Hey, I worked on my timing yesterday. I keep reading that I want mine set to 0 degrees, or 12 if I don't plug the vacuum lines. If I set mine to zero with them plugged, they're only at 5 or so unplugged. What's up with that? Also, under my hood, it says to set it to 5?
I'll take pictures and post them today, but my numbers are a little screwed up, I think. I can see the lines for what must be 8 and 12, but 5 and 0 have no lines that I can see. So on the divers side there's 0, then 8 & 5 really close together, then all the way at the passenger side there are two marks. The 0, 5 and 8 don't have marks but way over to the passenger side there are two. Why is it set up that way? Hard to tell if I'm where I should be if there are just numbers but no obvious marks.

So if I'm at around 5,000 feet, what should I be setting it to? Under the hood is says that the specs are for all altitudes. But it also says 700 for an idle speed...it seems to almost stall at that speed.

Am I way off if I'm just looking at my tach for idle speed instead of hooking up a seperate one like the manual talks about?

Anyway, any advice would be great. This is for the 22R engine.

 

5* to 8* BTDC is what it should be set at .. 7-800 Idle speed ..

I always tune it by ear . and check it with my light after a short drive . sometimes it's not exactly what the book says .. but it runs awesome , and idles nicley .

 

Ok, thanks. Looking in the FSM, it looks like there should be little tic marks at the 0, 5 and 8, then the two lines at the other end, but mines a bit chewed up so you can't see those little tic marks. Ok, maybe I'll bump it up to 5ish and re-adjust my idle speed and see what that does. It's running nice right now at 0, but the idle drops down pretty low sometimes when I first come to a stop. I've had a bit of an issue lately with a rough idle, not sure what's up with that but I know I've problably got some plugged-up stuff in my vacuum/emissions system. Probably the cause of my 15mph highway mileage too..

You're talking 5-8 with the distributer hoses plugged, right?

 

i have an early 22r too and it doesnt have the little slots cut in below the numbers i just set it a little heavy of 5.
when you say distributor hoses do you mean the two vacuum advance lines that run in front of the valve cover?
edit: oh and i always idle as low as i can but usually around 900 or 1k is what runs good

 

Yup, the vacuum advance lines that hook up to the thingy on the distributer.
I'll check out what 5 or so does for me, thanks.

 

Set it to just above 5, that way it's right around 12 when unplugged. Still got the loping idle and it almost wants to die when I first stop at a light or sign when it's cold, but otherwise...I haven't noticed much difference yet but I only drove a few blocks to work.

Someday I'll figure out why I'm only getting 15mpg highway...I guess I need to make sure my brakes aren't dragging, and no emissions stuff is plugged up. I cleaned out my egr valve and vacuum modulator thing over the weekend and that didn't seemt to do anything, but I didn't pull the metal hose that comes off the exhaust to see if it needs to be cleaned yet. I guess it could be totally blocked off with carbon.