2.0T FSI Engine Build

[aluthman]

As promised, here is the build of my new engine. I will be updating it as I complete things.

As many of you may know, I have been battling with oil consumption for about a year now & have lost every battle in the war. When I first noticed the problem, I was burning about a quart every 1200-1300 miles. That was pretty easy to live with, but it was somewhat annoying, so I set out to fix it.

I tried everything under the sun: rebuilt turbo, new valve cover, new turbo drain line, BSH PCV plate, stock pcv, catch can setup, PCV vent to exhaust, valve guides, valve seals. All to no avail. The compression & leakdown results I got lead me to believe that my rings were ok (~170 psi & 4-6% leakdown on all cylinders). I guess I was mistaken. There is nowhere left to go but rings at this point, which is really upsetting since I only had about 46k miles on this built engine.

So what’s a guy to do? I considered parting the car, selling as-is, trading it in etc. In the end, I decided that a new motor was my ticket to happiness. I have too much money into this damn thing to quit now, & there is so much more I want to do with the car. I’ve even got a DTM front bumper in the basement that got back-burnered.

In order to minimize the downtime of the car & the garage, I figured that I should build a second motor & then just swap out the short blocks. I have my S10 to drive in the meantime, but I want the B7 on standby for those super snowy New England storms. I’ll just need to keep the oil topped off until the new engine is ready.

I started looking around & snagged a BPY 2.0 engine off of ebay for $350. For those that don’t know, the BPY is interchangeable with the BPG & BWT engines, but since it is a transverse engine, you need to swap the accessory mounts, oil pan, & oil pickup tube. Luckily for me, it was only about an hour & a half drive away to pick it up. The seller said that it had some bent valves that needed replaced, so I thought it would be a pretty quick wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am & back in business type of deal. Here it is after picking it up:

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Doesn’t look too shabby on the outside, does it?

Well, it was a colossal train wreck on the inside, far worse than just some bent valves. The first thing I noticed was that the cam gear would not spin at all. I initially assumed (incorrectly), that this was just due to spring pressure. After talking with Mec, I found out that it should still be able to move by hand, even if it’s just a little bit. Time for surgery:

I pulled the valve cover & cam tray first to try to find out why the cams weren’t spinning.

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So much for the hope that it was just bent valves keeping everything from moving. The cams were seized up tighter than an 18 year old on prom night, presumably due to a loss of oil pressure. Bad news: the cam bearings are part of the head casting & are not replaceable/repairable, aka this head is junk. Good news: Hahaha, gotcha. There isn’t any. Time for a full on autopsy, & I’m afraid what I’m going to find.

Fast forward a few bolts & this is what I see:

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Well, sum bitch. That’s not good. Sure enough, the balance shafts seized in this motor, which snapped the oil pump drive chain, which causes a loss of oil pressure & bearings start wiping. Time to check on the main & rod bearings, so I unbolt everything & pull the crank.

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Everything looks fine, except the #3 main bearing, which has just started to wipe. The oil pump drive sprocket on the front of the crank is wrecked, but that’s a replaceable part. So I brought the crank to my local machine shop (Larry’s Auto Machine in Groton, CT for anyone local), & had them check it out. They were able to polish the crank journals & clean it all up without having to really remove any material. A few bucks later & I have a gorgeous crank that looks like new.

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With that out of the way, I need to focus on what else is still useable. The block looks to be perfectly fine with no scoring on any cylinders. Sweet, that’s a point for me. The rods & pistons seem to be fine, but stock rods blow donkey balls & who wants cast pistons? AZ to the rescue! I make a quick post & Derrek offers me his set of BPG forged pistons for the cost of shipping. Thanks! Here they are after some time in the ultrasonic cleaner with some Simple Green & hot water.

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The pistons look great & even have most of the factory coating remaining on the skirts. The wrist pins looked a little less pretty. He admittedly beat on his motor & these pins had 145k miles on them when removed.

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Lucky for me, the wrist pins I just took out of the motor looked pretty good with only slight wear marks.

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From here, the wasn’t much else I could do but finish stripping down the block & collecting part for the build. Time to start searching.

Yet again an AZ member comes to the rescue. Vce1232000 offers me a B7 oil pan for the cost of shipping since I obviously can’t use the transverse oil pan that was on engine. Here she is after some quick cleaning, although I plan to get it hot tanked at the machine shop prior to actual assembly.

