My Accord makes a slight pinging sound so I checked the timing. I'm stuck now cause I don't know how to interpret the marks on the pulley. The pulley has 3 marks that are close together and 1 that is further away. The pointer aligns with the 3rd mark and all the other marks are located to the right of the pointer. Is my timing OK? If so, what else could cause the slight pinging?

 

the white mark the 1 by itself is top dead center,, on the other 3 marks,, the center one ( red ) ,,is the timing mark the other 2 marks next to it are for 2 degrees advance and 2 degrees retard... set the timng on the retard side,, if it still pings, retard it a tiny more .. the retard would be the one closer to the top dead center mark,, on the right of the center mark ...

...Also try to use a higher octane fuel first ( 91 )

 

yea as you retard the timing, you will reduce your horsepower, but get better gas mileage. its up to you

 

Can you explain what the higher octane fuel will do? Will I have to always use higher octane fuel?

 

Using higher octane fuel is like a band-aid. You won't be able to see the problem, but it will still be there. I would try to set the correct timing and if that doesn't work, i would look at running some seafoam through the engine. If there is alot of carbon buildup in the combustion chamber, this will make your CR go up and cause the pinging. Higher octane fuel resists pinging alot better. Usually engines that have higer compression ratios use higher octane fuel. If you choose to fix this problem by using higher octane fuel, you will have to always use higher octane. Higher octane fuel usually has detergents in it, so if carbon buildup is the problem, it might be able to clean up the carbon.

 

I did some further reading on engine timing. Please note that when I checked the timing on my '98 Accord, I did not place the PCM in base timing mode (by jumping the number 8 and 13 terminals of the Data Link Connector). Does this mean that I did an incorrect timing check?