[T3] Top Dead Center

[Chris Sheridan]

After thinking this through a bit more, you probably can't ignore the notch
position.

Crank pulleys on bugs and buses can have any number of notch variations,
depending what year beetle or bus they came off of, whether it's an
emissions beetle, brazilian rebuild etc, and they're all interchangeable.
However, As everyone on this list will confirm, the type 3 has a unique fan
pulley, so all type 3 pulleys likely just have the one set of notches which
should be at the top position to be correct.

Yes there is an off chance that you have a hi performance cam in there
 that would account for the Notch repositioning but I wouldn't bet on it
yet. Is there any evidence of mild street performance enhancements? Did it
have an 009 distributor on there when you got it? Also there is a remote
chance that they once made an aftermarket type 3 fan pulley, but I've never
heard of one. As Jim and others have stated, better safe then sorry you
should assume you are running with 23 degrees of advance on a stock cam
until proven different.

You say the car is running smoothly now. This is often the case when the
timing is advanced too much. Does it feel like it wants to surge off the
line? After driving it for 15 minutes open the engine compartment can you
hold your hands over the motor and feel heat rising noticeably? Does it
smell like burnt oil?  these may be indications of advanced timing.

The best thing you can do is go over everything. I stand by my method of
finding TDC for # 1, but it can be confusing because you can quite easily
mistake TDC#3 for TDC#1 if you are not very observant. The ultimate test is
the what Jim has suggested, remove your number one spark plug and put a
coat hanger down the hole to feel for the piston. If after doing that test
then I think you can assume that you have a mild engle cam or something in
there that is causing the notch to be off.
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