Hi all,

I recently got a 95 Civic 1.6 ESi. I noticed some pinking during acceleration so I checked and adjusted the timing which was way out. The pinking is now pretty much gone.

Couple of questions I hope someone could help with:

1. My timing light has an "advance dial" on it, which I set to 0 degrees - is this right? I figured the red mark on the crank is already set to the required 16 degrees, so no need to advance it.

2. To get the red mark as close as I could to the notch on the belt cover (it's still a few mils out) I had to turn the distributor clockwise as far as it would go. Is this normal? I would have thought it'd be possible to retard beyond the stock setting if need be, but it just won't go any further round. Could this mean the distributor or some other component is out of whack?

Thanks,

Rob

 

Your dizzy should definitely be more towards the middle when timed correctly, giving you the ability to both advance, and retard timing. Is the motor completely stock?

 

Yep, it's stock.

It's strange. Since my post I've replaced the water pump and timing belt, making sure to get everything perfectly inline. I've adjusted the timing again and now the dizzy is back towards the middle! Maybe the dodgy old pump was slackening the timing belt and knocking things out.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

 

Glad you got it worked out!