Mk2 16v set up problems

[Andy Mc]

My mate swapped my head and cams at the weekend and now she wont start.

When fitting the cams (standard cams, bought 2nd hand off e-bay, the seller said they we're 1.8 16v vw cams) my mate lined up the 2 marks on the cams but the cam pulley mark does not line up with the head..? You can turn the engine freely by hand with no resistance.

When turning the engine by key tonight she would nealry start but not fire (she also sounds very rattly). There is plenty of spark on the plugs.

Does anybody know what is wrong here....?

Are the cams the correct ones (they did have vw/audi marked on them)..?

Have I been sold the correct cam pulley...?

Any answers will be greatly appreciated..!

[sportline_velly]

wot are you saying?

the cams are alined correct but the timing mark on the cam pulley then isnt lining up with the timing mark on the rockercover?

i think everything should lineup.


re check you cam timing...esp if its rattling!!!! 

[Andy Mc]

Yes, basically......

My mate seems to think that perhaps I've been sold the wrong cam pulley as the marks wont line up, is this possible..?

Sorry I can't be more specific, my knowledge is very limited.

P.S. My mate is a trained Honda mechanic and spends every day of the week working on cars so he's a bit confussed as to why the mark on the pulley wont line up to that on the head.

I hope this makes sense.

[sportline_velly]

hmmm...could be the cam pulley

[Gambit]

get the cam pulley part num and get it checked against somebody elses

[Andy Mc]

Thanks for the responses....

After re-reading the haynes manual tonight, we first lined up the 2 dots on the cam, then adjusted the cam pulley to line up the relevent notches against the head, so it appears that the pulley is correct.

We now have a problem where by the cams dont want to move when fastened down in the head, some sort of hydrolic lock...? Anyway, with fading light and temperatures, we've decided to call it a nite, hopefully we'll get the cams moving tomorrow and the engine running again.

Annyone know what could be causing the cams to lock...? If you release them, you can push the lifters and they all move freely..?

[Veedubgt18v]

you dont have to do the cam retainers up that tight check the torque setting in a haynes manual or something but i know they can seize the cam if done to tight or worse break the studs in the head....

[AudiA8Quattro]

Are the cam bearing caps on the right way round?

[Andy Mc]

No they we're not....! I had a read through the haynes manual today and on the inlet cam the caps we're the wrong way round, now I've altered them, and she fired up tonight, but there was excessive noise coming from the top end...I'm going to start a new post on this....

[sportline_velly]

have your valves hit the pistons dude to the timing being out?!?!?!?