ok ya I don't clearly know how to post a picture to this forum site. I haven't used it much. Thanks for the heads up. I tried to post the link to another site that had a picture of under the hood. I wasn't sure if it was something that aided in the ignition or not. It was barely attached when I got the car and it ran but I repaired it but it just broke of earlier today. It was previously broken right where the wire comes out so there wasn't much to get at it to fix it.

Also I just tried starting it and it did almost turn over after sitting for a bit so it may be as simple as it was flooded but I am still going to look at the timing marks just to be sure and I have the battery on a charger for the night. Thanks again.

 

Well I just got the front end off and looked at the timing but I have no real way of telling if the timing is off. There are 2 white marks on each of the cam sprockets top and bottom and they both sync with each other and the cam lock lines up with each other, but on the driverside there is no marks on the belt to tell if its lined up or not and on the passenger side I can barely tell if there are corresponding marks but if they are the ones used to put the belt on then it has jumped four teeth which I think is a bit extreme but not unlikely. If the timing was off then I would think the cam sprockets would not run in sync with each other? Also the belt has good tension on it its not full of slack. I cant really move it much let alone slide it off the sprocket.
I don't have time this morning to go any further but later today once off work I will dig a little deeper. Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated! Cheers!

 

What you know for sure is that someone didn't know what they were doing when they put a belt on. Marks don't get that motor dead on. I think you have to pull the front out, put the cam tool on with the crank pin in and see if it's timed. If it is, then you have to keep going and pull the heads. At this point if you trust your compression checks, you probably have to pull the heads anyway.

 

On the serpentine pulley there is a mark that will line up with a corresponding mark on the timing cover. Turn the crank by hand until these to line up. Under the upper timing cover, you will see the exhaust cam sprockets. Each sprocket has a two holed key on the front. An imaginary line drawn through the two holes on each key should line pass through the two holes on the opposite key. The large holes should point toward the center of the engine. If the large holes point outward, rotate the crank another full rotation. Take a look at the pictures here.

Audi A4 B5 2.8L V6 Timing Belt Replacement | Removal And Installation | Happy Wrenching

 

I will look into all of this when I have more time this weekend. I did however end up getting it started today after cleaning off the spark plugs. I ran the codes and got a fuel to low code and that can cause misfires and other things to no act right.

bshusted> Thanks for the write up link it was very well done and will help a lot. From what I saw everything was in sync with each other but I didn't get that far into it. When it was running earlier it was running rough but that could have been from the low fuel and it being flooded. It did start to even out a bit after running for a few minutes but still shakey. All of what has been mentioned I will do it proper this weekend to be 100% sure.

mtroxel> I don't know how far I want to get into this engine because I do intend on swapping it out with a 1.8t or a 2.7t. I realize I can get a decent amount for a rebuilt engine but certainly not what I put into it. So I am at a bit of a crossroads if you will. Do I got further into this or do I start looking for the engine I really want. I really like the body style of this year of A4. If I do end up doing all of this I will be ordering a lot of parts because if I'm in there then I will replace everything I can. I do not trust the numbers I got from the compression test but I was planning on doing it again when I have more time. It was a rented part and I didn't want to get dinged for a late return or something stupid. I was just trying to get a baseline to see where I was at.

Also do you guys know if the 2.8 can be turbo charged? I was told by a guy that if I was to turbo charge a 2.8 it would eventually melt the pistons. I cannot verify this. You guys seem to know a lot more about these engines than I do. I've only been into Audi's for a little over a year I have owned 2 of them but sold my A6 shortly after I got it. This car has been a serious learning process. Aside from the for mentioned tasks above I have pretty much rebuilt the whole engine and a few other drivetrain parts and transmission components. Getting the atf pump back in was a huge PITA! How much of a task would it be to convert from an Auto to a Manual?

 

Never seen anyone do it. I do know that the 2.7T is pretty much the same block, but one of the modifications is oil squirters to cool the bottom of the pistons.

 

Update- I did get it started after putting more gas into it, it took a second to turn over but it did. It was running a bit rough but evened out after letting it idle for a little bit. I checked the codes and the adv. measuring blocks and 1,2,3 are misfiring pretty bad but 3 doesn't look like it's misfiring as bad as 1,2. Bank 1 is running lean at idle under acceleration it seems to even out with bank 2. I ran through as much as I could other than the 1,2,3 misfire and bank 1 being lean everything is within the specs VCDS states. On my lcd display it's flashing the coolant temp symbol but nothing is over heating, fluid is new and the correct kind and amount. DTC's are not showing any sensor as failed or acting up. I looked at all the temps with VCDS and they are showing appropriately. O2 sensors are in spec ohm wise. I even switched them around to see and the lean bank remained the same. The seals in the cam area under the valve covers are most likely shot I still have a strong oil burning smell but no blue smoke out the tail pipe. I will do a proper compression test this weekend and check the timing. It was running fairly decent after replacing all these parts but the misfire never went away. Although I have taken the intake manifold off a couple times to replace a few things and there has been a little bit of oil around the intake for 1 and 2.

Heads, timing belt, all that fun stuff you should replace when you do a timing belt are on the list of **** to do.

I have replaced the intake manifold seal, the crankcase breather gasket wasn't even there so I replaced that with a new oem gasket, crankcase breather hose, throttle body seal, all new vacuum hose, suction pump, pcv valve, new bosch fuel filter(last Sunday) ignition plug wires, ignition coil(twice now), NGK Plugs, new radiator, the right coolant, coolant temp sensor, cylinder bank 1 camshaft position sensor, cold air intake, SAI delete, various hoses that were old and split or just tore up, new serp belt, fuel rail, fuel regulator, fuel injectors, a few nuts and bolts that were missing here and there, engine mounts, im sure there is a few more engine parts ive replaced also this was just a list off the top of my head. Replaced the cats with straight pipe and that made it run a tad better.

 

Try unplugging the MAF. It's possible that it's failed and you'll force it into "open loop" by unplugging it. If it's able to run, the timing is likely fine.

 

Update- I unplugged the MAF and it ran a little better. I could not see through VCDS if there was a misfire. The misfire Status said disabled but with it plugged in it misfired like hell. Unplugged, the coolant temp symbol on the LCD display went away and it idled a bit smoother. I checked codes and did not get any misfire codes, obviously I got a MAF code but when I cleared that the car died. Thanks for the tip. I will be ordering a new MAF. Cheers!

 

You might try spraying some MAF cleaner on it before you spend $$ for a new one. Don't know if you've ever had an oil soaked air cleaner on it but those are particularly prone to make a mess of the MAF.