i have 90 honda accord that i recently had to replace 4 valves in. i replaced them, reassembled the engine and took it in to have the fine tuning done as far as valve adjustment. now im trying to fine tune the ignition timing and having a slight problem. when i use the timing light, ive got it to where the timing mark appears stationary, but it is not lined up within the pointers. im pretty sure that this doesnt mean that im 180 out, but maybe that i was a few teeth off when putting the timing belt on. thoughts, comments, suggestions? the whole reason i did not want to tackle this job myself was not the size of it, but the fact that i hate dealing with timing. so someone please give me some advice as to how to solve this prob

 

Why are you talking about being a couple teeth off with the belt, in the same question about using a timing light??

I hope you got the camshaft timing OK, when assembling the engine. That's the markings on the camshaft sprocket, with the crank at TDC. That has nothing to do with a timing light.

Now the spark timing is checked with a timing light & adjusted by twisting the distributor. Don't mess with teeth of the timing belt at all, at this point.

 

i understand the diff between camshaft timing and ignition timing. but, what i cannot figure out is why the timing mark on the fly wheel does not appear to be between the indicators when using the timing light. being a couple teeth off was just a guess as to what would have caused this. if thats such a bad guess, then what would cause the mark to appear stationary, but outside of the indicator? should i try moving the distributor 180 degrees and see if that remedies the problem?

 

Not 180 degrees, you'll probably have to move it just a little bit. How far off are the marks, anyway?

 

the mark looks to be about 1/4 to 1/2 inch off from where it should be. when i move it from there, the mark does not appear stationary and/or the light does not flash often enough to tell whats going on. this may even be my inexperience with using a timing light

 

The mark is going to jump around a bit, it's not going to be stationary.
If your timing belt was off a few teeth your engine wouldn't be running right now.
loosen the dizzy and rotate it a bit until your happy with the timing.

 

On your '90, do you have to jumper the service connector when you adjust spark timing? On my former '95 Integra you have to do that to tell the ecu NOT to make constant little adjustments to the timing.

 

you can be off a couple teeth and the engine will run almost fine, just a little weird at idle, trust me, I've done it. THe ecu will compensate for some of the timing.


I bet your cam is one tooth forward

 

yeah, you have to put a jumper wire in the service connector.

it seems like when i move the distributor, i can almost get it to where it needs to be, but not quite, thats why i was wondering if i should try to rotate it 180 and see if i can get the marks lined up on the other side.

im gonna kick myself for weeks if im a tooth off.

 

now every once in a while when i start the car after it has sat for awhile, i get a HUGE cloud of smoke(def burnt oil). im trying to figure out if this is all connected or what.