Calling all Cam (S3) pros, Please read!!!

[Rob Cadle]

"Viola Armstrong" <yesous2@earthlink.net> wrote:

>Joe @ Rosen told me that I needed to inspect my exhaust cam. Well we
>set the motor @ TDC and everything lined up ok. intake mark @ 10 &
>exhaust mark @ 1, 20 dots on the links between the marks.

You mean the exhaust pin was at 12 o'clock, right?  Not at 1 o'clock.
Right?

That's how your cam timing was when I checked it at the convention.  I
thought for sure your cam timing was off, since your distributor was so far
advanced.

>The mechanic did mention to me that the timing should be set by the ECU not
>the distributor. News to me!

That is *NOT* true.  Base timing is set by the distributor. The ECU can add
or remove timing relative to that base amount, but the base timing is set at
the distributor.  The ECU has no way of knowing what base timing the
distributor is set for (in fact, you have to tell it what base timing the
distributor is set for).

>Anyway I'm headed over there tomorrow to try to set the distributor to the
>center and then set the timing by the ECU. Any ideas on what other things I
>should look for? Has this happened to anyone else?

I suspect one of three things: either your chain is way stretched (unlikely,
IMO), your crank pulley is off/messed up (it's not a UR pulley, is it?), or
your cam sprokets are messed up.

Rob