become after me
messing around with it at random. Since the engine still started at the point
I had ended up, this was an important reference in getting a working system.
I had to be at R-Speed the next day, so a car that would not start because
of a timing set somewhere at random between 30 and 330 degrees would have
been a significant problem.
Problem 4: After cleaning the scale, I could still not see the timing marks
with my timing light! Even after recognizing that the power was not connected
to the light, and powering it up, still: no marks!
Solution 4: Being smart, I recognized that dirt was obscuring the timing marks.
I took off the cross pipe, and turned the engine around with the SC to display
the marks on the pulley. There they were! Simple Green and water, to make them
clear. Pipe back on.
Problem 5: Still no visible timing marks! Looking extremely closely, I believed
I could almost see them, but *very* unclear.
Solution 5: Pipe off again, locate marks on pulley by turning engine through SC
(blasted belt is starting to slip, so this gets hard,) apply more simple green,
clear marks with screw driver, go to toolbox to get dried-out old type-out,
paint area between two timing marks as well as possible with dried-out type out,
still no reading of marks at any angle, figure out that type-out does not show
up under UV light produced by timing light, go find touch-up paint (fortunately
white for Bozo) to avoid UV hiding, reinstall pipe for 15th time, try again
with light, discover for 15th time that power is not connected, discover for
15th time that there are no timing marks even with power.
Problem 6: Time is now really running out. I have to leave for Marietta. But
I have a car that while it runs, I have *absolutely no clue* what the timing is
set at. It might be set at 30 BTDC, or more, AFAIK. Driving this beast seems
somewhat of a problem if one does not want one’s pistons to melt down
near, say, Moultry, GA. Need for shower and reapplication of sunscreen was at
this stage also deemed unavoidable. But why do this if additional work on
engine was clearly indicated.
[to be continued later.]
Leon
–
Leon van Dommelen 
Bozo, the White 96 Sebring Miata .)
REMOVE THE "z"s -> dommel…@zmiata.net www.dommelen.net
EXIT THE INTERSTATES (Jamie Jensen)
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