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No power and backfire. Please help

2K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  Irfan.Kos 
#1 ·
Just recently bought my first mk2 golf. I had been looking for one for a while! It's a 1.8 8v.
The engine starts and runs very smoothly when just parked.
However when I go to drive the car it's severely lacks power. Like I have to floor it to make it to 50kmh a hour on a level road. The only thing that I notice that's not quite how it should be is that the exhaust backfires when I start to drive and let off the gas, while I'm coasting and the engine is not under load.
I recently changed all the spark plugs, spark plug leads, distributor cap and spinny thing in the distributor, timing belt, fuel filter, engine oil and filter, battery, alternator and air filter. This has not helped the issue at all.
Anyone have any ideas on what it could be?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
 
#6 ·
Sounds like the timing is way off.
Someone may have forgotten to tighten the distributor down or the belt could have slipped.
I was timing another car and forgot to remove the vacuum advance. Exact issues,

Easy to check by looking at the timing marks on the back of the cam sprocket, intermediate shaft sprocket and crank shaft pulley.
The cam should align with the top of the cylinder head, and the crank shaft and intermediate shaft should align together. check to see that the rotor is pointing towards the #1 spark plug.
 
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