Oops, I did it again!

[MikkiJayne]

December is 'Broken S8 month' at MJ's it seems...

I've preserved the pics from the ebay listing since I forgot to take any when I got it home.









This is a very very pretty car. I've had many silver Audis and specifically didn't want a silver S8 when I bought mine, but Avus Silver just has something about it, especially with the red leather. I really want to keep it when it's finished, but I'd have to get rid of the Dolphin Grey one and I've invested too much time, love, and money in to that one to ever sell it

Ironically, this car is in far better condition than the Dolphin Grey. No seized bolts yet, all nice and tidy underneath, and the bodywork is pretty spotless as far as I can tell so far. It doesn't appear to have been painted, and doesn't look to have any door-dings or body damage at all apart from scruffy bumpers which are easily sorted. Its got the usual broken body studs around the exhaust heat shields, but that's easy to rectify.

The gearbox is leaking all over the place, but has documented history of 5L oil changes from Audi which is great news, and the oil is clean and free of clutch material. A full oil change and re-seal and that should be good to go.

The headrests are indeed aftermarket items which have been coloured to match the rest of the interior. I have a receipt for the rear-seat entertainment system including the Nokia handsfree system from 2012 for £1700 The guy sold it 12 months later!

Interestingly the data sticker doesn't have a paint code on it, and claims the interior is platinum with Vavona wood which it very much isn't! Its much darker than Vavona, more so even than the maple in the Dolphin Grey. Anyone have any ideas what an Avus FE should have? I'll grab a pic later.

Cleaned lots of leaves out of it the raintray and around the boot lid when I got it back:



Wheels had been sprayed by the PO without taking them off the car



The wheels are very scruffy so they'll all go off for a proper refurb later.

Looks like it had a bit of a bump at the front with some damage to the bottom of the front panel:



The rubber mount saved the radiator though

[MikkiJayne]

I didn't bother investigating the engine in place so started pulling it straight away.



Cam timing is spot on. Interesting...

A couple of hours later



and on stands to start the tear-down

[MikkiJayne]

So... are we ready for some carnage?

Inlet manifold off first...



Thats not good!!!

Lets have a look inside...





That didn't end well then

It looks like the valve simply dropped in to the cylinder, got smashed about, and then fired back up the inlet port in to the inlet manifold (although I haven't actually found it yet!).
The upper valve retainer is missing (under the cam somewhere probably) and the spring is sitting loose over a short chunk of valve stem so it seems that either the retainer or collets failed and just let go of the valve. Its a very odd failure for a car with full service history.
The cylinder wall is scored and dinged in several places so this engine is a coffee table.

It'll now get pushed out the back of the workshop to hibernate under a winter cover until an engine turns up

[HPsauce]

You've been busy! No surprises on the engine though. Glad the rest is largely good.

Hopefully that minor bump at the front is fixable and that it ends up as a good vehicle. Could that be from a car park kerb?

Totally forgot about pictures, should have taken some of all 3 S8's together - yours, mine and this on the trailer.

And yes, Avus Silver is a splendid colour, get it out in the sun and you'll see the full effect; it has purplish tinges at times.
There probably won't be paint/trim codes, IIRC the FE's were all effectively "specials".

[David's8]

Just another Sunday at MJ's place!
Its better than my Sunday morning sitting around waiting for some friends to leave for the airport when all i want to do is to get the winter wheels on the car!

[barzya8]

Hi Mikkijayne,
My exterior colour code is LY7J called Avus Silver Mica.
As with yours, its not on the build sticker, but someone has written it in the book. I will try and attach a photo of my build sticker.

As far as the wood interior is concerned, mine has the code nos 5ME which translates to Vavona wood insert amber high gloss.
Mine also does not have the extended leather that Adrian had on his. Check my album photos of interior.
Mine does not have the door arm rest wood capping's either. They are colour matched grey plastic. See photo.
Good luck with sourcing another engine. What is the engine code you need in case I stumble across one.
Regards,
David

[MikkiJayne]

Thanks for that Looks like this one does have extended leather then since the middle of the door and underside of the dash are also red. There's nothing on the spec sheet to suggest that though.

Your wood looks the same as this one too. 5ME Vavona looks orange from Google searches, which corresponds with the 'amber' in the description:

[HPsauce]

I've got a complete set of Vavona trims (should anyone want any) though it's not quite as orange as that picture suggests. More bright reddish-brown.
(Complete set except for the door switch panels, which are on my S8 )

[MikkiJayne]

I found the missing valve kicking about in the inlet manifold



It has snapped at the collet groove and looks very much like metal fatigue. A crack started on one side of the groove, and just propagated across the stem until it snapped and then the valve just fell in the cylinder. I've never seen a failure like that before on a production engine. It looks like it was running just fine until this too. The other cylinders on this side are spotless. Very odd.

The engine code is AVP by the way

[Ameiseuk]

Ouch!

Ive never seen that in all my time in engines. Theres a guy up near carlisle makes coffee tables. That would make a good base