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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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If your doing miles then tdi is definitely the way to go. You can in all fairness have as much fun as you can in a petrol, just got to get the right mods.

Here's my car, Mitsubishi Lancer running a VW 2.0 PD140 BWC engine and VW Garrett turbo. She's currently sitting at 181bhp / 313lbft

post-4095-0-69347500-1377793111_thumb.jp

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Eurgh, I hate timing on my Porsche. I can't set the ignition timing to the flywheel marker as somebody has had the flywheel off at some point and installed it at a different point... This would be ok to get around but as there's a marker on the camshaft pulley but somebody has changed the pulley and therefore I have no marker on there. This means I can't time the belt properly (fairly sure it is a tooth out) and therefore I cant set the ignition timing and therefore my car is lump as feck around 2k, although it still performs really nicely!

How can i find TDC? Should I pull the plug out on piston 1 and then shine a light through to see when its at TDC? Not sure what else to do :( i don't usually toy with engines

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Put a screw driver or something thin to put through the plug hole and wait for it to reach TDC ( You will see because the screw driver will go up, it will stay still at the highest point even though your turning the engine over then it will start to go back down.

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Dunno about cars, but the way I've always done it on bikes is to (solidly) mount a micrometer over the spark plug hole, attach a spoke to it and turn the engine over until you find TDC.

Doing it by eye is simply not accurate enough to get it right IMO.

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The dipstick down no1 cylinder is good enough usually :)

And yes, 3 teeth out is a lot! One tooth is enough to make it run a bit shit. You've got the skills to do it, start from scratch and double check everything as you go, you'd get it bob on in no time.

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Not sure if i worded that correctly, I know 3 teeth is a lot, that's why i'm surprised at how well it is running! I'll double check with the dipstick to confirm TDC is correct on the flywheel marking and if so i'll reset the timing on the camshaft :) it is a non interference engine so I can't actually hurt it I guess! Timing light should arrive tomorrow as well which is great!

Oh and cheers for the confidence in my skills haha, i'd say i'm fairly special needs when it comes to engines, never had much luck with working on them!

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Didn't it just go through an MOT? Pretty amazing if the emissions wen't through 3 teeth out. Most flywheels don't have evenly spaced bolts, so as to make sure they can't be put on in the wrong place. I'd just pull a plug and try and get it to what you think's TDC, then if the timing marks are anywhere near on the flywheel, the flywheel's probably in the right place and you can safely work off it's markings. Doing that rather than actually trying to time it by your guess at TDC means you only need to find TDC to the nearest 1/6th turn (if it's a 6 bolt flywheel), which should be pretty damn easy! As you say, it's non-interfierance anyway, so a great engine to have a play with and learn on. I'm always crapping my self working on the 20v's cambelt, all that potential for mangled metal! :blink:

I'm really loving the Scirocco at the moment, other than the crappy engine mounts (which I've got replacements for, just need to get around to fitting them!) it's running really smoothly and pulling well. There's plenty of stuff I'd love to do in the future, that I know would improve it, but at the moment it's at one of those stages where it just feels like a well rounded car, everything works and interacts nicely and it all feels well balanced, I'm really enjoying it. Even Nick seemed impressed by it at the weekend, which I was happy about!

Edited by RobinJI
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The emissions 'passed'.
Did the belt this morning with no luck :( It won't even start now. Got the distributer set to TDC, occasional pop from the exhaust whilst cranking over if that means anything?
I tried the screwdriver method to check TDC and all that happens is it seems to get stuck, i'm guessing a valve must hit against it or because the spark plug enters at an angle it gets squashed as turn the crankshaft. Whoever was last there had put a white mark on the crank pulley, this didn't line up to TDC on the flywheel so I ignored it, it did however line up to when the screwdriver started getting stuck... even that didn't line up with the camshaft markings though! I'm very stuck :(
EDIT: Using my endiscope I can determine TDC, completely forgot I had one... now, using that I can see the white marks the previous person left are indeed correct for TDC, however timing is still VERY off on the camshaft going by the distributer, my spark plugs are in the wrong location too regardless of if I turn the camshaft. do I simply just put the leads into the correct order for the new location?
Edited by CurtisRider
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Rocker cover is off, should the camshaft be rotated so the no1 piston valves open the same amount at TDC?

Not sure - but the timing mark on the sprocket should line up with another timing mark on the block / cover when the crank is at TDC.

Which car / engine is it exactly? (Sorry, I can't remember...)

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Ah-ha, apparently the timing mark (for the crank) on that engine is on the flywheel rather than the sprocket?! If this looks right? (Maybe a bit late but would explain why it was a bit tricky to find TDC)

http://i.fixya.net/fixya20/uploads/Images/tdisline_14.JPG

A few other bits I found... Hopefully be helpful for timing up the top end? Sorry, not had chance to read through fully...

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/47397

http://members.tripod.com/darrin_smith/porsche/924cam.html

Any use?

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Cheers for your help Adam, I've had all 3 of those links open unfortunately :(

The flywheel marking is off, I have checked and when at that point the piston is not at TDC, so the flywheel has been off and bolted back on at a different point. I have a different marking for the crankshaft so I know when that is at TDC now.

It's just the camshaft marking that I need to figure out right now, I set it to what I thought was TDC, I get lots of popping and banging from the exhaust, no difference is made when turning the distributer

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Ah, poo - sorry - I think you'd already said that? :$ Dipstick in No1 is a good failsafe in that case! Told you that you had the skills to work on something like this ;) Diagnosing issues like your flywheel using logic is half the battle!

Had something very very similar with my car recently - with the fuelling being screwed the plugs were fouled. New set of plugs and it runs spot on again. Worth a shot for ~£15? Or at least take them out, plug one back into the lead and ground it on the block, then turn the car over on the starter and look for a good spark. Repeat with all 4. You should be able to see the spark even in daylight - if it's dim or non existent then new plugs should do the trick.

From the links it appears the camshaft marker is viewed from the 'back' rather than the front? (Sorry if that sounds stupid but it's how I understood it...) It will usually be an indent or notch in the cam sprocket, rather than any sort of coloured dot / line. Also looks from the diagrams that it should be timed with that notch facing vertically upwards, even if the 'pin' n the block is missing that should get you somewhere near?

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