WITW - Ricky's van attack

[MikkiJayne]

On to the driver's side head. Some impressive tramlines in this tensioner!





This head has been apart before and whoever did the work didn't re-seal the end cap, hence the oil leak at this end. You can see the original sealant is dark and contaminated with oil



The end of the head is too clean! No trace of sealant here.



It has been apart to replace the tensioner, and one of the dowel sleeves got lost in the process. There should be two here. Unfortunately, these are not available as a spare part.



The sleeve isn't stuck in the tensioner either. The gauze has disintegrated on this side and gone through the tensioner, as usual. Luckily the start pin still locks up, but the non-return valve isn't functioning any more so oil can leak back out of the tensioner. This will rattle a little bit on start up but not destructively so.



Luckily I am a high-functioning hoarder so I have a dead cylinder head in a box which can donate a dowel sleeve



and here it is



The non-return valve, not valving and dribbling slightly



Both dowel sleeves holding the new gasket in place



Assembly lube on the cam



The merest whiff of sealant on the end cap. Less is more here - too much and it will block the oil drains



A tiny but even bead squishes out when the cap is bolted down. No more leak here.



New knock sensors



One of the water pipes back in place



The water temperature sensor is rusted in place so I will remove this and replace it while the engine is out. If this were to fail with the engine in place it would not be a pleasant job to replace it with it being so crusty, and a Febi replacement is £6

[MikkiJayne]

The temperature sensor actually came out in one piece after soaking overnight in WD40, but it is so corroded I will replace it anyway.



A bit crusty in there! It cleaned up find with scotchbrite though



Inlet manifold back on





On to the front crank seal which was weeping a bit. I had to use a bearing puller to get the sprocket off which is highly unusual. It turns out there was some corrosion in there which I've not seen before



Rust spot on the crank - this cleaned up nicely with scotchbrite too



The crank pulley is a mess. Ricky mentioned this fell off a few years ago, and it is very bruised from where it was rattling around before it let go. I will replace this with a good used one as its not really salvageable without a lot of work, and the bolts don't torque up properly with it in this state. They sort of squish in to place rather than seating nicely which doesn't bode well for it staying place in the future.



The new seal was fitted with the special tool I made for the last engine



New bolt torqued to 200Nm + 180°

[strummagnet]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

New bolt torqued to 200Nm + 180°

Hi MJ, are you tourqueing against the crank locking pin only?

[MikkiJayne]

Yes, just the locking pin - thats what the spec says. I have to stand on one leg of the engine stand while applying force to the 1m long breaker bar to get the 180° so that the whole lot doesn't just flip over!

[spannerrash]

I have always had a concern that the high torque requirement for the crank bolt might sheer off the end of the locking pin.I tend to try and lock the crank using the old timing belt. That said, I've not done the front oil seal on an a8 yet but have done it twice on a v6 A4 (B6). Timing gear setup is different but crank pulley is the same and torque requirements the same.

[89forever]

Originally Posted by spannerrash

I have always had a concern that the high torque requirement for the crank bolt might sheer off the end of the locking pin.I tend to try and lock the crank using the old timing belt. That said, I've not done the front oil seal on an a8 yet but have done it twice on a v6 A4 (B6). Timing gear setup is different but crank pulley is the same and torque requirements the same.

you MUST not torque up using the belt method, you are putting the full force of the torque against the woodruff key on the pulley which is only a cast piece, you will sheer this and destroy your engine.... the workshop manual and how MJ does it is correct.
The factory way of holding the crank whether V8, V6 or inline 5 are the only way to do the belts...

[89forever]

you must always inspect this area and change the pulley as a matter of course if in doubt... the pulley is cheaper than a wrecked engine...

i speak from years of inline 5 experience and too many destroyed engines sadly.... i learned the hard way... the toothed belt version of the V8 shares a similar pulley arrangement.

[The_Laird]

I wonder if we will ever see a WITW where MJ strips it down to find everything has been done properly before it arrived in her workshop?

I’ve said before that I’ve twice been charged by different ‘Audi Independents’ for Audi parts for a car belt change, to discover at the next change that non-Audi parts had been used.

And I once paid for an indy to my tracking yo find that when I picked the car up that the steering wheel was heck of an angle - they’d taken it around the corner to Kwik Fit as their machine was broken!

Goodness knows what else that I don’t know about. Thank goodness my car’s had a visit to The Doctor.

[tintin]

"The new seal was fitted with the special tool I made for the last engine"

How many "special tools" do you have?

[MikkiJayne]

There's a drawer in the toolbox just for special tools Mostly home made replicas of the factory items, although I do have a few manufactured ones too, mostly for engine timing.