Metro Timing Advance??

[gwahir]

The Haynes manual lists the camshaft lobe height for the 91 and earlier metro at 1.56"; the same as the xfi. Yet I have 90 and 91 base metros with the cams at 1.59, so who knows! I had a camshaft in my supply of stuff that is the same as an xfi, and came out of something other than an xfi. So, perhaps your 89 has an xfi cam, but does that make it an xfi? The transmission final drive ratio was different in the xfi. If you put an xfi in 5th gear and push the car, the crankshaft will turn 2.86 times for each revolation of the wheels. A crank of a non xfi geo of that vintage, would turn 3.1 times.

I have not measured the cam rise through the oil filler hole, but it should work. You would be measuring the distance between the valve cover and the lobe area of the cam and finding the difference between when the lode is up and when it is down. This difference would be about .30" for an xfi cam and about .33" for a regular cam. Enjoy!