Hello all, I'm Dan

Just joined the forum, i own a 92 Polo Coupe 1.3, a bit of a drop from the S14 but its a coooool little car and should be a fun little car.

I say should as in a week I've only driven in about 40 miles due to the head gasket needed replacing. I rebuilt the head myself but I'm no way

a mechanic, I've never taken an engine apart in my life, taken a few out and mostly basic upgrades.

Now heres the timing question.

The cam cover is broken and i have no timing marks to follow, whats the best way to time it all up.

If set piston 1 to TDC and aligned the cam to its timing mark on the cam cover. When i started it yesterday its tappy as hell.

I read somewhere that the cam needs to be aligned to its timing mark then rotated till the dizzy lug is pointing to piston 1 on the dizzy.

Is that correct, if so that maybe why I'm tapping a lot.

Some help would or advise would be much appreciated. Any of you close to Ramsey by anychance.

BTW Nice looks site.

As 'Beemer' said

'''TBH it will probably make more sense when you do the job

Top dead centre TDC is when No1 piston is at the top of its compression stroke + the distributor rotor pointing to No1 plug lead

It matters not because when changing the cam belt you line up the marks on the crank pulley & camshaft pulley.

Not a bad job 45mins or so, try a search as there are a few topics knocking around here on cambelt change. ''

I know he says it matters not because of timing marks but i have no lower marks only cam ones.

Would this work and i take it you rotate the cam clockwise till the distributor lug points to plug No1.

(regardless of rotation angle IE 2deg or 100deg)???????

I didnt think the timing marks are on the cam cover, there should be a notch out of the bottom pulley? that aligns with a piece of tin from memory?

If these marks line up it means piston no 1 is at the top, the marks on the cam pulley mean both no1's valves are closed and the rotor arm should be approaching No1 lead ready to fire?

Did you move anything?

Wheres the noise coming from? the fact it started means things must be close to being right!

It pays to poor some oil over the rockers and cam when first starting just until the oil gets pumped up there.

Taken all your spanners out? Sorry not near Ramsey

I removed No1 plug and put a plastic tube down the piston and rotated the crank untill it was a TDC.

I didnt take the cam pully off the cam so its not been put back on at a different angle, not sure where the tap is comming from TBH.

It starts and runs though it does hunt a little.

Its been sat overnight ill start it shortly and see whats happening.

Maybe i didnt leave it running long enough to calm down, though it was running for a miniute or two.

Tappets can be noisey for a while after a rebuild until they refill with oil. Need to run it for a couple of minutes @ 2000 rpm to build up oil pressure. As above should have covered rockers in oil. I usually soak tappets in oil before refitting & ensure all parts went back in original positions.

Everything was soaked in WD during rebuild, I'm concerned that I've got something wrong and the tap is valve hitting pistin but i turned the engine over by hand nearly 10 times and it didnt lock up so i assume its ok.

As i said I've never taken an engine apart before and I'm just looking for some advise and comments to calm my worries.

Well if nothing hit when turning by hand it's not gonna hit when its running.

The plug n plastic is a bit hit 'n' miss I think you really need to find the crank timing marks, then check again

I've found the timing marks on the sprocket but the O & Z are on the belt casing and they are missing as its broken, i do see your point but i had no other way of basic timing without them.

Well as Red mention I've had it running for a few minutes as various rev 1500 2000 2500 revving up and down slowly and its considerably quieter now, I've swisted the distributer a touch and its running better on idle and the revs dont drop so low went i let go of the throttle,still a small tap but its 15 years old now so i cant expect it to be as quiet as my SR20DET, ill take it for a steady drive later and see how i feel.

Thanks for your help, ill be on here more to say hello and have a look at some of the members cars. Some very nice one on here, i think I've got myself a cool little car with a huge following.

Its good to get on the forums which are directed to one make of car, bit like the SXOC for 200sx's, lots of helpful people with lots of cool cars.

Edited 1 July, 200719 yr by Messydan