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...Used the Pk32'r to dial in the cams and the DS cams were 6 holes retarded according to the tool. I hope I am saying that right.
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Indeed you are correct providing the zero mark was to the left of the needle as viewed from the front of the car.
For the benefit of those playing along at home those are crankshaft degrees and one tooth of the cam sprocket represents 15 crank degrees [48 teeth x 15 = 720 degrees- i.e. two revolutions].
Do feedback whether the correction makes a noticeable difference in terms of curing the original problem. A retarded cam should help top end at the expense of mid range even if it is on only one of the cams.
If the engine is having top end power issues not related to cam timing and you advance a cam I would think it may make top end feel a little bit worse. What this does suggest is that the base problem is not cam timing related as 6 degrees at best will only be subtle change not a dramatic one as seems to be needed here if you see what I mean and that if it is even noticeable at all.
If I was to hazard a guess I would suggest that one needs to have both cams changed by about 10 degrees to feel a noticeable change. I played around changing cam timing 3 degrees either way and could feel a very slight difference but then I was expecting to feel such.
Get a hammer man and find out how the bits on the car are actually performing. You are just guessing at this point with no actual way to find out what's going on. Proper tools make all the difference when working on these cars.
So initial diagnosis was down on power, instead of diagnosing and fixing that problem we tossed a bunch of random parts at it?
Drive-train shutter should have been addressed before doing anything else.
"I've read a bit and am wondering if the hall sender could be at play here."
Do you fully understand what this does & do you have the equipment to test it?
"We're going to check the cam timing this week as well as do compression testing."
That may have been a good place to start. Now you've added multiple variables on top of the known problems.
Sorry to sound like an ***, but for the DIY home mechanic these are common questions and things we like to work through.
You are getting paid to work on this car.
If you were not a known member and the owner of this car started the exact same thread with the exact same scenario / questions, the consensus would be to take the car somewhere else.
Unless I misunderstood and this is just a local friend you are helping out over a case of beer or something.
At the moment it seems the most likely scenario is 6 degrees of missing advance due to either knock sensor issue or Hall trigger issue. Eliminate those first and then move on to other possibilties I would politely suggest.
Plugs # 5 is not firing, make sure the ignition wires ohm out OK (compare with others).
and make sure the plug wires seat all the way down onto the plug (the rubber should be slightly lower than the top of the cam coves.
Had one not seated all the way down two weeks ago and the plug looked like that one (clean, no burn) car had a hesitation under load and shuttered, ran great under no load.
We started chasing cam timing and broke out the shark tuner to verify the sensors, it was the simplest thing that solved the issue
Ok, owner stopped by to borrow my compression tester. (Not driving the 91 GT) He reminded me the $12k included head gaskets. We are wondering if the shop properly aligned the cams. It was striking that advancing the cams worsened the situation.
Oh, and the owner dropped off a couple of beers he brewed!
05-09-2017, 11:19 AM
