3.7 Engine failure, lost all drive ... cont'd

[Oli18]

Hi chaps,

I've been a little quiet the last few weeks on both TSN and here apart from doing my bit to promote shiney A8 in the 'spotless' section.

I thought i'd give a little update on my 8 from when i last posted on TSN here

For anyone that wasn't quite up to date, here is what's happened in a nutshell...

My car died on me new years eve. I thought it was the gearbox. Later found out it was the cam chain in the drivers side cylinderhead that snapped. Took the car to Mastertechs in SW london and we set about finding a replacement cylinder...

I was quoted about 12 hrs of labour for diagnosis and putting a replacement cylinderhead back on. THe big thing for me was that the labour was in the region of £1,200-£1,300 and i would find the replacement head seperately. I kind of resided (as some of you know from the post on TSN) that i was going to fork out £1,600 which included sourcing a 2nd hand replacement cylinderhead as Audi charges £1,500 for the part alone which would have made the car a write off.

The great thing was that A8parts happen to have a 3.7L 42valve V8 from the same year as mine sat in their shop. THey were really good and allowed me to have the cylinder head off it despite knowing that it would be hard to sell the rest of the engine as a whole.

And so with the knowledge that i'd found a replacement cylinder head, i gave the garage the ok to strip down the remainder of the engine in prep for the new cylinder head to be fitted.

To cut a rather complex story very short, the cylinder head which seemed identical to the one on my car didn't fit It turns that there was a revision in the 3.7L 42v V8 in 2000 which meant that some cylinders had a built in Exhaust gas recurculation input and some didn't). My the garage has spent a number of hrs fitting the damn thing. THe total labour charge so far is £1,100 ish and i've not been able to find the correct cylinder head for it.

I'm at the end of my tethers - It was a push commiting to £1,600 already but now i'm already down atleast £1,100 in labour and some parts like gaskets, bolts, etc and to finish it off, i'd have to buy a new cylinder head with costs estimated at £2,900 to put the car back on the road.

THe thing is i'm now well over a grand into it without being able to claim that back. If i pull out now, i'll have lost that plus the car will be worthless.

THe alternative is that i cut my losses, take the car to a local yard (as its MOT ran out and i've got nowhere to store it should i have wanted to sell some of the parts) and spend a further £5k (minimum probably) on a FL S8??

i'd probably be 6.5k down the road and i'd still only have an S8 with 100k+ miles on the clock with questionable history.

Ideally i'd like to get a 2nd hand cylinder head still. I've been on some great sites (www.1stchoice.co.uk and www.247spares.co.uk) which taps into over 250 breakers around the country but although i got 3 responses, none of them had the right 3.7 42valve engine.

What do i do???

-Oli

PS thanks for all the well wishes from everyone on here and TSN

PPS - here some pics from when i was at the garage earlier...

What the camchain should look like (from another car):



My snapped cam chain:



My engine bay at the moment:



My poor 8:

[IT]

Originally Posted by Oli18

Hi chaps,

THe alternative is that i cut my losses, take the car to a local yard (as its MOT ran out and i've got nowhere to store it should i have wanted to sell some of the parts) and spend a further £5k (minimum probably) on a FL S8??

i'd probably be 6.5k down the road and i'd still only have an S8 with 100k+ miles on the clock with questionable history.

Ideally i'd like to get a 2nd hand cylinder head still. I've been on some great sites (www.1stchoice.co.uk and www.247spares.co.uk) which taps into over 250 breakers around the country but although i got 3 responses, none of them had the right 3.7 42valve engine.

What do i do???

-Oli

Hi Oli,

We're truely sorry to see your car come to a failed engine after all the hard work (and cash) you've put into upgrades, cleaning it and giving it more TLC than most. It seems only a few weeks ago we were finishing off the Sat Nav & TV etc in it.....

If you can't find a 2nd hand cylinder head for it, then it may well be the end of the road. Buying one new makes no sense, and there is no guarantees I guess that when thats done, you dont hit gearbox troubles round the next corner. We're on 1st choice, but there are few other breakers out there with 8's, so the lack of response doesn't surprise me...

We do have one option up our sleeve if you were interested - To part exchange your car against a 2000 4.2 facelift model we have here with low miles and a higher spec than yours. Its not on general sale, but we've had it 2 years and its barely turned a wheel in the last 12 months, so we wont miss it - If its of interest, get in touch.

[Conan_the_Librarian]

Oli,

Fella my heart is bleeding for you after all you effort and enthusiasm.

I hate to say this but maybe it's cut your loss time. Without the head where do you go?

Ian will make an good offer for the old girl I'm sure and a 4.2 would be nice wouldn't it?

Chin up friend.

[Conan_the_Librarian]

Just had a quick peek on autotrader. There a several 3.7s under 3 grand. maybe buy a doner car and transplant?

Dude that sucks..
you could give the place I found in Kent a call - Vehicle Workshops in Sandwich - give them a lookup on google and a call.. you never know what they have.. they are mostly VW but told me they have A8 parts too. Yes i know I shouldn't be telling him this - but in this case I hope not to get moderated just trying to help a brother in the struggle..

S

[PsYcHe]

Man, that sucks!

As harpersimon says, and might also be worth trying some of the on-line scrapyard places to see if anyone has a 3.7 floating around? Obviously, if A8parts had another 3.7, they'd be first to help as always, but sometimes it's not to be.

Or, swap to a 4.2 and move your upgrades across, then see what the residue is worth.

[Simon Wallwork]

Why don't you keep your original head casting and repair the head with bits from the one you bought to replace it?

Maybe not on because the orig casting is scrap?

[Ska]

What about a complete Engine Gearbox ECU/TCU transplant? financialy viable or not?

[IT]

Originally Posted by Ska

What about a complete Engine Gearbox ECU/TCU transplant? financialy viable or not?

We (a8parts) had considered that, but I think it will be out of the window on labour. First of all, you'd have to put back together the 3.7 we dismantled for the original head, and the timing needs sorting as the belt was removed for that. Of course you could try and source another 3.7 engine in one piece, but they're scarce by the looks of things...

Then the whole engine needs transplanting in, with the ECU, and the immobiliser will need recoding, which will be an Audi main dealer job

The reality is that with 160K+ on the clock, every chance of a gearbox problem around the next corner, and the engine being irreperable for any less than £1500-£2000 on a very good day, then it looks like the end of the road for Olis motor.....

High miles is the killer on value, and a car similar in mileage (albeit slightly lower spec, but newer) is currently available from Oscar Goldman here: http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk...cleRegLetter=Y

This puts Olis worth only around £3000 before the engine problems, but its tough to put a price on sentiment, and Oli 'Loves' *that* car....

We're all here to support you Oli whichever way you go

[Ska]

Gutted
Here's hoping you find a donor engine soon Oli

Damn.. sort of brings home the message on how it could be curtains for a lot us if something like this happened; and here's me putting off a service until there's a break in the weather Though something tells me there are a fair amount of ACK's floating about should the worst happen and I hope it doesn't.

Oli my German is crap & may be I'm clutching at straws but would it be worth a drive over to Gmbh? (whats your engine code & Gear box code again? something tells me it may be an AKC )
Anything on here for sourcing what you need?
http://shop.ebay.de/items/?_nkw=audi...+3.7&_osacat=0