*not skoda related*

Heres one for you lot.
My father in law changed the cam belt on my other half's vw polo the other week.

The now refuses to start at all. Engine turns over no  problem. Back fires now and again but still doesent start! Water pump & cam belt have been changed along with new spark plugs, ht leads and a coil pack.
Has any one got any idears or thoughts at all?

Year of polo, what engine is in it? Were the fuel lines disconnected? Has the timing and tension been checked and doubles checked? 

it a 1 liter 2001 model. As far as i'm aware the fuel lines havent been disturbed.

Cam timing, possibly quite a way out.

 

Go back to old school, turn the engine to TDC with number 1 cylinder on the firing stroke, both cams should be facing away from the valve buckets (I'm assuming its an OHC) and an equally angle to the other, then check the cam lobes on number 4 cylinder both valves should be partially open and moving the crankshaft backwards and forwards until the valves just close should be more or less an equal amount of degrees in both directions.

 

I am not advocating this method to time the cams but for checking, in the absence of timing marks it will suffice and at worst would be one tooth out, I have had many an engine where component tolerances and perhaps a head skim has meant that the timing marks were imprecise, mark is misaligned between 2 tooth pitches, I have always found the correct one by going old school.

 

I have also bought cars that just seemed a little flat, if I was told or could see the cam belt had been changed I would do the old school check and it would usually reveal incorrect cam timing.

 

It comes from the even older school method of correctly aligning the helical rotor shaft drive of a mechanical distributor on a pushrod engine - "rocking on 1 = firing on 4"

I can have a look !

 

‒ → Set camshaft sprocket to mark -arrow A-.

‒ Set crankshaft to TDC No. 1 cylinder. The ground tooth on the crankshaft toothed belt pulley must align with the marking -2V- on the sealing flange -arrow B-.