Thread: Timing mark indicator is gone. What now?

Ever since I owned the car (Jan. 2006), the needle that sticks out above the crank pulley to help time the car is gone. It can be seen here.

Timing has always been at 17*. I now want to retard the timing to 15* for JWT S4 cams in the near future. But this can't be done without this needle. This is what I have. Block is not this dirty anymore.



So can I somehow stick a nail or something in place and use that as the guide? Or am I SOL and have to get it static timed?

why not just leave the timing at 17* when i had my s3's all motor they liked it at 17* anything above or below just wasnt the same, give it a shot.

I read the cams don't like advanced timing. However, if they can produce good numbers with timing at 17* using 91 octane, I'll keep it.

Standing by for more answers/opinons.

A few thoughts:

If the hole is still there, maybe a drill bit of the proper size could be pressed in. Careful, though, you do not want loose pieces of metal around your drive belts when the engine is running. Maybe you can even buy the part or source it from a bad engine.

If not, when you install the cams mark your distributor and mounting bracket so you know what you have now and can put it back, then rotate the distributor so that it is centered in the bracket (meaning the gap on either side is equal). This is usually 15*. Then go to a dyno and optimize your timing by moving the distributor one way or the other the in increments the thickness of a quarter.

I think you can guesstimate something here

Here is the indicator on my B14



Actual Timing marks at ~19*
(As you see the engine mount bolt is kinda in the location of the indicator, you can probably base your estimate on it)



I say if you take your timing light to it you can estimate an approx location for 15*

Good luck mate and make sure to mark your distributor with the 17* before changing anything, to be able to go back if the guesstimation doesn't work

That dizzy looks way more rocked than 19 from an eyeball point of view. Do you have your exhaust cam retarded at all?

_SHig

Not that I know off, I will have to take a look at the timing to make sure though. I know my timing was at 11* and it was almost in the 17* area on the distributor.

I think this could have been because of my fault Knock Sensor... Like I said I will have to look and double check, I might be at more then 19*

yeah Covert, that looks like a full advance to me.....like 23*... :O!

I actually have this same problem. I will put the bolt back to center and go from there. It doesn't look tike there is a hole to screw an indicator into, almost like it is part of the block and in both of our cases just sheared off, rofl

Any recommendations on how to reset timing to 15" would be great.

Thanks for the input. CovertRussian, that's a very interesting idea. I'm going to see how that would work. Depending on how much room I have to work with, I'll probably stick something in that hole and use it as a guide. If not, the dyno tuning method is the best idea.

So running S4's on 17* is a bad idea, correct?

With no cam timing changes (exhaust cam at least), straight up is generally 15* or so.

Just my experience...

_SHig