Timing belt help please!

Hi, I have recently got a 1990 Golf GTI Cab witch needs a bit a off a tidy.
I done the head gasket last week as it was mixing oil and water but when started it up it runs crap. When i was putting timing belt back on reffering to haynes manual i was a bit unsure weather i was doing it the correct way. I had No 1 and 4 piston at TDC, The camshaft pulley mark lined with the top of the head, and the crankshaft pulley lined up with a arrow that is on the cambelt cover, the intermeadate sprocket lined up so the rotor arm was pointing to No1 plug lead? I know it says to line up punch marks on both Crankshaft and intermeadate shaft but where? at the top or bottom? If i done this then it wouldnt be at TDC and the rotor arm wouldnt be pointing at No1 plug lead? Really need to get this sorted so i can crack on with the rest of the tidying up ready for the summer, so any help greatly appricieated.

The punch marks on the crankshaft and intermediate shafts should be aligned so they are next to each other.

If I remember correctly I think there is also a groove on the top of the dizzy that the rotor arm should point towards to indicate its the no.1 plug.

Good luck with it. Have you got any pics of your car?

Thanks for your reply, I cant see any punch marks on the crankshaft sprocket so going of the groove thats on crankshaft pulley. Should they be a mark on crankshaft sprocket? No pics yet as it hasnt been out my garage since i got it lol.

Howdy Neil

I'm in the process of doing my head gasket at the moment.

This thread on another forum may be helpful;

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1660502

These pages from the haynes manual also cover it;

http://icelord.net/vw/doc/1081-02c.pdf

From what you say it sounds like the crankshaft and intermediate shaft pulley alingment marks don't match the TDC and No. 1 spark plug positions.

If you took the crankshaft pulley off to get the cambelt cover off, you might have put the pulley back on in the wrong place (shifted round by one bolt hole).

What you need to do is take out sparkplug number one, then double check that cylinder 1 is at TDC, by rotating the crankshaft (without cambelt on), and looking into the spark plug hole (or inserting a screwdriver) to check the position of the piston.

Then make sure that the mark on the camshaft is where it's supposed to be (aligned with the rim of the cylinder head). The springs on the valves will hold it in that position.

Now line up the distributor by rotating the intermediate shaft until the rotor arm lines up with the notch on the distributor body (spark plug number 1).

Once these are all lined up - check the crankshaft pulley and intermediate pulley - if the mark on the crankshaft pulley is ninety degrees (90o) away from where it should be - you'll know you've bolted it on wrong  :roll:

They should match up at the TOP of the crankshaft pulley - where it's edge intersects with the edge of the intermediate pulley.

The first link above includes information on adjusting the timing to get the correct ignition advance position - this may be what you need to do to get the car to run perfectly- but I guess it's worth checking that everything lines up as it should first.

I read somewhere that Mark 1 golf engines (in their untuned state) are non-interference engines - i.e. even when the exhaust or inlet valves are wide open they don't intrude into the space that would be taken up by the piston at TDC. So in theory you shouldn't be able to mash the valves up if you get the timing wrong - but I'm not 100% on this, and turning it over by hand after you've had it all apart to check that nothing snags is probably a good habit to get into.

Ali cabrio

errr…… I don't want to be the one to say this but……. ops:

Are you sure it was the head that was mixing the oil and water. Later Cabbys had the MKII oiler cooler above the oil filter (I think?) These are known to fail mixing the oil and water. You may still have your original problem.
 :dontknow:

Thanks Ali
I am going to go and recheck it all. Will let you know what i find.
Cheers