I took my distributor cap off because I had been suspecting it to be the cause of some of my power loss. To my surprise when I took it off it was coated thickly with oil and there was a small puddle in the cap itself. The screw that holds my rotor in was also just floating around in that oil. I figure the oil leak is just from a worn gasket, no problem I'll just replace it. So I put a new cap and rotor on, and the lack of power is now slightly worse than it was with the loose screw and oil. WTF!?? I had set my timing to factory specs a little while ago, does anyone think that its possible the screw that was floating around could have messed with my timing readings? How sad I am

 

This is Squee: I remember last time I did my ignition timing it was at 15 where it should be. I just got done checking it again and it was at 10. My distributor is fully advanced and will not go any further. Could this have something to do with my timing belt? I am completely confused. HELP!

 

I am a friend of squee and I took a look at his car. It is as he says, the distributor is fully advanced and it still puts out a reading of 10 on the gun. (for those of you that don't know, the factory settings are 15, -/+2). I thought maybe I was doing something wrong, so I tried to set the timing by ear, but when I retarted it, it would only get worse, like it should. So with the distributor fully advanced its close too but not correctly timed. Could the distributor itself be the problem? Thats what I think, but I want to know for sure before we go out and spend 250+ on a new dist.
Any help would be appreciated, we've had nothing but problems with this car since day one, and I can't figure out whats wrong with it and its driving me crazy.

 

any ideas? anyone?

 

check the knock sensor?
and when you put the screw into the rotor, move the rotor forward as far as it will go when tightening it

 

What do you mean check the knock sensor?

 

Has the distributor ever been removed and not reinstalled properly?

 

As far as I understand, there is really only one way to install my distributor. I dont think that it can be installed in a way that would prevent ignition timing from advancing any further than 10 deg's. Am I wrong?

 

I think he means that if the knock sensor is messed up or if its detecting a knock, then the ecu is retarding the ignition timing to counter it. That is, if the ecu can do that, don't know much about the h22.

 

If it were detecting knock, it throw a code.