Timing Advice VR6

[Patrick101 0]

I was doing the timing today, for the cam swap, and its been, i'll be honest, a total pain in the t*ts! Intially I did the two rotations of the crank pulley to the mark on the engine cover. Made sure the cam lobes were the right way up i.e large bit on the bottom. I could get the cam align tool in but there was a slight step up and they were def not horizontal. After numerous attempts I decided to rotate the crank pulley a fraction further (prob a cm off the mark). The cam align tool now slides in perfectly and is equally horizontal over both cams.

 

So do I stick with the slightly off crank pulley mark and well aligned cams or the opposite. NB made sure to check Piston 1 (nearest the drivers side) was at the top. I used a plastic rod and marked it up against the engine when at top. For both scenarios the piston was at the top.

 

Any advice would be immensely helpful.

 

Cheers

[Patrick101 0]

Any ideas folks. Have read a few similar threads

on here and vwvortex however, not been able to find any conclusive anwsers. Please help!! Haha!

[Harrier 1]

Been thinking about this and the only reason i can think of is has the head been skimmed a lot? or maybe worn/stretched timing chain/guides?

[Patrick101 0]

Guides and chains look good, no scoring on pads and no slack (I believe they were changed in the past). Think Ive sorted it. Borrowed another pair of eyes to help out. Not going ahead any further until positive it is spot on.

[lewvw 10]

If the intermediate pulley is not aligned then you can end up with the timing half a tooth out between the cams and crank, if you are just doing the cams you need to be very careful as it is very easy to make a mistake.