So I picked up a heap for cheap, I got an 85 runner which is smogged and tagged and good to go, but its a bit rough on the outside and runs like crap.
The story is, the truck ran pretty well, but was still slightly gutless. The PO took it to a smog place and it failed, I believe the co was too high and so was the idle (it was at 7o). They cleaned out the EGR, changed the oil and spark plugs and set the timing back and it passed with flying colors, however it was missing and running like crap, almost had to dump the clutch to get it going in first. The PO stated that the motor went through a quart every 2-3 weeks, so it wasn't burning oil horribly.
So I got the FSM and started going through the checklist for stumbling problems. I first checked the spark plugs, cap and rotor, replaced all the wires, checked all the vacuum hoses and put pressure to the EGR and it almost died (thought it could've been stuck open). Doing this got the motor running slightly better, but not much.
I then started looking at timing and I'm a total timing newb. I couldn't find the timing mark on the crank shaft (covered in sludge) and I can't find anything with degrees on the distributer so I really don't know what it was at. I shorted the check engine plug and I started slowly advancing the timing. It started running better and better. So then I realized that it was totally maxed out and it wasn't pinging at all.
Now it runs a lot better, getting up hills is all 4th gear floored, but on flat highway I can get it up to 65.
My question is, does this sound like the timing's off a tooth, and what the smog person thought was 5o tdc was lower?
Also does anyone have pics of the timing degrees?
