If you want anyone to help you you need to actually listen to what experienced members are saying to you. We all own this vehicle and do all of our own work on them whenever possible. If we say that it is necessary to take it to a mechanic, we mean it. The average DIYer does not have the required diagnostic hardware and tools to pinpoint the issues you are having, and usually not enough knowledge to come to the correct conclusions.

Your ignition timing is controlled by the PCM, and is NOT adjustable by conventional means. You need a very expensive computer tool to diagnose the issue you are having.

As we said before....tests need to be run at this stage in your repair. Tests you cannot complete, or do not have the equipment to complete.

We try to avoid having members take their vehicle to a mechanic most of the time. This is not one of those times for you.

thank you thats all i needed to know.

dont f*ck with your timing! let a professional do it

It's useless to tell him that, he hasn't listened to anyone yet.

i know right...

Man a freaking twenty dollar Haynes manual covers how to check and mess around with timing. If you don't know and havent even done a leak down test then dont do it!! Why haven't you done a compression or a leak down test? Stop complaining that no one is giving you answers and take it to a shop or **** everything up by yourself.

I changed my mind. I think you should give up and sell jeep to someone else. Seriously, then you can stop worrying about it, save you some stress

not worthy

Timing from scratch means removing the valve cover to watch the valves on cylinder 1. Locate your TDC (top dead center) marking on the flywheel and borrow a timing gun (strobe light that clips to the spark wire on cylinder 1). Look up published degrees of advance for a given RPM. If the intake valve is not closed at top dead center then your timing chain has jumped. If all is well the strobe will light up the correct degrees of advance and the trouble is with the timing of the fuel injectors - which to be honest is not nearly as stringent and would have to be way off for it not to light up (start). If you don't know how to determine if a valve is closed or if a cylinder is TDC then you are in over your head. Cheers!

had the same problem on a van of mine. it was a split on the rubber hose that connects the fuel pump to the fuel line. when i pressure tested the fuel system it would come up to pressure then drop off quick. the van was very hard to start would idle rough and the higher the rpms the better it ran. what was happening is the split inthe hose would open when the injectors were partly closed letting fuel bypass back into the tank, the more the injectors were open the less the split would open. atleast thats what im guessing. the hose was split i replaced now runs great. my fuel pressure would come up to the proper pressure but would not stay there. it dropped off quick. i had to cut a fitting in to test the pressure.

for the love of god, close this miserable thread

^ x2.

The timing on an XJ is NOT adjustable...Period. It is electronically controlled. Dealerships can adjust it a few degrees from within the software but that's it. There is no reason this should ever have to be done.

Unless the chain jumps which is what I was addressing (someone else suggested it). I was not implying that the timing was adjustable (twisting the distributer etc...) only that the timing could be verified mechanically and with a gun.

For what it's worth my vote is with the sync in the distributer as was mentioned ages ago. The strobe would pick this up.

the chain CANNOT jump... it will break first.

FWIW, the original poster on this thread hasn't logged on since December 22nd. For the love of god, let this thread die! He wasn't doing what everybody was suggesting to him anyway.