1983 1.8 GTi Timing Issues

Hi all - wonder if you could help.

I have had the engine and gearbox out over the winter, to re-paint and replace a few broken parts. But now its back in, Im having issues timing it up.

Before I took the engine out it ran absolutely fine, no issues as it had been timed up by an old school garage. I havent changed the timing belt, only removed the distributor to clean it up.

I checked all the marks before I refit the engine and all of them lined up correctly (I didnt check the upper cam though). The car runs, however I have had to time it up by simply listening to the engine pitch, adjust the idle screw and see what runs best. Using a timing light on the upper cam mark and the cam cover doesnt help me at all unless I am doing something wrong.

Question 1 - when timing up, should I be setting the strobe to 0 deg or 6 deg BTDC?

Question 2 - when using the strobe, am I aiming for the cam mark to line up with the cam cover mark? As in this photo below? If I do this, the engine rapidly dies. When running nicely, the cam mark is around 2-3 teeth behind (i.e to the left) of the cover mark which is where I plan to leave it, unless somebody tells me different. I havent yet had it out on the road so cant comment on its performance but idling it is still a little lumpy in places. Thanks in advance.


 

either set the strobe to 0 and use the big diamond on the flywheel, or set it to 6deg BTDC and use the crank pulley mark or punch mark on flywheel

Thanks - seems to have sorted itself out now and runs well. Will test in the upcoming weeks and tweak as necessary.

One other question - when starting up from cold, the engine idles at 2,500 - 3,000 RPM - this seems very high for a cold engine, is this correct? After warming it slowly decreases to around 1,100 RPM (where I have set the idle using the idle screw on the throttle cable).

idle you want it to sit around 900ish rpm, if it cant adjust down far enough you may have an air leak, co is out or the ignition timing still not quite right