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A few purchases through the AZ classifieds later & I have me a set of IE rifle drilled drop in rods, a Brush Research ball hone, & a set of OEM Mahle piston rings for my new (to me) forged pistons.

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Right now, I’m almost ready to commence with the build. I just need to get the block cleaned up & ready for some paint, because who wants an ugly engine? Here she is all stripped down & ready to get bead blasted & hot tanked.

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For those that are curious, the lower dipstick tube is pressed in & can be removed by using a small socket on an extension & tapping it out with a hammer.

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The rest of the engine is pretty self explanatory for disassembly. Lefty-loosey, righty-tighty & whatnot. If you can’t figure out how to take it apart, you may want to rethink trying to build one. The DIY portion of this job will commence once I get the block back from the machine shop & I can start by honing the cylinders.

Since I didn’t already have these, I went to ebay & found me an inside & outside micrometer made by Starrett for about $140 shipped. Not bad considering what they sell for new.

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I still need to by a dial bore gauge, so I’ll be on the lookout for one of those as well.

After some searching, I finally decided on a Fowler dial bore gauge. It should more than suffice for what I need it for. I got it off Amazon for just over $100 I think…

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I’ll show how to use it later.

Finally was able to pick up all my parts from the machine shop today! I was hoping that the block would have less paint on it, but I didn’t want to mess with decking the block or anything crazy from additional time in the shot blast cabinet.

The oil pan came back looking almost like new.

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I also had the crowns milled off the oem pistons in order to drop the compression a bit. I just had them milled flush with the rest of the piston. They all currently weigh within a gram of each other also. This seemed to be the most cost effective way to reliably drop compression. It was even cheaper than a compression dropping head gasket since it only cost me an hour of labor at the machine shop ($125/hr).

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On to the block prep! I wanted to get all the dirty stuff done at once & then only have to clean the block once. I started by cleaning up the deck of the block by using an angle die grinder & a yellor 3M Roloc bristle disc. I just wanted to make sure I had a good surface for the head gasket. The shot blasting left a mostly smooth finish already, but this effectively polished the surface. You also don’t have to worry too much about hurting the block with this tool. The aluminum head is a different story however.

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Next up, was to run a tap down all the threaded holes to clean them up. Since this block came from a transverse setup, some of the holes I will need were not used before & had developed a decent amount of rust. Shot blasting can also roll the first thread over if you leave it in there long enough. I just wanted everything to be good, so I chased all the threads.

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Now it was time to turn my attention to the cylinder bores. Here is how they looked after the time spent in the shot blast cabinet. It’s a far cry from what we want them to look like.

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In order to clean these up, I used a Brush Research 240 grit 3.5” ball hone. As a lubricant, I used conventional 10w-30 motor oil, since that is what was recommended on the box the hone came in. I figured they knew better than me. A lot of people also use ATF for this with success. I doubt it makes that much difference.

The process I used was one I found online. I did 7 slow passes while spinning the drill CW & then another 7 slow passes CCW. Then I reversed the drill again & did 7 fast passes in order to get the ~45 degree cross hatch I wanted. The recommended speed for the hone is 600-800 rpm, but my slow speed drill only goes to 550 rpm. Oh well. Here is a video of me honing the last cylinder. I forgot which case I had on my GoPro, so the sound is really quiet, but I’m not about to re-hone my cylinder just to get a good video.

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pPVZQANkn0&feature=youtu.be[/VIDEO]

After all the honing is done, it’s time to clean the block. Wipe everything out with a rag to start with. Then get some hot soapy water & some brushes. I used a wheel brush in the bores & a gun cleaning rod with brass bristle brush for the oil galleys.

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After you have everything scrubbed down, hose it down/out very well.

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When you have everything clean, you need to dry the block with compressed air. Don’t wait to do this. Remember you have exposed cast iron that will flash rust in your cylinders in a matter of minutes. After everything is dry, spray the block down with WD-40 to displace any remaining moisture.

Here are the finished cylinders.

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After using a combination of a 4” wire cup brush on my grinder & a compact needle scaler, I was ready to paint the block. I ended up using soap & water to scrub it down again to remove the WD-40. I wiped a little Marvel Mystery oil on the cylinder bores & internal machined surfaces to protect from rust. DO NOT USE ANYTHING AEROSOL or your paint won’t stick for shit. Just wipe it on & keep the exterior of the block free from oil. Make sure it’s clean & dry. I used VHT primer & engine paint for this, but anything similar should work fine.

