It's been about about 10 tanks of gas through my 3.9l after the rebuild. Noticed a large amount of black soot on the tips of the tail pipes and also at a junction before the cat. The truck seems to not be as powerful as it was before the rebuild, which doesn't make me too happy. It starts up a little rough but after about 30 seconds, it smooths out. In the factory manual it says do not rotate the distributor to advance timing because the distributor has a cam position sensor in it and the computer controls timing. It goes on to say if you do rotate the distributor, what you will change is at what time the fuel injectors fire. My question is, in an EFI engine, if the injectors are firing too late, will you have the symptoms that I have?

In the ignition system section of the manual, it says hook up a DRB scan tool and and rotate the distributor until it's "in range". Has anyone else experienced this problem or done this?

 

yup. its called "set sync" . common as dirt/ a DRB is a factory Mopar scanner like the dealers have, but others will have this capability as well. My Snap on Solus does it as did my old MT2500 and our OTC Genisys at work can do this as well basically you are setting timing but not in the sense you would be with something older. like you said it pertains to when the injectors fire, so you are "timing or "syncing" that to where the valves are and the pistons at that moment. With a scanner that has that capability setting the sync takes about 10 minutes if that,

 

Bingo.

DRB3, Snap-on Solus, Snap-on MT2500, OTC Genisys, and I think 2 more tools are able to set the fuel sync of the distributor. Nominal range is plus or minus 3 degrees. Anything further than plus/minus 7 degrees or so will lead to extreme drivability issues.

 

Ok. I'm looking for the cheapest scan tool that can do this. My dad got me a Harbor Freight scanner for Christmas and I don't think it can do it. The MT2500 looks too old, I don't want to have to deal with cartridges. With everyone having smart phones, how is there not an app for this? I guess my question is what is the cheapest scanner to get it done, the OTC Genisys?

 

I'm guessing you are in Alabama somewhere?

You're gonna drop a solid 700+ on a tool that can do fuel sync. Chrysler PCM programming is a very high-level subject. Hence why I purchased a DRB3 off a retiring tech...and I still shelled out 4 figured for it with all the cables and cartridges.

It takes about 5 minutes to set fuel sync, and most of that is just getting into the correct menu in the tool. Most shops will still charge you an hour of labor, and alot of the shops with inexperienced hands will not know what you are even asking. If you have a local mom and pop/shadetree shop, that might be your better bet.

The nearest shop I know off-hand would be KAR Performance LLC in Jackson, MS. They are a remote tuning site for Flyin Ryan Performance.

 

Georgia actually. I took my truck to a local shop and they told me they had the tool that could do it. When I picked up the truck and asked them they said the manual told them to use a volt meter? I haven't driven the truck enough since then to tell a difference. It does seem to start up stronger and run a little better so who knows. I did a google search for OTC Genisys and found a couple for around $400 or less. Would those work?

Found this video that was pretty good on this

 

I'm afraid to ask how much they charged you for that, I hope not much.

The multi-meter trick does work, but it's not as accurate as actually retrieving the PCM's value. To my knowledge and the reply above, the OTG should work. The MT2500 or DRB3 is more favorable, but mostly because they can do almost anything.