Gurf... Timing?

[Rupert]

I've decided that setting timing by ear is over my head. Gotta find a mechanic...

Anyway... When I drove the Trooper home from an hour and a half away, on the freeway, and going about 70ish up a small hill, the engine kind of coughed a few times. Like, it lost power and the rpms went kinda funny, but not a backfire. There wasn't a noise associated... Anyway, the guy said the timing was off, and it migth do that, so I wasn't too worried. I replaced the plugs, wires, cap, and rotor 'cause it was missing elsewhere in the rev range.

So, do you all think the "coughing" is a timing thing, a cap/rotor thing, or am I fucked (again)? It seems to me that it could be a timing thing... But my confidence in my own analyses has been reduced of late.

[GoCougs]

It could be lots of things, but you can't confirm timing till you check it with a light.

[Rupert]

Which I can't do because the distributor is off a little.

[VTEC_Inside]

I don't think that your incident was ignition timing related if the car ran fine (or closer to it) on the other half of your trip.

Have u hooked a vacuum guage up to it at all?

I want to say EGR problem because of the power loss, but thats grasping at straws given what we know so far.

[Rupert]

Naw, it ran the same the whole way. There were multiple small hills, or other times I was full on the throttle. It didn't happen every time I went up a small hill or was aggressively accelerating, though.