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Its actually not as complicated as the subject title. The question is: Muir says to set the valves at .006", cold, at TDC. A couple months ago I did this. According to Muir's version of TDC. Not too long ago, I discovered TDC was the 2nd, not the 1st, notch in from the left on my engine. Hmm. I thought. I should reset the valve clearance for TDC as I now know it. Then I thought, Well, How do I know where cylinder # 2 is then? Muir says its at the leftmost of the bridged three-teeth section, 180 from the TDC mark. But if my TDC mark is in a bit from where Muir said it is, then I should move in a bit on the three-tooth bridged section. But how much in? So I checked Bentley. Bentley says to set valve clearance for #1 when the rotor for the distributor is in #1 position. Uh oh, now wait a minute. I just timed my distributor and because of my distributor #1 fires a little before 7.5 BTDC. Bentley says nothing about the notches in the engine and only mentions that with the distrib pointing to #1, cyl. 1 will be "almost at TDC" . 7.5 - 8.5 BTDC seems like quite distant from "almost" TDC to me, and I spent a good two hours trying to think my way through the basic principles of the engine to figure out where to set my valve clearances. So my questions are: 1) Do I set my valves at where #1 is on the distributor WHEN ITS PROPERLY TIMED? Therefore, should I always be sure my timing is right before setting my valve clearances? Or do I set them at 0 TDC as the engine marks them, and therefore since my car has notches at -5, 0, +5, 7.5 for cyls #1 &3, how do I accurately (or close enough, if thats good enough) know where 2 and 4 are? 2) For anyone who has the time: Why? This applies especially if valve clearance should be set according to distributor fire, because I'm not sure why if I have a distrib thats set at 7.5 BTDC I should set valves there, and if I get a new distrib thats set hypothetically at 0 TDC I should set valves there. Whats the mechanics of it? Shouldn't the cylinder always be at it's peak? I dont get it. Looking forward to some good answers to this. Hope the questions are clear enough. Thanks alot for all your help and support folks, have a good trip Jim. Still didnt get a chance to study my fuel hoses yet. Mike ------------------------------------------------------------------- List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list or mailto:help@vwtype3.org