Those of you of a nervous disposition might want to skip ahead a bit here so here's a picture of some ridiculously cute bunnies:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554153016









Are you still here? Are you really sure???

Here's Lisbeth and Gizmo while you prepare yourself....

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554153016


Ok, don't say I didn't warn you......





http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554154319








This is the driver's side tensioner as it came out :eek:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554153016


Holy ****!!! The pad broke in half on the drive here :eek2: The engine literally had minutes to live! I removed the tensioner and the pad stayed in the engine, broken in half sitting on the chain. One more cold start and it would have spat out the pieces of the pad and valves would have met pistons.

I had to go and have some cake after I found this. I forgot to take any more photos.


Talk about dodging a bullet.

Thanks goodness for the bunnies, cats and cake! That was a near miss for Stephen. I wonder what mine will be like?

So close :-(

MJ - wife wants to knnow the breed of the cats (not interested in the near engine fatality...)?

They are Maine Coons :) They're about a year old in the pic. They are both considerably larger now!

I want another Maine Coon - loved mine (30th birthday present!) - this time we should have two +++

Great swerve on the engine destruction stakes!

Just for information, here's a genuine Audi timing belt hydraulic tensioner next to an INA one. They clearly came out of the same mould, but the INA one is missing the Audi logo and part number:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

The water ways are similarly as spotless as the internals

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

New pump and thermostat and all new original bolts. The old bolts have the familiar green zinc coating (well, most of them are rusty by now), but new ones are black. This is a new coating which mixes better with aluminium and lasts longer.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

A familiar mess down at the crank sprocket

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

That's better

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

This bushing thing has to come out - its just a sliding fit so a couple of magnetic pick-up sticks can encourage it out

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

With the oil seal removed the oil pump chain is visible. The sprocket for this is actually driven by friction from the bushing which is held in by the crank sprocket.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

New oil seal in

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

Bushing back in and sprocket back on with a new bolt. The torque on this bolt is immense - 240Nm then 180° :eek2:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

Belt all done

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554242333

Epic!

The bung on the front of the inlet manifold tends to perish and fall off leaving a big vacuum leak. This is an enterprising solution, but not good enough :p

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

Better :)

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

Nicht gerfingerpoken rusty oil sumps :-( Obviously I poked this after refilling the oil, but I guess this is the best place for it to spring a leak. Sumps are still available new, but on back order so A8parts supplied a replacement next-day +++

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

Engine all buttoned up

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

Nice and clean now

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

On to the Milltek. This was originally a facelift system which had been modified to fit a pre-facelift. I had to modify it back again!

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

A couple of pieces of 60mm stainless tube tacked in place. This was actually several hours of fiddling and fettling which included adjusting the gearbox mounts to get the downpipes to line up!

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

Tig welded

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

All hooked up. Note no H-pipe. This was lost when it was originally modified and we decided to leave it out to see what it sounds like. Pretty damn epic actually :love:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1554410320

Looks at thread...

….looks at Bank Account...

+1 ;)