Well basicly, when i got this golf it was overheating and the coolant was being pressurised, when i drove it home about 5 miles, the temperature gauge was reading normal but when i opened the bonnet and undid the expansion tank cap, it was like like a small explosion!
So i immediately thought head gasket. So i removed the head and apart from the head bolts being rather loose there was no obvious damage to the head block or gasket
Abit strange so anyway i put a new gasket on and have almost finished putting it back together. When putting the cambelt back on all the marks lined up perfectly so i tentioned it untill i could turn the belt on 90 degrees. Turned it over about 10 times and when the mark on the bottom pulley is perectly lined up, the one on the cam is about 1mm out. Not enough to be a tooth out surely? From past experience when something was a tooth out there was about a 1cm gap between the marks, so im sure im worrying about nothing. Anyway back to the pressuring problem, when removing the alternator belt, when taking it apart i noticed that the water pump had a smooth pulley but whoever had put the belt on had it so that the side of the belt that has the ribs on was on the smooth pulley. I thought that was abit odd as with every other car i have work on the smooth side of the belt went onto a smooth pulley and the ribbed part of the belt went onto a ribbed pulley. Is this correct? I have refitted the belt with the smooth side of the belt onto the water pump pulley but wanted to make sure this is right? It got me thinking if it was on wrong this could cause a problem as the water pump would be turning the wrong way causing the coolant flow to be incorrect, which i think may cause my problem.
Any help MUCH appreciated!!
Cheers
matt
Forgot to mention its a 8v