Mask it.

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Prime it.

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Paint it.

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Remove tape. I used some lacquer thinner on a clean rag to remove paint from areas I didn’t want painted, such as the threaded holes & knock sensor mounts.

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Since the lower dipstick tube is pressed into the block at the factory, I had to figure out a way to get it back in. This is what I came up with.

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It worked out really well, and after a few taps with a dead blow hammer it was seated in the block.

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[aluthman]

Since the balance shafts seized in this engine & tore up the oil pump drive sprocket on the crank, I needed to install a new one. This part is available from a few places, but I got mine from IE. I had previously removed the damaged gear with a 3 jaw puller, so that was already done. The gear is press-fit onto the crank, so you can’t just slip it on. This is as far as it will slide on easily. (When installing the new gear, the chamfered side goes towards the crank.)

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In order to get the gear on the rest of the way, you need to heat up & expand the gear. I used a propane torch for this, but MAPP gas or oxy/acetylene would probably have worked better.

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Once you have the gear good & hot, place a big socket over the crank snout & use a dead blow hammer to drive the gear home.

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Time to start actually putting some things together. Let’s start by installing the new main bearings & checking bearing clearances. I will be doing this with both a dial bore gauge & with Plastigage. I’m curious to see how they compare.

I’m using ARP main studs again in this engine because extra strength is always a good thing & because I can torque & re-torque them multiple times without replacing them unlike the stock TTY bolts. Prior to installing the studs, make sure all the holes are clean & dry. Thread the studs in by hand until they fully seat. You can use a 4mm allen wrench/hex driver to help with this, but do not torque them. I just installed them as tight as 2 fingers could get them.

Then place the grooved bearing halves in place on the block. Start by aligning the tanged side & them press them in place with your fingers.

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Install the smooth bearing halves in the main bearing caps now.

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Use a dead blow mallet to tap the caps in place. The tangs for each bearing half should be on the same side of the block (intake side).

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Now lube up the threads on the studs & the flat surface of the nuts with ARP Ultra-Torque fastener lubricant. A small sleeve of this is included with each stud kit, but I happened to have a larger tube that was already open. This lubricant is required in order to accurately duplicate the required clamping force with the torque values specified.

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Now torque the nuts to 70 ft-lbs. in three incremental steps. I did 20 ft-lbs, then 40 ft-lbs, & then the full amount of 70 ft-lbs.

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Now we are ready to check the clearance of the bearing. Start by getting your micrometer ready. Mine has interchangeable anvils, so I put in the 2”-3” anvil & checked it against the 2” standard. It was dead nuts on.

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Next, I set the micrometer to the thickness of the main journals on the crank. Luckily, I only had to do this once because all of my main journals measured exactly the same at 2.125” (This picture is actually me measuring the rod journal, but the process is the same).

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Now we need to set & zero the dial bore gauge to 2.125” using the micrometer. By doing this, any deflection in the dial bore gauge will show us the deviation from the set measurement which just so happens to be out bearing clearance.

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Now you want to carefully place the measuring head inside the bearing, being sure you are on a flat surface & not in the oiling groove. Give the bore gauge a small rock & find the spot where the needle is closest to zero. This is your reading & your bearing clearance. This one happened to read 0.0015”, which is right in the middle of the 0.001”-0.002” clearance range specified by Audi for new engines.

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Work your way from the back of the engine to the front, repeating these steps for each bearing. All my bearings measured at 0.0015” except the #2 main bearing which read 0.002”.

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Before I actually put the crank into the block, I need to install the oil galley plugs & the frost plug. I need to take the block off the stand to do this & it’s much easier to lift by myself when it’s just a bare block.

Here is a picture of the new plugs & the old plugs.

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I never gave these much thought until I picked up the block from the machine shop & saw that they had removed them (I should have known they would to clean & shot blast it).

I went to the dealership to get new ones only to find out that you can only get the smaller plugs (14mm)through them. They don’t sell the larger one (18mm) for some reason. The part number for the smaller plugs is N 011 907 10. I spent some time searching online & finally located an acceptable aftermarket replacement for the larger one. They are made by Federal Mogul as part of their Sealed Power line. The part number is 381-2153. You can get these through your local NAPA. I had to buy an entire bag of 6, so if anyone ever needs one, let me know.

