OK, I bought my Civic(96 EX Coupe 5 speed) about a month ago and since I bought it, I noticed that something was a little off.
It felt sluggish until I got up on the RPMs, and since this is my first Honda Civic, I thought maybe that's the way they are.
I also noticed the MPGs to be crappy.
Well I changed the PCV(was clogged), air filter(was blackend with dirt), and the fuel filter and my MPGs got better......but still not up to par.

So, today I finally bought a timing light and checked the timing(and yes, I did it right by jumping the ECU) only to find out that it was set to TDC, the lone white mark on the crank pulley.
I then properly adjusted it to spec(middle red mark) and WOW!!!!!!, my Civic FEELS SO MUCH BETTER!!!!....it now has power throughout the RPM band, and I would imagine my MPGs will be alot better now as well.

My question is, do you guys think any serious damage was done by having the timing off before?.....Unfortunately, Im not sure how long it was that way.
The stupid thing is that the car was regularly maintained by the Honda dealership......you would think that they would know what mark to set the timing to [sm=WTFsgign.gif]

 

wow, that is realllllllllly far off timing. I don't even think i can turn my distributor that far to throw the timing off that much.

 

I had wondered that too...............I guess they have a realllllllly wide range. I believe that the dizzy was as far down as it could go before I adjusted it and the bottom bolt was actually loose!!!!

I turned it all the way up (counter-clockwise) to see the farthest it could go before I actually set it to spec and it can go as far as 2 or 3 degrees just past the most advanced notch on the crank.

Im guessing, nay hoping that it's no big deal since the car runs smooth and has no idle isues to speak of. Even before the timing adjustment, the car ran smooth as far as the idle is concerned....the lack of power however, was another story.

 

Anybody have any insight on this?

 

It's not going to cause any damage running late timing like it was, you'll just have lousy performance and gas mileage. Since you're having to turn the distributor almost to the end to get the spark timing right, the cam timing may be wrong by one tooth on the timing belt. You should replace the timing belt anyway unless you know it has been done recently.

 

That was my fear actually....but from what Ive searched, having the belt off by a tooth would cause a bad idle for the most part. The timing belt was done by Honda at 78K and now Im at 123K.

Isnt the fact that I was able to get a correct spark timing enough to make it all good, or am I still in need of a correction toothwise??

 

Advancing the valves too much would make it idle rough but your situation is that they could be retarded. It's pretty simple to take the upper plastic timing cover off and inspect the marks on the cam gear. For a real thorough check don't trust the marks on the crank pulley, take out the #1 spark plug and probe with a rod to set the piston at TDC.

 

I tried taking the cover off the other day, seems like I have to pull the lower cover off first or remove the valve cover.........

so when the #1 is at TDC, the crank pulley should have the white mark lined up with the notch on the timing cover? How does the cam pulley come into play at that moment?...Im guessing that when the crank is at TDC, the cam gear should be where the "up" mark is straight up?

 

You need to lift (not completely remove) the valve cover since the upper timing cover hooks under it. The cam pulley has two horizontal marks that will line up with the top edge of the head when properly timed. The "UP" must be up, if it is down, turn the crank exactly once around to the "other" TDC.

 

Edit/correction: I missed the fact that the timing belt had been replaced at 78 K miles. Was the tensioner also replaced at 78K miles? As mk has suggested, check whether the timing belt was installed (or slipped) a tooth off from TDC synchrony of the cam and crank.