Hopefully one of y'all will know the answer to this one.

Say you have a 91 Camaro and it won't start.

So you go to check the timing with a timing light and you have a key man to turn the motor over via the flywheel for a few seconds at a time while you shoot a light beam at the balancer.
Would the slack in the chain affect the timing check by turning the crank with the flywheel vs. turning it with the pistons?
It is supposed to be -10º BTDC and it is showing 0º.
Jumped timing maybe?

My issue started with what seemed like the coil losing power for a moment. I accelerated with about 3/4 throttle and once the RPMs got up a little bit the car fell on its face as if I had taken my foot off the throttle then it recovered and I was on my way again.
It did the power loss deal about 4 times on the way home and I parked it when I got home then I did a smooth sweep of the go pedal to the red line to see if it still did the cutting out deal and it did a couple times out of about 10 pedal pushes.

I tested the coil with a multimeter and it showed that it was bad so I replaced that and It still won't start.

The engine will catch and stumble for a second or two like it's trying to start but it just won't.
It will catch and try to run for about 2 seconds or so on the first starting attempt after letting it sit for a few minutes. The motor will catch for a second or less on the next couple tries until I let it sit for a couple minutes.

A guy on a camaro forum told me to check the timing and I did it the only way I know how without being able to start it. If it is indeed off then I can adjust that and see if it will start.
I'm going to get a fuel pressure tester to see if it is a dying fuel pump next. But I believe that if it were the fuel pump that it would have had a gradual power loss instead of a rapid power loss with a quick recovery as if the coil had quit firing for a moment.

 

On the passenger side, above the A/C box where the evap core is, you will find a brown wire, with a black trace. It should have a connector to it, that you can separate to break the circuit. With the engine OFF, disconnect it, THEN start it up, and set timing. (which I think is supposed to be zero....... label under hood should tell you.) Once you have timing set, shut the engine off again, reconnect the brown/black wire, disconnect the battery for a few (as this procedure will set a code.....) and you should be all set.

 

I did disconnect that wire, the only problem is that it won't start so I can't set it properly.
It is supposed to be 10º BTDC according to the sticker on the hood.

I talked to my go to guy at advance and he said that the timing light won't be accurate when you turn the engine over using the starter.
He did bring up a good point though and I can't believe I didn't think of it, I need to hit the throttle body with some carb cleaner or starting fluid to see if it'll crank before I bother with checking the fuel pressure.

 

Erm, your 'go to' guy is wrong. The engine doesn't care what is turning it, the timing isn't affected either way..... all of that is basically purely mechanical when cranking. Only difference when the engine is actually running, is the computer takes control of timing.

Are you getting injector pulse while cranking?

 

maybe because its a chev ?

 

I don't know if I'm getting injector pulse or not but I'm sure I am since it tries to start. I could probe the injectors to see if they're getting juice while cranking.

 

Just take off the air cleaner and watch what happens when you crank, you should be able to see the gas from the injectors. No need to make it really difficult. (it IS TBI, right?)

 

I don't think so. I think it's MPFI or TPI or something like that.
I'm ashamed to say that I don't know much about my car that I've had for a couple years now.

 

What motor? 3.1 = MFI 5.0 = TBI

 

3.1l.