Recently had a timing belt break in my 2002 jetta tdi and when i looked for damage i found all of my lifters looked like the valve stems had tried to almost drive up through the center of them. So i figured i would take my time and tear this car apart myself as a learning experience and try to fix it. I Took the head off and had it cleaned and inspected and it came back ok with all new valves. I now have all the tools, parts, and manual to start putting it back together. But have a question need help with...
Since i had the head off i could inspect and clean all the piston heads best i could. And i have been turning the crank by hand to kind of study piston position when you line up the mark on the bell housing at TDC. When you do this and if the mark i was seeing was lined up correct at the bottom edge of the window on an automatic... the piston is a little lower then the top edge of the cylinder. Maybe a 1/4 or 1/2 inch. But as i keep spinning the crank over to clean the pistons i notice that the pistons still travel up to the very lip of the cylinder which doesnt seem like it would leave room for the injector tips, glow, plugs, or even valves that stick out just a hair out of the cylinder head and seems like it would surely make contact with those parts.
So my question is at TDC should the piston head be a 1/4 or 1/2 inch below the top of the cylinder and then start traveling down if the car was put back together and running? And if so what keeps it from traveling that last half inch or so up the cylinder to keep from contact with bottom parts of the cylinder head?? Or maybe im wrong about where the mark was all together and somebody can offer advice??
Any help or info appreciated.. thanks. Ill try to post some pics of what im talking about.
Since i had the head off i could inspect and clean all the piston heads best i could. And i have been turning the crank by hand to kind of study piston position when you line up the mark on the bell housing at TDC. When you do this and if the mark i was seeing was lined up correct at the bottom edge of the window on an automatic... the piston is a little lower then the top edge of the cylinder. Maybe a 1/4 or 1/2 inch. But as i keep spinning the crank over to clean the pistons i notice that the pistons still travel up to the very lip of the cylinder which doesnt seem like it would leave room for the injector tips, glow, plugs, or even valves that stick out just a hair out of the cylinder head and seems like it would surely make contact with those parts.
So my question is at TDC should the piston head be a 1/4 or 1/2 inch below the top of the cylinder and then start traveling down if the car was put back together and running? And if so what keeps it from traveling that last half inch or so up the cylinder to keep from contact with bottom parts of the cylinder head?? Or maybe im wrong about where the mark was all together and somebody can offer advice??
Any help or info appreciated.. thanks. Ill try to post some pics of what im talking about.