wont start after replacing head gasket?

[Dibz]

I'll turn the bottom pulley so it lines up with the mark, that way i know its at TDC for sure. when the head was off that mark was fine so i trust it!

[sidecarphil]

line the bottom up and the top

then take the dissy cap off and look

the rotor arm should be pointing at the notch on the dissy body

my sprocket was about a quarter of a turn out

[Ben Lessani]

Not that it helps much, but have you checked the compression. When I did my mums 206 HG, it took about 25 minutes of cranking and head scratching to get the compression up from 4 bar to 13 bar. Must have been crappy oil flow or something.

[Conker]

If its not even trying to turn over, surely its an electrical problem? If it was just your dizzy, then it would still turn over just as fast as normal, but not fire up or miss-fire etc. When you turn the key what happens exactley?

This has happened to me before and the causes were...
1) Dizzy timing, as already said
2) Needed a bump start (tried jump starting it and everything), must build up engine pressure
3) Try turning the key to prime the fuel pump ten times or so to get fuel pressure up
4) One time it wouldn't start, I hadn't connected an air hose on the back of the head

[rubjonny]

if the dizzy is out, it is a mare to get it back to time with the belt cover on, but you can just do it if you remove the front nut thru the front of the waterpump, and lots of wiggling of the rotor arm whilst wiggling the timing belt.  trouble with 8v engiens is when the belt is off the dizzy will spin freely, certainly caught me out after i swapped the head on my old 1.6 driver

[Dibz]

If its not even trying to turn over, surely its an electrical problem? If it was just your dizzy, then it would still turn over just as fast as normal, but not fire up or miss-fire etc. When you turn the key what happens exactley?

just turns over slowly, just like if the battrey is flat

if the dizzy is out, it is a mare to get it back to time with the belt cover on, but you can just do it if you remove the front nut thru the front of the waterpump, and lots of wiggling of the rotor arm whilst wiggling the timing belt.  trouble with 8v engiens is when the belt is off the dizzy will spin freely, certainly caught me out after i swapped the head on my old 1.6 driver

I'm thinking the dizzy is most likely well out, I've been turning the engine over loads while I had the head off, setting it to TDC. sure that all hoses are fitted up so I'm ruling that out as for an electrical problem, I don't think any wires are off but maybe the battery wasn't all that charged, its an old spare one that has been sitting so maybe its gone duff.


Cant see how messing with the water pump have anything to do with the dizzy? I thought that was on the alternator belt and nothing to do with timing?
Is it not best to set the engine to TDC, loosen the dizzy off and then turn that so the rotor arm is level with the notch, fit a fully charged battery and crank it over loads?

[rubjonny]

waterpump wont have anything to do with dizzy, I meant undo the lower timing belt fixing nut thats attached to the bolt thru the waterpump
Dizzy runs off the timing belt, via the intermediate shaft sprocket.  Once you undo that nut, you can move the lower belt enough to get some slack on the timing belt, so you can move the intermediate shaft sprocket round a tooth at a time till the dizzy lines up

[Dibz]

wouldn't it be better to loosen off the cambelt tensioner to get some slack on the belt?
not to keen on touching any of the pulleys at the bottom of the engine really, with the cambelt off I can then set it up to the marks on the head, block and dizzy, by messing with the intermediate shaft sprocket it might cause more trouble?
I was hoping that its only a quick and easy job but this is sounding like a lot of extra work.
not that i'm going do it soon as the cars snowed in at the moment!

[rubjonny]

yes obviously loosen the tensioner
all im saying is, loosen the lower belt cover so you have enough room to move the intermediate shaft. With the cover bolted down there isnt room to move the belt round on the sprocket.  The intermediate shaft is only linked to the dizzy and the oil pump, moving it is not a problem.  The issue with trying to move the dizzy is if its far enough out you may end up with the hall sensor hitting the block is all

[Dibz]

so I would be unbolting the crankshaft sprocket, as the intermediate shaft sprocket bolts to that?
(Ive got the haynes open trying to picture it, but still not sure)