# Doing Head gaskets...Question about timing marks and TDC on 2.7T engine



## robv27 (Feb 22, 2002)

Hello, I have a weird situation going on here and need some help. Long story short, my Friend has a 2001 S4 2.7T and his bank 1 head gasket blew, so he's replacing both head gaskets, and all the timing belt stuff. Anyway. he called me to help pulling the heads out and when i got there everything was done except to the timing belt and head bolts were still in the head, and i found something weird and want to ask about it. I know cyl #1 is the very front one on pass side of motor. so to be sure everything was good as far as timing before we took the heads out, i put the crank pulley notch right on the arrow on the plastic cover, and on the cam pulleys i aligned them with the "bigger holes" on the cam pulley wings facing inside, and inside of the heads i matched the litle triangles to the notches of the cams. So everything was looking good as it was suppose to be, but i decided to pull spark plug number one out and put a crew driver in it to see if piston #1 was up, and it was not!!! it was all the way down!!! my question is, if everything is lined up as it should, (crank pulley notch w/ arrow on plastic cover, and cam pulley BIG holes on the Cam pulley wings facing inside)shouldn't the pistom number 1 be all the way up, and not down like it was?? My friend did take the timing belt tensioner off, and left a #7 allen wrench resting on the PS pump without the tensioner, and i asked him if he messed w/ the timing at all and he swears he didn't. So eigther i'm going crazy w/ the piston number 1 being down or he messed w/ it. Any input on this will be greatly appreciated. We already took the heads out and sent them to the machine shop but now we'll have to put them back in and i'm a little confused Thanks again for any input.


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## robv27 (Feb 22, 2002)

please let me know if you know also, the head bolts torque specs and torquening order, Thanks again!!!


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## PoVolks (Oct 2, 2003)

robv27 said:


> Hello, I have a weird situation going on here and need some help. Long story short, my Friend has a 2001 S4 2.7T and his bank 1 head gasket blew, so he's replacing both head gaskets, and all the timing belt stuff. Anyway. he called me to help pulling the heads out and when i got there everything was done except to the timing belt and head bolts were still in the head, and i found something weird and want to ask about it. I know cyl #1 is the very front one on pass side of motor. so to be sure everything was good as far as timing before we took the heads out, i put the crank pulley notch right on the arrow on the plastic cover, and on the cam pulleys i aligned them with the "bigger holes" on the cam pulley wings facing inside, and inside of the heads i matched the litle triangles to the notches of the cams. So everything was looking good as it was suppose to be, but i decided to pull spark plug number one out and put a crew driver in it to see if piston #1 was up, and it was not!!! it was all the way down!!!


 you are 180 out, or one full crank rotation off tdc. The crank gear turns 2 full rotations for every one camshaft rotation. The cam gear alignment tool and crank lock will not allow for this mistake. 



robv27 said:


> my question is, if everything is lined up as it should, (crank pulley notch w/ arrow on plastic cover, and cam pulley BIG holes on the Cam pulley wings facing inside)shouldn't the pistom number 1 be all the way up, and not down like it was?? My friend did take the timing belt tensioner off, and left a #7 allen wrench resting on the PS pump without the tensioner, and i asked him if he messed w/ the timing at all and he swears he didn't. So eigther i'm going crazy w/ the piston number 1 being down or he messed w/ it. Any input on this will be greatly appreciated. We already took the heads out and sent them to the machine shop but now we'll have to put them back in and i'm a little confused Thanks again for any input.


 You really need a crank lock when doing a tb service. It is a cheap tool that screws into the side of the block on the driver-side near the base of the dip stick tube. Do you have the cam alignment tool? These are essential to get it right the first time! Gotta pretension that belt to 15nm before torquing the cam bolts and removing the cam and crank locking tools!


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