I'll try to keep this short and to the point. 1999.5 AEB A4 B5 1.8tqm. Car had a blown head gasket. Pulled the head, covered up the block, and tarped the car. Winter happened. Car sat for about a year. It got warm and I reassembled it, changed the oil. I checked timing, turned the engine by hand many times. Lined up both timing marks I marked on the belt on disassembly. I had a quarter tank of gas, thought it might be bad. Added 5 gallons of new gas, and injector cleaner that cleans, removes moisture from gas, and octane booster. It was like $10. Had car hooked up to my wrangler with jumper cables. Thing cranks and chugs a little like it wants to start, but doesn't start. I sprayed starter fluid in the throttle body and it didn't help. All connectors connected except one that when I searched the number on it said "Hood latch wiring harness" not sure what that's for since Hood latch is mechanical and I don't see anything for it to plug into. I'm gonna try to pull the plugs and see if they're soaked in fuel, see if I have spark (it started before hand and coils and plugs stayed inside the house for the winter.) I'm worried timing jumped a tooth. Let me know what you guys think.

 

Compression-Spark-Fuel. Does it seem like the compression is good? If you have, or can borrow a gauge, see what they are. Spark might be the issue, especially if you used some starter fluid and that didn't help. How about the codes? You might be missing a critical signal that VAG-COM, or even a generic OBD reader, might show.

 

Found that I had no compression. Looks like the timing bekt jumped a tooth. I hope my valves are okay.

 

The belt should not "jump a tooth" after you had it all set. With no compression, it's probably more than one tooth off. You might want to inspect those cams and lifter faces, to see if any have gaps between them.

 

Lifters and cams look good. No gaps and 16 rollers between timing chain. I'm starting to question if the marks on the belt are wrong and it's timing is off. Which leads me to my noob question: when you get a new belt, how do you know which tooth goes where if there are no markings on the belt? Timing chains have marked or different color rollers as well as marked gears. These only have markings on the gears, valve cover, and lower tb cover. My lower cover is all beat up from age and I can't see a mark on it to even confirm timing with the crank pulley. But I put a screw driver on piston of cylinder one through spark plug hole, and it's totally at TDC. I'm lost now. Ideas?

P. S I had the head all the way apart and put it back together if that indicates anything else. But I watched it spinning with Vc off and everything looks normal. I might pill off intake manifold to look at valves through the holes...might just pull the head again.

 

there are no marks on the belt. the belt doesn't care were it is. there are marks on the crank and on the cam sprockets that must be set correctly. plenty of write ups on this procedure.