2.25 petrol lumpy, help an engine noob please

Hi guys,
Im prepping my s3 88 for its first MOT in 7 years (I purchased it SORN a few weeks ago.

I have re-wired her and replaced plugs, leads, rotor arm, dizzy cap, condenser and the coil.
It now starts on the button but sounds as if it misses a beat every so often.

problem is I cant find any timing cover on fly wheel case and there is no needle on the front crank for timing.
Short of whipping the rocker cover off to find TDC for cylinder NO.1 how on earth do I find 6 BTDC?

Or is it even a timing issue, please have a listen to vid and offer any advice you can guys.
Im a total noob to engines so be gentle

missing a beat every minuet or so at idle isnt an issue,if it drives fine ,pulley should have a mark though probably very hard to see ,marking with white paint etc helps , a timing pointer can or should be bolted to timimg cover bolts at about 1 oclock

Hi James long time no speak!
no timing pointer at all on my block-appears to have had head redone at some
point (black not green) so I'm guessing it didn't get put back!
Does it sound ok to you?

thanks in advance
Joe

just listened ,not quite right from what i could here , you can fit a pointer they are sometimes left off during rebuilds ,there should be a square hole in flywheel housing for a pointer there too ,but fronts handy for strobe

just ordered a timing pointer off ebay... just gotta work out what two bolts I need next!!

James,
Is this the timing mark in crank pulley:


Also am I putting pointer in the right place/right way up:


Bloody bolt won't come out without removing pulley!!!
Is pulley easy to remove/keyed?

cheers bud
Joe

no upside down but the right bolts as one needs pulley moving to get bolt out unless you slot pointer large tooth in the middle is tdc use a strobe at tick over to get 6 degrees btdc at idle , its tdc static

cheers mate, the nick in my pulley is timing market right?

Think it's easier if I slot bracket..thanks for your help as always

yes nick is ,a little white paint etc helps to see it

is the pointer beside large pointer 3 or 6 btdc?

overhauled and greased my distributir today, the new Britpart points pads were too high and couldn't get any gap at maximum lobe!! cleaned old points and set static timing..running a lot nicer!

My Ducillier distributor is looking quite tired so I brought an accuspark digital Lucas one if ebay to replace it next week..

what you reckon to sound now?

http://i548.photobucket.com/albums/...9C6DB2F-1590-000000E17E0E2A32_zps30b8d065.mp4

Did you time it ok in the end? Its not easy to do dynamic timing as the manual gives settings for lower octane fuels and its sometimes hard to get the motor idling low enough to give no centrifugal advance. I ended up at around 8/9 degrees at idle with vac advance still on, no idea what RPM but pretty low. That seemed to be sweetest setting.

I found an elec dizzy to be far easier to maintain in terms of checking points etc... You can't static time them though to my knowledge. But well worth it.

Just make sure you mark the position of the rotor arm before you remove the old one and don't touch the motor during the swap (don't crank it over or move the crank at all). Dizzy only fits one way and just line up the rotor as previous and make sure your leads are in the correct order, exactly as before.

To find TDC on comp stroke, remove the #1 plug and crank the motor by jumping the solenoid with your finger over the plug hole. Keep an eye on the marker on the pully and when it lines up with your new TDC pointer AND your finger gets popped off the hole, that's TDC compression stroke. You can use the crank handle alternatively. On mine, TDC compression had the rotor pointing at the front n/s headlight, but I've no idea if that's factory or if yours has been set up different. Just be aware that you can select any point on the cap to be #1, so it may be different on yours.
good luck

yep i got her timed up in the end but i havent fitted the electronic dizzy yet.
I fitted the timing pointer and aligned to 6DBTDC, checked with a bulb and re-fitted. It sounded ok but not great so i adjusted the housing slightly until it sounded sweet - not sure what rpm it is running at but it is quite slow!

i will fit the electronic dizzy this weekend and report back how I get on.
My rotor too points at spark plug 1 (towards ns light) at 6DBTDC