Disappointingly the Car-SOS crew have not turned up yet, so in their absence, I'm cracking on.
The engine bay needed a degrease and general clean. For this I broke out the smallest cleaning device I have. It operates on Ice-cream & Fortnite V-Bucks. Works quite well.
End result
The inlet manifold was next to be tackled. As mentioned ealrier one set of flaps was really sticky. Cleaning up the spindles didn't have much effect, and I ended up splitting the casing open.
To give and idea of the stickyness inside, this is how the exterior at the throttle body looks.
I've got a new gasket for the above to collect from Audi on Monday.
Based on the price of it, I'm assumning the parts department has one of those 'hand over' areas, where my humble heap of expensive bits will be lurking under a Audi branded handkechief. Using much drama and fanfair, the parts guy will unveil the parts and present my wife with some flowers. I can't wait.
Lots and lots of penetrating oil later applied to the bushings and it still felt sticky on one side. The shaft can't easily be drifted out, so it was really just a case of cleaning it as best as possible. I did wonder if the flaps themselves were tacky with the oily residue that's coated it.
A bit of aggressive cleaning with oven cleaner & hot water....
After much scubbing and cleaning it's perhaps slightly better. I let it dry and then put some more penetrating oil into the bushings and left it a while.
Today I finsihed off cleaning the inlet manifold parts and decided to re-assemble it.
Applied sealant into the groove of the lower casing. I took the old piece of silicone out carefuly in one piece. It looked like it had been gunned in rather than being an actual gasket, so I decided a sealant would be sufficient.
I'll check in the inlet ports to ensure there's no surplus selant that oozed out of the joint.
Longer term I think I'll keep an eye out for a complete inlet from an S8 being broken.
Lid on, torqued evenly, and the linkages all cleaned and re-assembled. It's better than it was, but time will tell if it's operating properly.
Earlier in the week, I took the sump off as this was leaking to some extent. Initially I was going to take the casting that it mounts to, off as well. However, school boy error - realised I'd mounted the engine stand to a bolt hole of that casting. A bit more examination makes me think the oil is not coming from betwene the crankcase and the lower casting, so I decided to leave it in place.
Sump off
The strainer was decent condition and not contaminated which was a welcome sight.
The sump was duly cleaned and re-sealed.
Winding things back....
I managed to get the figure of 8 shaped seal in the above image. Seemingly this was the last one from the factory... Not sure if that means we are now stuck with US sourced ones from eBay. I've not checked Tradition as yet.
Next week I should hopefully be re-installing the inlet manifold, and the oil filter/cooler assembly. Might splash out on some service items next or take a look at the timing chains.
All this is stalling tactics before having to give the transmission over to a specialist..
Brian