To install them, set them in place in their respective hole. You want to make sure the hole is clean and smooth or the plugs may leak. Some people choose to use various sealants on these also, but I didn’t feel it was necessary.

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Use a large hammer to carefully tap them in until flush with the block.

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Then use a socket that is just small enough to fit inside & carefully tap it in just a little more so it is just barely recessed into the block.

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Boom, all done.

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From here I remounted the block to the stand & got ready to put the crank in the block.

CAREFULLY set the crank in place on the bearings. The center counterweights on the crank should be facing up to make it easier. Be extremely careful not to nick any of the bearing journals on anything.

After the crank is in place, lift it slightly off the bearings & rotate 90 degrees to allow easier access to the journals.

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I wanted to double check my bearing clearances for piece of mind, so I decided to also check them with Plastigage. Cut a small piece of the 0.001”-0.003” Plastigage & lay it on the clean & dry crank.

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Tap the caps in place with the handle of a dead blow hammer. Torque to spec. Then remove the cap. Be careful not to rotate the crank at all while doing this, since there is no lube on the bearings & because it will smear the Plastigage.

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Check the smashed Plastigage against the wrapper.

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This was the #2 main bearing that read 0.002” clearance by dial bore gauge. It looks to be just under 0.002” by Plastigage. I’ll take it.

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Clean all the Plastigage off the journal & bearing surfaces & remove the crank.

Apply assembly lube of your choice to the bearings & smear them up.

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Don’t forget about your thrust bearings that go on either side of the #3 main bearing.

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Here is the perfect time to not do what I did & reinstall your piston oil squirters. I actually had the crank installed & the mains torqued before I realized this. You can’t install them with the crank in place. Well you can for all but cylinder #4. The crank sensor wheel keeps you from installing that one.

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There was also a little plastic thing I had to reinstall in the block where the oil filter adapter bolts on.

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Lube up the cap side bearings.

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Torque the caps just like before when we checked the bearing clearances. It finally looks like I’m accomplishing something.

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On to the connecting rods! Since I’m using stock pistons for this build, I’ve got the IE drop-in rods. These particular rods are rifle drilled. I would personally recommend spending the extra $100 for the rifle drilling, especially if you will be daily driving your car.

These came with the rod bolts already torqued, so first I had to get them apart. I just put them in the bench vise for this. Do not do this with steel knurled jaws on the vice. I made aluminum replacements for my vice a while back. These will not scratch or mar the rods. You don’t want to add a bunch of places for cracks to start propagating on your rods.

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Once the bolts are out, you still need to get the caps off. Flip them around & wiggle them a bit to pop the caps off the rods.

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Each cap is specific to each rod & they must maintain their original orientation to each other. Luckily, IE makes this easy as they number them for you. Keep each cap with the same numbered rod & the numbers should both be on the same side when assembled.

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Here they are all disassembled.

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Install the new rod bearings in the same fashion as the main bearings.

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Put them back in the vice & torque them to spec. IE specifies 50 ft-lbs for the 3/8” ARP 2000 rod bolts that are included with these rods. Don’t forget to lube them with ARP fastener lube. I torqued the bolts to 25 ft-lbs first and then 50 ft-lbs.

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Now setup the dial bore gauge like before, but use the rod journal size instead of main journal size. Check each rod/bearing for clearance & record.

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The specified values for clearance are the same as for the main bearings (0.001”-0.002” for new bearings). My bearings all measured at 0.00225”, but since this crank has been polished that was to be expected. That extra clearance isn’t a concern, especially since many people add extra clearance on purpose for performance builds. 0.006” is the max serviceable bearing clearance.

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[aluthman]

With the crank in place in the block, it’s time to install the pistons on the rods. IE recommends that you install the tanged side of the bearing on the exhaust side of the engine, so just pay attention when putting everything together or you might be doing it again.

Start by installing the retaining clips on one side of the piston. I found that this is most easily accomplished by starting with one end in the opening & pressing down on the clip while pushing the other end into the groove with a large flat screwdriver tip.

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Then lube up the small end of the rod & the inside of the piston.

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Insert the wrist pin & spin slowly to help it get through the piston & rod.

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Install the other retaining clip just like before.

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Once you have the piston installed on the rod, drop a drill bit down into the wrist pin & use it as a pivot point for your screwdriver to spin the clips. You want the opening 180 degrees away from the pry slot.

