'89 200q solved, well er um sort of

[John David Anderson]

Well actually today was full of good new folks.  I sort of stepped away
and back to the basics, about all that I recall from my MAE 328 class
(very little) is an internal combustion engine runs on the famous 3
things, fuel, spark, compression.  In order to get a couple of these
together correctly, well perhaps all of them on an OHC engine, the
fuel, spark, and valve opening and closing of course got to be in time
with the crank.  So I figure as fuel smelled ok, lets have a look at
the cam timing.  Now admittedly I had been a slacker and not done this
when I got the car, thinking that crap the thing wouldn't run if the
idiots that had installed the engine had the belt on wrong.  Of course
that isn't quite true, the VW/Audi 4 and 5 will run about 1 tooth off
either way albeit poorly.  So I pull the cover and feel the belt first
off and it is limp, way limp compared to how it should be.  So I turn
her over by hand a few times (establishing TDC with a feeler probe in 1
BTW, is there any way to see the stupid crank pulley mark with the
bumper on or am I being obtuse?) and lo and behold the cam timing
appears to be 3-4 teeth off, ouch...

So I reset the cam timing (I think) turn her over carefully by hand a
number of times, crank her with the hall sensor pulled for about 30
seconds, then check compression all round, all good, better in fact
than when I had got the car, whew....  Start it up, idles and runs
beautifully, take her out, no more off idle "lag" and pulls right on up
to 1.5 bar.  I'm SO happy but I'm not quite satisfied, I've left the
timing cover off, and I look things over and actually I'm still about
one notch on the cam gear short of where in my experience with 5
cylinders the mark should align with the head.  Now that is a sort of
bogus alignment, prone to personal interpretation but still.  So I
advance it the one notch and, nothing, won't start at all again.  Now
this is all again right about as it is getting dark but I also notice
at that point something further confusing.  In my past experience with
the 5's in my Quantums, EVs, and Audi 100 motor the timing mark has
been a square sort of mark.  This pulley has no such mark, instead has
two dots, and I had been using the first dot I came to when I set it.
So I go looking at some other pulleys all 4 cylinder VW and some have a
mark on one side and dot on the other (for head and timing mark on belt
cover or for use as the idle shaft sprocket) one has a couple of dots
like this one, one has only a mark.  So what is the deal, what should
my cam timing mark be?  The answer I will persue in the morning will be
to simply pull the valve cover, establish TDC then establish the cam
position by inspection of the lobes, hopefully this will be one tooth
back from where I am, where it ran well, and roughly sort of where one
of the dots is.  I assume the entire set of problems with this car has
been that the timing was initially set incorrectly or it was set but
with the belt much too loose, it jumped one notch before or maybe even
after I test drove the car as it did not hve the problems then.  Then
when I got it briefly under better boost the other day (the temp sensor
corrosion probably was part of the picture,) I figure when I shifted
into 3 and stood on it, it jumped a couple more, and than rapidly
stopped.  Explains my put, put, put as well.  I guess I dodged the
bullet pretty well on this one, don't often slip a 5 cylinder belt
without making a piston meet some valves.  Anyway good progress was
made today, and my Michelin Man is still just fine 8-)

Thanks to everyone who has been of help, oddly enough I'm going to look
at another this weekend so this car may still well end up as "parts"
for a much lower mileage early '89 with much more appealing pearl white
and black leather.  I mean why be pissed at only one of these things I
figure.

John
janders1 at mix.wvu.edu