So from what I can gather, my timing seems to be off. Long story short, the mechanic that did the recent work will no longer be working on my ride and I'm looking for a new mechanic. How difficult is it to adjust timing if I were to give this a whirl on my own? About how much could I expect to pay to have them do it at a shop?

How would timing get hosed, anyways? I had been running decently (although with some rather louder-than-usual valve noise) and then it started running like crap after about 500 miles after the latest work. Any ideas?

Ed

 

Which motor?

If the guy doesn't know Toyotas, (and his ego was too big to look it up) he probably didn't short the computer terminals to get the computer to base timing.

You can EASILY do the timing yourself with only a few tools and your ear! A search will bring up all you ever wanted to know about timing...

 

Should be lots of articles on this here, but it's pretty easy. I would make sure the TPS sensor is correctly adjusted before you take care of the timing though, because a badly adjusted TPS can throw it off (it still does on mine). There's plenty of TPS adjustment threads here as well, also check 4crawler's website.

For a timing adjustment, warm up the car, drive it around for a little while, short two connectors on the little engine diagnostics box that's sitting right next to your fuses. Adjust the idle to somewhere around 800rpm. Hook up a timing light, point it towards the timing marks on the crank pulley and see what your timing is. It should be about 10 degrees BDTC. If it's off, loosen your distributor, and turn it clockwise to increase the timing advance and counter clockwise to reduce it. When you,re happy, tighten down the distributor and go.

 

Yeah, I didn't search yet -- I'll see what comes up. The mechanic definitely knows his Toyotas (has a 2nd gen 4Runner, himself). He has been a good friend for a couple of years (we go wheeling on occasion), but I've been less than happy with his work recently and there are some financial dynamics involved, too. At this point I'd rather do it myself or pay full price to a guy I can count on to get it done. The friendship "discount" I've been getting just isn't worth it for the hassles I've had to endure.

Ed