Timing question on I5 10V hydraulic lifters

[Huw Powell]

> supposedly reputable shop and the car had run fine since.  I noticed
> that on the cam gear, there was a mark on the engine under the upper
> timing cover, it is at about 5 o'clock.  As I spent a large amount of
> time getting the mark where it belongs according to Bentley, I noticed
> that the lobes of #1 were not BOTH pointing up, the first sign of TDC -
> verified by the rotor position, crank pulley, or flywheel.

The mark on the cam gear is supposed to line up with the "top of the cam
cover gasket" - hopefully your camshaft has the woodruf key slot in the
right place!

> Is it possible that
> indicated TDC can shift to another cylinder and still have the engine
> run properly?  I suppose that in theory TDC could shift to #3 or #4
> cylinder and the engine would still run with everything off 180 degrees
> as long as the distributor was positioned properly.

yeah, on a few cylinders... I think you might run into timing order
problems.  And small problems with the crank and cam not thinking of the
same place as TDC...

> Does someone out there who has done this a lot have a quick method to
> make sure you are at TDC for #1 cylinder?

Line up the crank using the flywheel mark.  verify with tall thin object
in #1 spark hole.
Line up the cam using the gear mark - verify by the lobes, be worried
and concerned I guess if the lobes don't look right.
Line up the dist at TDC with the rotor pointing at the dist body mark
and fine tune with a timing light, if you can get it to run, that is.

-- 
Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi/

http://www.humanthoughts.org/