A wireless engine scope you hold in one hand. It measures actual injection timing against crank position, shows live RPM, and tells you which cylinder is down. Any engine: diesel or gas, mechanical or electronic. Nothing wired into the truck.
First run price. It goes to $1,050, then $1,350 at retail.
The same OM926 from the blind test, running with injector 4 unplugged. Live injection timing on screen, and the tool flags MISFIRE CYL 4 on its own display while the engine runs.
A Mercedes OM926 inline six, running. One injector was unplugged and the tool was not told which. It watched crank speed between firing events, saw the one cylinder that was not pulling its weight, and put MISFIRE CYL 4 on its own screen while the engine ran.
No teardown. No power balance through a dealer laptop. Nothing wired into the truck.
A 2006 Toyota Sienna AWD with a growl at highway speed. I figured it was the right rear wheel bearing, but on the lift it made no noise at all, because a wheel bearing with no weight on it barely talks. So there was no way to prove it in the shop.
I put the Timing Buddy vibration probe on four spots and drove it. The right rear was the loudest. The rear differential was next, the left rear less, and the left front was the quietest point on the van. The noise got weaker the farther the probe was from that one wheel, which is what a single source looks like. Then a coast in neutral from 50 down to 40: the noise followed wheel speed all the way down, which takes the engine out of the picture.
Right rear hub and CV shaft replaced. Same probe, same spot, same drive: the vibration at that wheel dropped by more than half.
The bright lines are the bearing. They climb as the van speeds up, sit flat while it holds speed, and slide down on the neutral coast. After the repair nothing follows the wheel. Recorded on a Timing Buddy with development firmware and drawn on a computer afterward. This view is not in the app yet.
Live injection timing, the ECM's injection strategy, cylinder balance, a built-in chassis noise finder, and a real-world dyno. All on your phone, tablet, or PC.
Actual injection or ignition event measured against crank position in real time. Not estimated. Not calculated. Measured.
Laser optical crank reference reads engine speed simultaneously with timing on the same display. Reflective tape on any pulley or use a magnetic target, with no modifications to the engine.
Mechanical diesel: piezo clamp on the fuel line. Electronic diesel: backprobe the injector. Modern gas: backprobe the coil primary. Old gas with plug wires: inductive clamp. If it has a crank and fires fuel, Timing Buddy™ reads it.
By watching crank speed between firing events, Timing Buddy™ spots the cylinder that isn't pulling its weight and flags it right on the tool's screen, with the full balance report in the companion app. No teardown, no wiring into the truck. Electronic engines use the stock crank sensor. Mechanical engines use the pickup target. No handheld tool on the market does this on a fully mechanical engine. Until now.
The tool clamps on under the hood and streams live to your phone, tablet or PC over Bluetooth 5.0. Watch timing and RPM from the driver's seat while you work the throttle. Log a run, compare it to the last one, and request engines you want added to the library.
Signed firmware updates delivered over Bluetooth or WiFi, straight to the tool. If an update gets interrupted, the tool rolls itself back to the last good firmware. No bricked tools. The unit you buy today keeps getting new features for years.
TimingBuddy watches two things at once and measures the angle between them: where the engine is, and the instant fuel actually fires. That angle, in crankshaft degrees, is your real timing. Measured on the running engine.
A laser optical pickup reads a strip of reflective tape on the crank pulley, marking exact crank position on every revolution. It works on any engine, with no electronics required. On electronic engines it reads the engine's own VR or Hall crank & cam sensors instead.
Mechanical diesel: a piezo clamp on the injection line. Electronic diesel: backprobe the injector. Modern gas: backprobe the coil primary. Older gas: an inductive clamp on the plug wire. However your engine delivers fuel and fire, TimingBuddy hears it.
The degrees between position and event are your true timing, on screen to a tenth and updating as the engine runs. Advance it and watch it move. Retard it and confirm it. No guessing.
One tool that does the job of a timing light, a diesel injection timing meter, and an injection-strategy scope, and gives you an exact timing number on screen for any engine.
The first run is 50 units. I hand-build every one. The $850 price ends when the 50th unit sells. First run backers get lifetime direct support and a 5 year warranty. After the 50 are gone the second run is $1,050, and once that is gone the price is $1,350 at retail. The price only goes one direction. If you work on engines for a living, you already know what accurate timing data is worth.
If it has a crank and fires fuel, yes. Mechanical diesel uses a piezo clamp on the injection line. Electronic diesel backprobes the injector. Modern gas backprobes the coil primary. Older gas with plug wires uses an inductive clamp. Crank position comes from a laser pickup on a strip of reflective tape, or straight off the engine's own crank and cam sensors on electronic engines.
It is in active development and I am not going to give you a date I cannot keep. The main board design is nearly finished and I am designing the probes now. Every step goes in the build log on this page, so you can watch it happen instead of taking my word for it.
Cancel any time before your unit ships and I refund you in full.
The Timing Buddy handheld as a finished production unit, the probe set matched to it, and the app for iOS, Android and PC. Firmware updates come over the air for the life of the tool.
No. Timing, RPM and a misfire flag read out on the tool's own screen. The app is there when you want the bigger view, the logs and the cylinder balance report.
The first 50 units fund the build. That is the whole reason. Those 50 are $850, the second run is $1,050, and retail is $1,350. The price only goes one direction.
Me. First run buyers get my direct line for the life of the tool. I design it, I build it, and I answer for it.
The first run is capped at 50 units and goes to the list in order. First run backers get lifetime direct support, 5 year warranty, and a user-replaceable battery at $850, a full $500 less than retail. You'll hear directly from Michael at Northland ECM.
Thanks for your interest in Timing Buddy. We'll keep you in the loop on updates, availability, and pricing, straight to your inbox from Michael at Northland ECM.