As above really. I need to re-time my AEA in accordance to the GT cam I have as I know its a little out. Anyone knoe if there's any danger of wiping out pistons/valves, even at full lift/tdc?

You'd have to be a few teeth out to have an issue mate.

How have you timed yours anyway? Do you know the max lift at TDC duration angle or whatever?

There's a table on hear about all the OEM cams, so I'll have a look, Something like 9.5mm. Duration is something like 250ish. I really want to know because I may look at advancing the cam a little, see if there's any advantage to be had but don't want to risk smashing the top end up if I get it all wrong!

I timed it by bringing the bottom end to TDC, then the top to TDC. I found some info somewhere, and I've forgotten the specifics, but its just about when the valves are closing or something. The mark on the sprocket was close to where it needed to be

Edited 11 November, 201213 yr by prankstar2003

If it helps, iv moved mine over a tooth, with 0.8mm skimmed off the head with no contact.

Whats a tooth? Or how many teeth are there on the sprocket?

Can't remember! 37 maybe

36 would make more sense (10 deg per tooth). I'll have count when I'm next up there. Only want about 10deg max advance, so 1 tooth would be plenty

10 deg is a lot man.

More like 8 then. But 10, one tooth, should allow more the adjustment I'm after

AEE - The valve will be over halfway open before it hits a TDC piston, it'd be unlucky to bend a valve with a snapped belt - i know i tried running three teeth either direction for the crack once. That 1.6 has a deep combustion chamber in the head. All the hydraulic 8v's have vertical valves.

The AEA i don't know, isn't it the same combustion chamber/piston but with a lower comp ratio for having a compound gasket? It might even be a non-interference engine.

Thanks mikey. If that's the case, I should have plenty of scope for adjustment. The aea has slightly higher cr though (not by much at all however)

When making any adjustments, just make sure the engine turns over by hand. Even with the slightest adjustment. You dont know if somethings slipped or you've not noticed something.

Better to be safe than sorry.

Yeah, that's something I'd do. Difficult in a mk2 though unless turning over at the cam, which never looks healthy

Autodata shows both the AEE & AEA as being "Interferance" engines

Nah i wouldn't wanna keep turning it over with the cam, just incase.

Just full right hand lock and get to the crank bolt through the arch!

Yeap, don't turn it over via the cam mate.

Worth marking a reference point too :) can get in with a 19mm socket with it on full lock as said.

I know some engines are very retarded on cam timing from factory and just adjusting it a massive amount gives huge gains alone. But I'm not sure this is something VW have done, older ford engines iirc

Cheers guys.

There's not likely to be any more power made, but a little more bottom end might be possible from a little tuning. We'll see. It's fairly easy to do with my Maximus special Vernier

Doddle to fiddle with man, just be careful tightening the clamp bolts

Cheers guys.

There's not likely to be any more power made, but a little more bottom end might be possible from a little tuning. We'll see. It's fairly easy to do with my Maximus special Vernier

Aye be careful with over tightening. The OEM pulley threads will pull. Since doing them that way, i started doing them as thru holes, and used a nut on the back instead. Meaning they can be torqued up to a great figure.

Id recommend you do this yourself, just run a 6mm (or were the M5's) drill through the threaded parts on the outer holes, and use a nut and washer instead.

It's a faff if you wanna do it by using a protractor and DTI, but obviously there's no scale on the pulley so it's a bit trial and error.

You can work out how much you've moved it by checking ignition timing before and after and seeing the change.

I may do that max, but I'm after a partial refund

I dont have a gauge or anythimg, probably just a bit of trial and error

Yeah mate has worked for me, when I fitted the 272 I advanced it a bit IIRC and it made a massive difference, went a bit more and was no good, went back to reference then the other way, no good, back to reference, better, then advanced a touch and better again, IMO it's always better to go back to a reference if you get a bit lost with it all, otherwise you can end up with it feeling better between two adjustments but still not as good as it was kinda thing.

I'd imagine you'll be somewhere with max lift at around 108-112 ATDC

Retarding a cam rarely does any good, normally done to reduce torque if struggling for traction.

I'll have a play about at some point, but I can see I'm risking my engine!

Can make it pull harder top end in my experience, but that gain isn't worth the loss elsewhere

Retarding a cam rarely does any good, normally done to reduce torque if struggling for traction.

Rule of thumb is retarding a cam usually shifts the powerband higher, advancing moves it lower. Ultimately it'll depend on where you're advancing/retarding it from though!!