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Repeat for the other 3 pistons & rods.

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Now it is time for one of the most tedious processes in the entire build. Filing the piston rings. Get all of your stuff together for doing the rings. Nothing fancy, just a basic ring filer, some feeler gauges, & a piston to set them square in the bore. I used a flat top BPY piston that I had since my milled pistons weren’t perfectly flat on top.

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There are three rings on each piston. The oil control ring, & the 2 compression rings. When installing them on the piston you want to start from the bottom & work your way up. Throughout this entire process, pay attention to the ring orientation. They are all labeled TOP on one side. Don’t mess this up or they won’t work as designed.

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Start with the oil control ring. Separate the small spring from the actual ring.

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Place it in the bore & use a piston to ensure it is sitting square.

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Take your feeler gauge & check the gap. Go larger until you can’t easily fit one in the gap. My oil control rings all measured at 0.015”, which is right in the middle of the spec of 0.001”-0.002”. None of these rings needed any filing.

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Next, do the same thing for the 2nd compression ring. I measured this ring at 0.013”.

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The Audi spec for new rings is 0.008”-0.016”, & since I plan on boosting the piss out of this engine, I am shooting for the top of that band. I did a lot of research on the difference between the first & second compression ring gaps, & came to the conclusion that it wasn’t necessary to set the second gap any larger per say, but you don’t really want it smaller than the first compression ring. I decided to set both to 0.016”

Place the ring on the ring filer & ensure it is sitting square against the grinding wheel & that it is against the stop. Turn the crank counter clockwise to file the ring. You always want to file towards the center (away from the cylinder wall) or your rings could potentially score your cylinders. Be careful, go slow, & check often. Diamond grinding wheels can remove material pretty quickly. I chose to only file one edge to obtain the gap I wanted.

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Keep at it until the 0.016” feeler just slips in.

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Once it is filed to the correct gap, take some fine grit sandpaper & knock off any burrs from the ring edges.

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Repeat the process for the top compression ring. Make sure you don’t mix up the 1st & 2nd compression rings.

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When installing the oil control ring, find the edge of the spring & pull it apart a bit to expand it & then slip it into the bottom ring land on the piston.

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A note about reusing pistons: You want to make sure your ring lands are nice and clean before installing your new rings. Some places will tell you to use an old ring to dig the gunk out of the ring lands, but I would advise against this as you can scratch the shit out of the ring land. I used a soda blaster to blast mine clean and they came out great. If you don’t have access to a soda blaster, use solvent and a stiff bristle nylon brush or something similar that won’t scratch the piston.

Use a pair of piston ring pliers to expand the ring & place it in the ring land over the top of the spring. Don’t try to do this by hand because you can scratch the piston & break or deform the ring. You want the opening of the spring to be on the opposite side of the piston from the ring gap.

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Repeat with the 2 compression rings. Make sure you are installing the rings with the word top facing up.

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Arrange the rings so that the gaps are 120 degrees apart from each other.

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Finish the other pistons & remove the bolts & gaps to get ready to install them.

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At the recommendation of my machine shop, I chose to lube the cylinders & piston skirts with Marvel Mystery Oil. WD-40 is also acceptable, but only if the engine will be started soon after assembly. WD-40 will evaporate, but the MMO stays on the cylinders if the engine won’t be started for a while. Smear some MMO on the inside of your ring compressor also.

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After the cylinder & piston are lubed up, install the ring compressor on the piston. Leave a little bit of the skirt sticking out of the bottom to help with installation.

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Apply assembly lube to the rod bearing only. Assembly lube on the rings or cylinders is a good way to get the rings to never seat correctly. Rotate the crank as needed to get the cylinder you are working with at BDC.

Center the piston over the bore & slowly lower the rod into the cylinder. Insert the protruding piston skirt into the bore & let the ring compressor sit on the deck of the block. Now take the handle of a hammer to carefully tap the piston down into the bore. If you feel anything catch, stop & try again. You don’t want to break your rings & have to buy new ones & file them again.

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Flip the block & push the piston down into the bore & carefully guide the rod end onto the rod journal.

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Install the cap & just snug up the rod bolts for now.

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Rinse & repeat 3 more times.

Once all the pistons & rods are installed. Rotate the crank by hand to ensure it rotates smoothly. Now it’s time to torque the rod bolts. You want to do three torque cycles on the rod bolts to ensure that the clamping forces are uniform across all the bolts. Since I already torqued them once when checking clearances, I only did it twice here.

