2000 Dakota timing/fuel syncinization

Do you remember that we discussed once before that there are two times in the engines cycle that the piston will be at the top of the cylinder? Only one of these is correct for your timing purposes.

Do you have the heads back on? If you do, have someone put a socket on the crankshaft nut and turn the engine by hand while you have your finger on the #1 spark plug hole. When the pressure builds up enough to blow your finger off the hole, you are very close to the correct position.. Adjust it to TDC and go about your business with the distributor.

My thinking was that if TDC was on the wrong stroke, it would be 180 degrees off from the rotor pointing to the number 1 cylinder. When I brought it up to TDC with the dial indicator, the tip of the rotor was less that a half inch from the "number one cylinder" mark on the distributor.

I have the heads on but not bolted down or anything...... Should I lift them back off or go ahead and tightne them down and check for compression through the spark plug hole? By the way, I have to work alone.

Yes continue to put the heads on. If I understand correctly you are working on a push rod engine and you have not disturbed the relationship of crank to camshaft timing. After you get the heads and valve assembly all back together it will be easy to tell if the distributor is oriented correctly by observing the valves. When the engine is at TDC of the compression/power stroke the valves will be closed on that cylinder. When the engine is rotated so that the distributor is 180 degrees from that position both intake and exhaust valves will be open. The valves won't be wide open, but there is an overlap of the exhaust and intake valve motion that occurs at the top of the piston stroke.

-jim

I took off the distributor hold down bolt, and the distributor was turned maybe an inch or more. The distributor was never taken out.

Does this mean fuel sync is ok?

I think the engine gets its timing signal from a crank sensor and the main issue for the distributor timing is so that the rotor is pointing at the correct spot on the cap.

A quick search for timing and this engine found this description for setting the timing. Basically it describes rotating the engine till aligned to TDC then turning the distributor slowly until you hear the click of the ignition. Then tighten the dist.

-jim

******************************************** Take the distributor cap loose enough to see the rotor position and bump the engine around until it's about 90 degrees from cylinder #1.

Go to the crankshaft dampener and find a mark that says V6. There will be one that says V8 and it looks very similar, so don't be fooled. This is the mark that we need to align with the TDC mark on the timing cover.

You need to keep the valvetrain components loaded in their normal direction of travel, so if you go past the mark, you'll need to back it up about 20 degrees and take another shot at it. It's important to have all the timing chain and gear slack on the trailing side of their drives.

With the V6 mark lined up, rotate the loose distributor clockwise as far as the hold-down will allow. Then remove the coil wire and turn the key on.

Rotate the distributor counter-clockwise slowly until you hear the ASD relay click in the power distribution center by the left hood hinge area. The click will be in response to voltage state change in the cam sensor within the distributor. You can backprobe the tan/ yellow wire that comes out of the distributor and use a voltmeter to watch for the state change, but this seems to work just as well.. and you don't have to break out the voltmeter.

As soon as it clicks, stop. Lock it down.

***************************************************

Only thing is I have the electrical disconnected. and heads off.

You don't need to worry about this before you put the heads on. At this point the only thing I would do is check is whether the crankshaft dampener mark agrees with piston TDC. Then when the heads and valves are assembled check to see if valve timing is right. And later when you do have the battery hooked up you can check timing.

-jim

Should be. The spark timing is controlled by a crank sensor, the sensor in the distributor only tells the PCM which cylinder of the two possible ones is about to fire- its not particularly precise and doesn't need to be. Which is why, unlike an older engine where the distributor sets the spark timing, you can get away with just pointing the rotor in the general direction of a mark on the plate.

As others have said, you *could* be 180 degrees out, but that would require that you turned the distributor housing 1/2 turn, and it doesn't sound like you did.

My thinking was that if TDC was on the wrong stroke, it would be 180 degrees off from the rotor pointing to the number 1 cylinder. When I brought it up to TDC with the dial indicator, the tip of the rotor was less that a half inch from the "number one cylinder" mark on the distributor.

I have the heads on but not bolted down or anything...... Should I lift them back off or go ahead and tightne them down and check for compression through the spark plug hole? By the way, I have to work alone.

************ Usually, if you havent moved the distributor (by disengaging it from the drive gear inside the block) you will be okay.

But you wont believe how many times I have seen people screw this up. (I have done it myself, thinking that I hadnt disturbed the distributor.) You see, on a lot of engines you have to take the distributor out to get the upper engine apart.

Put the heads back on and check for compressive top dead center the way I told you to do it. Then see if the pointer in the distributor points to "1". If it does, then keep at your reassembly.

If not, sit down and reason it out, or get back on here and let's go over it again.

If you didn't actually pull the distributor out and only turned it then you don't have a problem.

Get the entire thing back together. This is something that has to be adjusted with a complete engine.

the fuel sync has to be adjusted with a complete engine???

Last night I had a few minutes and rotated the balancer to TDC. (best I could tell, it is hard to see!) The rotor the best I could tell hard to see) was pointing at the number one cylinder mark on the distributor base plate. It may have been 5 mm past the mark.

is it safe to assume this thing will start and run ok? If it needs adjustment after reassembly, what do I need to do???

YES.

As long as it is close it should start and run. Once you have it RUNNING you connect a scan tool and adjust it to spec.

Just get the engine together then get all the wiring hooked back up and see what you have. Not much you can do without the engine running.

I just hate to spend the extra 100 bucks to have it scanned since I am going to get rid of it.

Now, unless I can buy the tool to check it for around the same price or some more.

Does anyone know the cheapest scan tool that willr ead fuel sync?