holtzer1

alrighty, heres the story. i'm lookin at an 88 stang gt 5.0, 5 spd. the guy told me that it has had a mass air conversion done to it, and has a 93 model computer. he said the problem existed before the conversion, (one of the reasons he said he converted it to maf) but it didnt fix it. anyway, trying to get an idea of what i might be getting into if i get this car.
heres the situation, he said he sets the timing on it, and the car runs strong, then he said its starts losing power and he checks the timing again, and the timing is retarded again, advance it again, it retards itself. i dont know, i never heard of such a thing, but anyway...have any of you heard of this, any ideas what would be causing it? i dont wat to get this car and drop a ton of money into something that may be a simple fix.

Timspony

The timing on an 88 5L Mustang is set using the distributer...the only thing that I can think of is that the bolt that holds down the dist. is not tight?! ....the computer really has nothing to do with pulling out timing the way you described it.

Are you sure the car is being timed correctly?

mjr46

for one timing/base timing should be set with spout out and conversion should never have been done without resolving issue first cause now there may be more than one issue, if is issue is a problem with lack of power, he most likely is misinterpreting the symptoms and incorrectly drawing the correlation to timing, as to what he is refering to as retarded timing??? once it is set where is it when checked the second time??

holtzer1

well, i only know what he toldme over the phone, but what he said was, after its been driven, and the timing rechacked, its out of time again. i wish i knew if he was taking the spout connecter off...but unfortunately i have no clue.

holtzer1

ok, so i called the guy again..here the story

he bought the car as a project. this timing issue existed when he got it. he did the mass air conversion using the ford racing piggyback harness and a salvaged 93 stang computer. he installed the kit, fired it up and it ran fine...set the timing again (as this was an existing concern/problem) and drove it. ran like a raped ape for about 1/2 hour, then started sputtering and missing. rechecked the timing and it was way retarded. shut the car off, pulled spout connector, started it up and reset the timing to 10deg with a timing light. reinstalled spout and watched with the timing light, he said it could take 10 seconds, or it could take 10 minutes, but if you watch the timing..it starts pulling back. after it starts pullin back timing, it starts misfiring and everything, ad he has to reset the timing again. its an ongoing cycle. he cant figure it out...so he's unloading it. i have been a mech all my life and from what he's tellin me, i have no clue where to even start.

pinball232001

I had a similar problem with my 89. It would start missfiring, and running real bad like timing was way to low. I could turn off the ignition switch, and then turn it back on, and the problem was gone from a minute, to a week. This was a random problem for several months, until the distributor went out and the car wouldn't even pull itself hardly. I replaced the distributor, and haven't had a problem since.

mjr46

first verify the issue= very first step in troubleshooting process and if it is the case pull the distributor and make sure the roll pin that locks the distributor gear to the shaft has not sheared allowing gear to rotate on shaft

pinball232001

That is possible it sheared the pin, but mine was some kind of electrical problem. I don't know much about them, so I just replaced it.

contentsunderpressur

A friend of mine had that happen to him as well. It was the distributor.