Got my megasquirt installed after dealing with some harness related issues ( eg, I wired the pnp harness COMPLETELY backwards beause aparently "cut to ecu" isn't clear enough ), fired up first try. Awesome. I go to set the timing, and the mark is about 90 degrees counter clockwise off of where it should be , but the car holds an awesome idle and pulls about 18-20" of vac ( compared to the 20-22 on the stock ecu ) I set up my laptop, and started playing with the trigger angle, however no matter what I try, the closer it gets to the timing marks, the shittier it runs.

I read on another post that someone had their harmonic balancer slip and it caused the timing marks to be WAYY off. Does this sound like a plausable explaination to what I'm experiencing? Id hate to pull all of that **** apart only to realize that I'm retarded.

My megasquirt is a ms1v3 ( built as per brainiac's instructions ) running 029y4 and the mspnp msq ( with appropriate changes made to outputs to control fans and such )

 

You are checking timing by clamping the timing light over plug wire 1 or 4, right?

If it is anything like the pulley on the 1.8s there are the 4 holes for bolts and then a 5th for for alignment purposes so you can't put it on wrong. When that 5th one is at 12 oclock, your timing mark should be at 0. If it's not then the harmonic balancer pieces have slipped.

 

I used plug wire 1. I also checked on the other wires just to make sure I didn't have my spark outputs wired backwards. I'm about 99% sure that the harmonic balancer is toast though. I put the stock ECU back in and checked the timing, it is exactly where it was with the MS. Oh well, I was due for a timing belt job anyway. What better time right?

 

If the balancer still functions and you want to get the timing dialed in with MS, you could make it work for now. Find TDC and make a new mark on the wheel. You could do this a couple of ways - you could remove your plugs and put a shaft down Cyl 1 hole and crank manually checking the movement of the shaft resting on the piston. There are even tools that do essentially the same thing but they screw into the plug hole.

 

Below is an example of said tool.

INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS AMERICA IPA7886 Top Dead Center Indicator Extended Model 10.5' AUTO TOOLS ENGINE TOOLS HARDWARE

 

This was suggested to me by a friend of mine who builds lots of megasquirts for DSMs. Sounds like a solid plan, and I'm not getting the squeal of death or a rattle yet. Anyone have anything horribly negative to say about this idea?