Distributors and Distributor Caps

It uses the Opti-Spark distributor which is flat, its located between the water pump and engine block.

The 3.1 does not have a distributor.

The 3.1 does not have a distributor.

On a Ford V8 engine , # 1 on the distributor cap faces to the REAR and slightly towards the drivers side

That depends greatly on what year, make, model, engine. Please ask a new question with more info to get a better answer.

Depending on the year, Fords are known for factopry pick up coil defects.

1,3,2,4 it should be marked with a "1" or a little notch or an arrow or something. yeah what he said! might i add buying a $15 haynes or chilton manual. they can save you many hours/emails plus give you all sorts of info such as torque specs, fluid requirements/capacities; not to mention troubleshooting chapters and diagrams.

Moisture in the system. it may just be condensation or it may be more serious, as in a blown head gasket. If you are not loosing coolant, then you may not have a serious problem. If, however you are loosing coolant, you may have a blown head gasket. Either way, have it looked at by a professional. Serious engine damage can occur if it is coolant in the combustion chamber.

cold start on this car is set by setting the throttel position switch to 0.0degrees/% the target idle speed is 850rpm when warm and fast idle is 1150rpm. and the car must be connected to a computer to set the ecu to static run so the adjustments can be made. how ever high cold start idle on these cars is normal as i have the same car and have plugged it to my lap top usining Hyundai's diaog software (HI-SCAN PRO) and have set every thing to Hyundai spec with no change.

rob ....check the water temp sending switch on the front top of engine ....has 2 small wire connector and if you pull it off the fans should kick in....and if that works then I would assume its a fault in that sensor switch which is in a normally closed position n/c (I think) because when you pull off the wire harness you are opening the circuit which triggers the fan relay in the fuse box under ther hood?? WOW.......does that make any sense?? Oh ...and while your in the fuse and relay box you can check the fan relays by switching them with the wiper relay that is the same relay>>>>>

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Hi,

You will also have to consider if the cooling system is FULL of coolant, and WHEN the engine is overheating. If the engine stays cool, and the temperature gauge stays around the "12 o'clock" position on the gauge, you should be fine. Even another major mark to the right is OK too.

But you might want to take a look at the link I have included, which describes the engine cooling system, and how the fans are supposed to operate.

Good Luck, Greg

Chevrolet Firing Order 18436572

I just did it - a little tougher for a non-mechanic like myself than the answers I found posted would indicate.

First - take off airbox. There are three screws connecting it to the body of the car. You can take off the screws connecting it to the bracket too, but you don't have too. You should remove the bracket from the car, though. Unplug that electrical connector by pushing down on the green tab and pulling it off.

Move the whole mess out of the way. You'll have to unplug the three hoses toward the front of the engine from the assembly, and two of those hoses have those damn metal clamps on them (use a pliers). Loosen the clamp on the exhaust hose going to the engine, but on the airbox side of it. Move the airbox out of the way - you can sort of wedge it under the edge of the hood.

Now - remove the nut holding the wire that's nearest to the firewall (the other nut has a connection to the other part of the starter, and doesn't need to be removed.) Pull that whole wire assembly out of the way. It's connected to a bracket, and to remove it you need to stick a tiny flat blade screwdriver into the top. Shine a flashlight in there - you'll see a little black tab flush against the metal piece. Pull that tab away from the metal with the screwdriver and the whole assembly pulls up.

See those wires blocking your way from getting at that top nut? Another one of those black tab things! This one is tough to loosen up, I ended up breaking the round plastic piece. Oh well. Move those wires out of the wire.

Now, here's a little trick - you still have that bracket in the way. After you remove the bolts on the starter, it will stop you from taking it out. Mechanic trick: take a thick screwdriver and bend the whole bracket up and out of the way. Crude, but it worked great.

Remove the top bolt - 14 mm. Now the tough one - the bottom bolt (it's actually visible, it's on the right side at about 4:00). You need a 17mm socket ON A SWIVEL. If you haven't used this before, here's how:

It's a "universal joint". It swivels. Attach the 17mm socket to it, and an extension to the other end. Put it on the bolt and it will be sticking straight out. Pull it up so it's tilting up, about 2:00. Put your ratchet on the extension and USE A BREAKER BAR (or, in my case, a piece of pipe). It will come loose pretty easily. Here's the alternative: don't do any of that, fight with the damn thing for an hour trying to get it loose, skin your knuckles, bleed a bit, curse a lot, and think about burning the car.

The first way is easier.

Okay, almost there. Pull it out, but wait - there's still a soldered on wire. The other end is on a slide on bracket. You can try sliding it off - I tried. Then I snapped it off (hey, there's limits.) Now it just disconnects by pulling apart, or use a screwdriver to help separate it.

Installation, as they say, is the reverse of removal. Except for one thing: remember that exhaust hose going to the engine? You may have trouble getting it back on (I did). Another mechanic trick: spray it with WD-40 or Liquid Wrench. After messing around for 20 minutes, I sprayed it and got it back on in a couple of minutes.

Good luck!

