God I wish I would have payed attention when my grandpa, uncle, or dad was working on the cars instead of screwing off and getting into trouble. I feel like an idiot because if I haven't done something on a car before I have no clue, and on timing and stuff I have no clue....here goes.

 

CEL on so I run codes, one was an EGR and the other two were both "crank angle sensor" codes. I asked a member on here if it would be worth trying to swap the distributor from an 87 gl I have for a parts car in front of my house (which I need to get rid of, anybody want it??), he said definately.

 

I swapped the distributors. First thing I noticed was the cap on my 87 was held on by clips, the 92 was held onto the disty by two screws. Why the difference?? So I go to swap them, and then realize that the wires that run from the disty use two different harnesses. One was square to square, the other round to round.....they both have the same amount of wires (4) so I just switched the plugs from the 92 to the 87 so it will plug in. I'm pretty sure I have it on the right tooth........

 

So then I go to check timing, first thing I do is look at my chiltons for timing. It says on the fuel injected models to plug the green test connectors together and something else, I'm sorry, can't remeber what it said the second step was. I didn't understand what it meant anyway, so I plugged the two greens together and pulled the little rubber groment off the top of the flywheel housing......

 

Did I check the timing before I pulled the first disty...course not. DOn't ask me why, I can't beleive I didn't. Anyway, I am using my dads timing light....inductive I beleive it's called, it has a connection for both + and - battery post and the one that clips onto #1 wire.

 

I aim the light at the hole and I don't see what I expect. I don't know what I expected seeing how I have never timed a car before, but I always hear people talking about degrees in timing. I pictured there being degree marks that would show up. What I saw was just a mark that would show on the flywheel as it flashed and a steel nipple that looked like to me the mark should align with.

 

I turn my cap to make the mark align with the nipple.....it idles o-kay, a little rough but not bad at all. When I drive it though I don't have much power and as the temperature starts to climb it begins detonating.

 

Do I have the timing all ************ed up?? I feel realy stupid but I hope some one can help me out.......

 

Thanks in advance.

Well first off, don't feel bad. You are now trying to learn and my hat is off to you for trying. I learned about the basics while I was pretty young but I was interested in mechanics and didn't have the money to pay for repairs.

 

It sounds like you may have the timing too far retarded which means the spark is going off too late as the piston gets to TDC (top dead center). This will cause the symtoms you describe. I would try to get the timing back to where it was before you started the move.

 

Plugging the green connectors together changes the firing control in the ECU. I would have to do some research to explain it better. The timing will show about 20 degrees before TDC without the green connectors tied together. After you move the disty back to where it was, see how the car drives then and report back.

 

Keep up the good effort.