a1exander wrote:
Can't you hire the cam timing tools for it?
It shall certainly make your life easier.........not that you are one for easy.

That's the thing...there are no tools or I would have bought them. There are marks on the gears and chain and you line them up....in theory it's simple but remember I started the thread with:
Quote:
....I have no idea what I'm doing
and I meant it.
Yesterday I found the VW document that's attached...simple right?
but the cam gears don't match the picture exactly, the intake in particular so I'm just kind of guessing I found the right mark. The repair manual I bought said rotate the crack to align the TCD mark and pointed to a mark that was very clearly NOT TDC ( I had the head off) so I used the the other mark I found which was TDC. OK so far.
With the crank in that position I couldn't see the little triangle on the timing gear but the triangle to key the damper was exactly where the picture shows so I assumed that was the indicator for my engine.....but something just din't look right when I was looking at the cams.....but the marks are the marks so I put it together and made sure there was no resistance anywhere....and it ran but rougher than I recalled??????
Last night I put the crank where the VW pic shows (NOT TDC!!!)and sure enough there is a triangle on the crank pulley...like 100 degrees from the mark I used on round 1 assembly so now I'm trying to understand how the heck the engine ran with the cams about 100 degrees out of time????? That seems impossible so now I'm wondering if I've found the right marks on the cam?????
normally I'd put a degree wheel on and make god damn sure.....but the cam cover IS the cam caps so you can't have the cover off and cams installed.
I hate this engine.