I am not sure of the type of car. I had the same problem with a Chev Beretta. It would not bring up a computer code so I tried different things without success. I changed the computer and it fixed the problem and is doing fine. That worked for me. Anyway good luck

Your timing is off--WAY too retarded. How to fix: You already did the tuneup thing. You got the points set to 0.016" and the plugs--always Bosch Supers please--to 0.028" (they come out of the factory set to that, but check them before screwing them in) so now dig out your dwell/tach and your timing light, and a 10mm socket on a long extension. Find the timing mark--a notch filed into the rim of the crankshaft pulley--and paint it white so it's easy to see. White-Out works. Warm your car up, and then... set the idle to about 1000rpm and turn the engine off. hook up the timing light...red clip to a source of power, black clip to a known ground, spark sensor clip around #1 spark plug wire. start the engine loosen the distributor clamp, but BE CAREFUL!!! The fan belt is right there! pull the trigger on the timing light and point it at the crankshaft pulley. slowly rotate the distributor until the timing mark on the pulley aligns with the seam in the engine case. If it goes the wrong way, turn the distributor the other way until it lines up. Then tighten the distributor clamp, turn off the engine, unhook and stow everything, and you're done. The actual timing is 5 degrees before top dead center, but VW was nice and offset the mark for you so you wouldn't have to estimate anything. If you've got a pulley with a degree wheel on it, the engine turns clockwise so the 5 degree mark you want is the one to the right of zero. Plug wires hooked up incorrectly.

The Beetle exhaust system is prone to leaks.....any air entering the exhaust will cause back-fire pop on the over run...ie: coming off the throttle at highway speeds.

About the timing...do NOT use a 009 Bosch distributor. Use the factory distributor with vacuum advance that takes the Bosch 044 points set. If you have dual carbs just leave vacuum unhooked on the distributor..

Set timing for 30 to 33 degrees BTDC at 4000 rpm with no vacuum hooked up if this is a stock motor. If it has had the compression ratio reduced or hemi cut heads, use 36 BTDC as timing.. On a stock pulley, the DENT in the edge rolled lip next to the block is TDC and the sharp edged notches are 7.5 and 5 btdc. Case center parting line is TDC reference. If you have dual carbs with no vacuum ports you can't use a vacuum-advance distributor. The spark has to advance as you accelerate, and if you unhook the only advance mechanism your distributor has, your car will run horribly. If you've got a single carb, you can use the "single vacuum dual advance" distributor aircooled.net sells; this is a Bosch 009 with an added vacuum advance can, and it works well. If you have a carb that doesn't have a vacuum port, you need something that's centrifugal-only. Either a 009, a Mallory or an MSD.

the firing order is 4.3 is 1-6-5-4-3-2

driver side, front to rear 1-3-5-

passenger: front to rear 2-4-6

my original response to your question is below.. but it may be a spark plug, which would cost a lot less than the coil/cap combo. but its a good idea to replace coil/cap/wires every 100k miles.

Your Coil/Distributor Cap is going bad, replace it now before it dies and your car wont start. generally if you're at 100k miles they should be replaced, but mine lasted till 130k (it would misfire on acceleration and then it just stopped running). The Cap/Coil is located under the intake valve on the intake manifold, it is rather hard to get to without removing the intake manifold or the brake fluid resivoir. This is also a 250-300 dollar part(i know... owwie), but if it runs good otherwise its a good investment.

if your car doesnt have 100k miles on it this probably isn't your problem unless you've somehow shorted your ignition system out.

to tighten a intake manifold start with a center bolt and tigten in a circular pattern towards the ends. tighten bolts in even incraments until tight.

Take the cap off the distributor and crank the engine until you see the timing marks line up. When they do, the number one cylinder is at TDC. Now simply look to see which post the rotor on the distributor would be pointing to (remember the cap is off). If you can't find the timing marks, stick a screw driver in the number one cylinder spark plug hole and crank until the piston moves the screw driver out as far as it will go.

Firing order would be 1, 8, 4, 3, 6, 5, 7, 2. Driver side bank of cylinders from front to rear would be 1, 3, 5, 7. Passenger side bank of cylinders from front to rear would be 2, 4, 6, 8.

The valve timing on the Nissan LD28 is the same as the L28 except on the end plate that holds the camshaft there are two dashes stamped in the longer of the two is were you should line up the the window marked 1 .You must insure that #1 piston is at T D C .An easy way to find T D C is to remove the rubber plug on the back plate over the starter and turn the crank until you see the dash on the flex plate line up with the notch in the circle the rubber plug was pulled from .

it is the same as a non fuel injected.

If it is a 1999 Suburban with a 350 there are two screws. Remove all your wires first. Take a T15 Torx driver and take them out. The cap should be loose and you can use light pressure and pull straight up. Be sure not to move the distributor shaft relative to the engine. This is a net timing application and you will have to take it to the dealer to have it timed.

inside the distributor

Yes there is a condenser on HEI systems with large cap with coil-in-cap. It may seem counterintuitive but yes there is. Follow along. A "condenser" is simply a capacitor. HEI do have a capacitor/condenser within harness and it's adjacent to plug that attaches to ignition control module (beneath rotor). The HEI condenser/capacitor is employed to suppress "radio noise". OE GM HEI have a round condenser while many aftermarket HEI have a squarish-flat condenser. A replacement for OE round HEI condenser is supplied by Standard Motor Products (aka Standard Ignition) as part number RC-3.

if your saying your engine is a 4.3 your have a v6 not a v8. even with that I've not seen a Chevy engine with cap in front like a ford or Chrysler product. v8 up until 96 i know for sure are 18436572

I have found that some police package cars with a 4.3 it can be a version of the LT1 motor that does have the distributor in the front. I didn't believe it till I saw one at a police auction. I do not, however, have a firing order for this six banger. I hpoe that this might at least help.