Haha, very familiar parts..

Note metal water impeller instead of VW's plastic one which goes brittle... i'm quite a fan of their 'OEM quality' stuff.

When fitting the the rocker cover I was unsure weather to apply the liquid gasket around the small oil way holes.

It doesn't really seem necessary to me as its all within the sealed are of the rocker cover.

I don't want to risk obstructing an oil way with sealant. I marked the areas in red on the photo.

Did see this on a Elring video though

Strange that they haven't put any around the spark plug holes?

Ithink it's all about not allowing oil to escape. I think the view being taken is that the webbing on the spark plug hole and the central web are sufficiently wide and rigid that there is no need for sealant to take up any distortion. In any case on the central web it would only allow oil to migrate from one half of the head to the other.

Put some on if you like, I can't see it causing a problem.

It's on!

Thought it might be

Ok so I have hit a bit of a problem. Put everything back together including the timing belt and all seemed OK.

Turned the engine over by hand a few times and no nasty catching or noises.

Then turned the car over with the battery minus the spark plugs, all seems ok.

Put the ignition system on and tried to start up and it didn't fire?

I tried a few times and by this point I have had enough so left it for tonight. The funny thing is it didn't over fire once so I'm guessing I have a problem with the ignition system some where?

Are the plug leads on the coil pack the right way? Coil pack plugged in? Anything else left off?

That what I first checked, problem is I didn't take a bloody picture of the ht lead to coil pack. I'm pretty sure everything else is plugged in, I will have a proper poke around as soon as I get back at 3. Have you got a pic of the ht/coil pack Gbd?

Some suggestions I made to Phily:

Make sure you have spark - just remove a plug lead / plug, earth the plug using one of the jump leads.If you like you can remove all 4 plugs, put them in the leads, rest against the engine and watch the firing order as it cranks over. Might be an idea to remove the fuel pump fuse to avoid some of the fuel ignighting.

Make sure you have fuel - remove the fuel delivery pipe onto the fuel rail and open the drivers door. The interior light is linked to the fuel pump relay so opening the door should lead to the fuel pump operating for a couple of seconds.

Take a look at this for the connections http://www.edition38.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=460986&page=2

Edited 25 January, 201610 yr by 937carrera

Nice one mate I read up on phily's thread and saw the info you noted after i posted. Thanks for the pics. Will update later [emoji16]

Are you using your original cam position sensor? or the one from the replacement head? as if that's duff you'll not get a signal to the ECU to get the coil pack to work

I'm using the original cam position sensor. I have a code reader so can check for codes when I'm home.

First I will check the plugs by earthing to the engine. [emoji106]

I am using my original rocker cover with the cam position sensor and vvt sensor.

I replaced the cam position sensor about a month before the belt went

The coil pack is numbered mate. You will see 1-3-4-2 on it. When i did mine i had to replace the ht leads as the ends fell out of them.

I'm stumped!

We have spark on all 4 plugs and there is also fuel as it was pressurised on the tail and all 4 plugs had a nice coating of petrol.

I thought maybe it was the immobiliser so I left the key in the ignition in the on position for 20 mins still no joy.

Cleared all fault codes as well.

All I can think is the timing is very slightly wrong but the engine turns over by hand and on the battery easily.

Just a quick reply Tom to get communal brain cells working

Timing might be a bit more than slighly wrong, it could be 180 degrees out, crankshaft turns twice for every turn of the camshaft. You might be getting a spark near TDC on the exhaust stroke

I'm sure there will be an easy way to check, but I can't think of it at the moment

I've been thinking...

Empirical test - change the connections onto the coil pack so than instead of being connected 1-3-4-2 they are connected 4-2-1-3

eg

No 1 plug goes to number 4 on coil pack

No 3 plug goes to number 2 on coil pack

Cheers guys will give it a go in a minute

Tried to switch the plugs around as you said and still no joy. How would you tell the difference between TDC on the compression compared to the exhausted when the belt has been stripped?

When you fitted the linking cambelt, did you use the setting tool for the intake camshaft?

Tried to switch the plugs around as you said and still no joy. How would you tell the difference between TDC on the compression compared to the exhausted when the belt has been stripped?

Either by looking at the position of the valves, both closed on compression (not possible on the 6N2) or something over the plug hole. If there is pressure building / a lifting force then you are on the compression stroke, no pressure, means exhaust valve is open, so exhaust stroke.

I would do as Nige suggests, tell us how you timed the two cams together / check against whatever instructions you used. Note the method for setting the timing is different for the GTi compared to other models

I marked the the intake camshaft when the crankshaft was at TDC (the bevelled tooth was in line with the mark on the engine) and set it here when I replaced the belt (didn't have a locking pin in the intake cam)

The exhaust cam was locked in place and the previous marks that we're on it aligned and the 8mm bolt fit in perfectly.

How did you know that the intake camshaft was in the right place ? - you don't seem to mention use of an 8mm bolt on the intake cam

I set the intake cam to the marks I put on it before taking off the stripped linking cambelt. I didn't use the 8mm bolt