Bumping cam on a NA 2.2?

[rdh@sli.com (Robert D. Houk)]

   > But does that really work in a front cam belted 2.2 inline 5 that drives
   > the distributor off the BACK of the engine. I'm a little confused about

   On many of the turbo motors the timing is derived primarily from the sensors
   on the flywheel.  As long as the cam signal doesn't get too far out of whack   it might be OK.  

In particular, the "timing" is wholly electronic, based on two flywheel sen-
sors (one for counting the 135 teeth on the ring gear, a second one for the
TDC [actually, 60 degrees BTDC, but you get the idea] reference) and one
distributor sensor to identify which TDC pulse is the master TDC pulse (re-
member that the engine makes two complete revolutions ["four stroke"] for
each individual cylinder to fire once). As long as the distributor (and thus,
by direct connection, the cam) is not so far off that nothing overlaps any-
thing, your ignition timing will be completely unaffected by advancing/re-
tarding the cam. It *IS* possible to get the cam/distributor so far off that
it doesn't work, but it's probably a couple of teeth or more to do so.

Dunno how all the different cars work, this is the mechanism on my 5cyl UrQ,
and probably most of the 5 cyl turbos...and probably most anything of a more
modern vintage too.

					-RDH