In the process of finishing up putting a new head on my motor (timing belt went and bent valves). I got a rebuilt head and put a new cam chain tensioner in and made certain the notches on the Cams lined up with the arrows on the cam bearings in the rear of the head along with 16 links between the cam gears. While putting the Timing Belt on I noticed the notch on theCam gear for the Timing Belt did NOT match up with the mark on the head, it is about 1 cam chain tooth retarded, I'll guessless than 10 degrees.

So my question is: DO I go by the 2 Cam marks near thechain for the 2 camsor the 1 cam gear mark for the timing belt?

99 A4 1.8 AEB

 

i think your over thinking this~ as long as the chain end is ok, your good to go. when you put the t belt on, things may move a bit....so the belt wont jive with the chain

 

not too ure but cincytt and techbod should know

 

Was putting the rest of the motor together and it just didn't look right, the timing belt was hanging over the Cam gear about 1/4 inch towards the head. Took it all apart and removed the Cam gear to find the inner tooth, where it grabs the cam, had sheared OFF! Ordering a near TB cam gear and will update once I get it on...... Wait for a full description of the whole ordeal.... with pics...the joys of doing a TB and head change in the winter.



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Where did you get the replacement head? We bought a car ('98 A4 1.8)with 97,000 miles that had the belt go out at 96,000 miles. It then had a complete rebuild. At 114,000 miles the tensioner broke. Why oh why would anyone reinstall (didn't look new) the old style tensioner?

 

the actual system is a timing belt set up and the secondary cam chain for the second cam is a pain to say the least and the amount of teeth is questionable and not my area but I will check

 

Just curious how many miles did your car have when the belt broke??? i need to replace mine i'm scared it might break soon.

 

OK got the new Cam gear and put it in, timing belt was fine, not overhanging. The mark on the cam gear was still off a little, about 3 teeth on the cam gear, timing belt side. Put everything back together,do several rotations by hand on the crank nut... turns fine,go to start it up... cranks for 3-4 minutes but doesn't turn over. Starting fluid and charge the battery.... slowly fired up and ran rough, very noticable Ticking, sounded like my old VW Diesel... then notinced a major leak coming out of the cam sensor. Shut down, tightened the cam sensor, restart.... took 2 minutes to finally start up... and the cam sensor is still leaking..... running rough and still had the ticking.

Checked the old head and noticed there is a seal between the cam sensor and the cam... can't recall if the rebuilt head had one, presumed it had a new one installed.... but I did have to take the cams off to install the new cam chain tensioner and now thinking it over... probably doesn't have one in... too tired and late to rip the cam sensor off to confirm. Fixing the cam leak is not a big problem... bigger issue is the timing problem.

Obviously the cam's are out of line with the timing belt.... Will try to hook up to see how retarded or advance the timing is and then remove the timing belt from the cam gear and move it accordingly.....

ANY suggestions out there...... seems I might have bitten off a lot more than I can chew here....
Car had 106k when it went.

Got the rebuilt head from a company in FL, Clearwater Cylinder Head, Inc. They are on Ebay, got it for $850.

 

OK finally done and the car is running OK.... only took a month!

Put the new cam seals in and no leaks. I'm an idiot for not realizing they were needed!

Now onto the Cam gear! Got the new one in... noticed why I had installed the original one incorrectly. The cam gear can be installed BOTH was AND it had timing marks on BOTH sides!!!

OK Pics below are how the cam gear can be installed... with the lettering out or in... the lettering should go in, facing the Head....

Got it all back together..... lines the cam gear timing mark wiht the mark on the head, so the cam and crank marks were aligned.... started right up.

Put it all back together.... now I can't get the bumper to catch on the clips near the wheel wells.... replaced something as complicated as a head and the only thing I can do is the last part of the bidy work! LOL!!!

Will post an indepth desciption of the whole ordeal.

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Nice work, glad you got it sorted! Thanks for posting the results.