mtroxel

Bought a 98 A6 with a bad timing belt. Take out the plugs and can turn crankshaft about 60 degrees either way, but then something hits something. Sounds like its in the pass side head. So....if I take off the pass head, I should be able to do a compression check on the driver's side with no timing belt right?

I should be able to find the cam shaft position(basically where there's no spring pressure) where all valves are closed, and rotate the crank until the cylinder being tested is at TDC. If all cylinders are good, then the problems were all in the pass head.

Am I thinking right?

77'911

I would not bother if the timing belt broke while the car was running. There are going to be some bent valves at a minimum(usually exhaust, maybe a couple intake), just pull the heads. Hope that the belt didn't let go at higher rpm range.
Regards

DaveInSaltLake

then you could feasibly do a 'leak down' test using the method you've proposd. Probably impossible to do a real compression test with one head off.