Knocking Problem

i've got a 95 elagle talon tsi with turbo. we just set the timing for the crank & the cams, and now the engine will not stay running. it idles REALLY rough & dies when u take uu'r foot off the gas. also, seems to back fires on piston two

So the first question is, did you make sure the timing is actually correct?

yep because that is usually the syptoms of incorrect timing.

the timing is right but someone told me that all i had to do was unplug the timing plug & plug it back in. my question is, where is the timing plug?

I don't know about any "timing plug"??? You need to re check the timing marks and make sure they are dead on. Especially pay attention to the cam sprockets as they are really easily mistaken for being correct when they are in fact half a tooth off. If the car ran fine before the timing belt change and all you did was the timing belt, then you're timing marks are off.

Follow the steps at www.vfaq.com to verify you did it right, or whoever did it.

are you sure the timming is right? It being off a few degrees can hurt in some way.

the timing is right but someone told me that all i had to do was unplug the timing plug & plug it back in. my question is, where is the timing plug?

I'm assuming you are talking about the diagnostic plug that you can ground to hold ignition timing to 5 degrees so you can set it accurately, only found on 95s, brown, behind the battery/cruise control on the firewall harness section. It has nothing to do with valve timing specifically, but any change to intake cam timing can affect ignition timing (perhaps not on 2Gs with stock sensors).

If this happened only after changing cam timing, and you are absolutely certain the timing is correct, I would start to look for things not plugged in during reassembly. Any check engine lights?