I was reading a thread yesterday about a kid who replaced a timing belt or something and said he put the timing at 0 and it had no power and then people told him to put it at like 13 or something and it worked fine then. Im confused about where this adjustment is being made. I've done headgaskets on two different 3.0s and when I put the timing belt back on I make sure the camshaft sprockets are lined up with arrows pointing straight up, and I make sure the tick mark on the vibration dampener pulley (is that what its called, the pulley on the crankshaft?) is lined up with the zero on the lower timing belt cover. Things seem to have worked fine on both engines.

So my question is what adjustment was being refered to in the thread I was reading? Something about advancing the timing? What is that?

 

this refers to the ignition timing (spark delivery) as opposed to the mechanical timing (rotating assembly). The ignition timing is adjusted by loosening the pinch bolt on the distributor and physically turning it. This adjusts where in the cranks rotation the spark is delivered to the combustion chamber.

 

Oh, so it changes when the spark hits relative to where the piston and valves are. So what is the stock ignition timing? Is it best to leave it at stock?

 

3VZE, 10 degrees. Not according to some, I've seen fellas on this site say as much as 16.

 

Is 10 degrees stock?

 

Says so in the Chiltons.

 

Also says on the sticker under the hood.