01 Beetle #2 cylinder has a miss, any Ideas??

I just bouhgt the car, it has a rattle in the upper engine area, soung like a fuel knock. The number #2 cylinder in not firing, I loosened the fuel line one at a time with it running and found the dead cylinder? Could it be the injector? I have fuel coming from the pump to the injector. I will do a compresion check tomorrow. I don't see any blow-by thought the oil fill so I'm thinking it's a fuel issue. Are there any known issues with the TDI fuel systems I should be aware of. Any help on this would be great.

Probably a cracked lifter. The compression check will tell for sure.

Is a cracked lifter a common problem??

Autobahn Garage said:

Is a cracked lifter a common problem??

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That depends on who did the last timing belt... I have one here at my house that had 3 cracked lifters, one fully busted up lifter, and 2 rounded cam lobes from a buggered up timing belt install.. Messed up part is the car ran pretty decent and had good, even compression.. Just had a tick.....

You are not looking at a "common problem". Lifters do crack, injectors do clog. I'd say 70-30 injector-lifter. Actually, 10 something else, so spread that among the lifter and injector.

Thanks guy's I'll look into it today and keep you posted

No compression on #2 cylinder, so I removed the cam cover. WOW the #2 intake lifter was gone LOT's of parts and the end of the valve was just sitting there, so I pulled the head. I need a good cylinder head with cam shaft, and one piston. The rest of the engine is in great shape. Does anyone have a used head??

check out bleached bora and other vendors and private members in the
forsale section, pistons are matched weight in pairs, the weights are printed on the pistons.

You'll have to remove the piston and try to get the same weight or very very close to it. you may end up having to buy a pair.

you may be able to have your head rebuilt, but any way you go it won't be inexpensive.

Thanks for the reply, I know it will not be cheap to repair but I will only do it correctly no short cuts, I have looked at used engines but I would rather rebuild what I have and know what Ive got. The car is in nice shape and with the cost of gasoline it make good sence to repair it

The next step you need to take is to measure the piston protrusion to make sure you haven't bent a connecting rod. The measurement is done from the deck of the block to the top of the piston with the piston at TDC. The pistons should measure within .002" of each other, typically. If more than that, you either have a crushed piston top or a bent rod.

If you have a bent rod, I have replacements. You need the number on the bottom of the rod to get an appropriate replacement. The number relates to the gram weight of the rod (example a 565 gram rod would have "65" on the bottom of the rod cap)

I will measure the protrusion tomorrow, do you have any other parts? Head, piston, etc??