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Now step back & admire your assembled short block.

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In order to install the rear main seal, I had to get the engine off the stand. With most of the guts in place, lifting it off & setting it down myself is no longer an option, so time to try out my Christmas present from the wife.

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The new rear main seal comes with this nifty little plastic spacer installed. Slip it on to the crank like so. This keeps it centered so you can push it on easily. Using your finger, smear a little clean oil onto the crank where you will be sliding the seal on.

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Line the bolt holes up & carefully push the seal onto the crank & discard the plastic spacer.

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The torque spec for these bolts is 10 Nm or ~88.5 in-lbs. Tighten in a star pattern.

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While the engine is off the stand, I may as well install the pilot bearing into the crank. I didn’t have to remove an old one since this engine was out of a transverse automatic. If you have to take one out, there are tools & methods all over the place to help you do this.

Line it up with the hole & make sure it’s centered.

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Tap it in place until flush with the end of the crank with a dead blow mallet.

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Time to install the oil pump. I was originally going to do the 1.8t oil pump conversion but decided against it for now. Maybe the next build… I was also considering deleting the balance shaft, but decided against that also. So I’m simply reinstalling a stock setup.

Start by setting cyl. #1 to TDC.

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Next place the steel windage tray plate thing on the block. Note the two locating bushings. These are not attached to either the block or the pump, so hopefully you didn’t lose them when you took it apart. I tapped them in place after lining up the holes on the plate.

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Next comes the actual pump/balance shaft assembly. I cleaned mine up a bit since it was pretty dirty when I got it. Since I washed all the oil off, I put some assembly lube on the gears.

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Set it down on the locating bushings & tap it down until it is seated. You want to use new bolts for this guy as they are stretch bolts & should not be reused, especially if you are retaining the balance shafts like I am. I have numbered the bolts to coincide with the ETKA part diagram that Charles.waite provided me in a different thread.

Part numbers
#6 – WHT 000 360 A
#14 – N 911 495 01
#15 – WHT 000 006
#16 – N911 496 01
#17 – N104 305 02

Torque all of these bolts to 15 Nm or about 11 ft-lbs.

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Now bolt your oil pump drive chain tensioner in place & toque those bolts to 15Nm/11 ft-lbs also

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In order to time the balance shafts to the crankshaft, you need to line up the dot on the balance shaft sprocket with the hole, all while cyl. #1 is set to TDC (we did this earlier, but double check).

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Now place the chain on the balance shaft sprocket & the crank sprocket & ensure there is no slack in this length of chain. I inserted a 4mm hex driver into the hole to keep the sprocket from moving. Install the oil pump sprocket & torque the bolt to 25 Nm/18.5 ft-lb. I used a new bolt (Part N 903 659 01) to be safe.

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Pull the tensioner retaining pin & it should take up all slack in the chain.

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Now you can reinstall the chain cover. It just pushed on & locks into place.

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[aluthman]

Clean the front of the block & the aluminum front cover really well with some laquer thinner or acetone to remove any oil. Squirt a thin bead of sealant on the cover, since there is no gasket. Don’t go overboard or it will all just squish out & make a mess. Audi sells an overpriced sealant for this, but I used Elring Dirko sealant instead, which is ~$18 a tube and each tube could probably seal up 10 engines or more. This stuff also works great for the cam tray in the head and is pretty easy to clean off if you have to unlike the Audi satan sealant which is rock hard after curing.

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Locate it over the positioning pins & press it into place against the block. Install bolts & torque to 10Nm/7ft lbs.

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Carefully place the crank seal on the crank snout & push as far on as you can by hand.

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Place a large socket over the seal & tap the seal into the cover & onto the crank until it is just past flush with the cover. I used a 36mm socket & it fit perfectly. Most of you should have one of these since it is the same size the oil filter housing uses.

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Put your timing gear in place on the crank. Now would be the time to dowel pin the crank if you are going to do so. I opted to use the IE billet timing gear instead, so I had to use the dead blow again.

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Put the crank bolt in & torque to 90 Nm/66 ft lbs. In order to keep the crankshaft from rotating, I pulled the plastic windage tray from behind the oil pump and wedged a ¼" socket extension between the crank counter weight and the block.

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You now have to go an additional 90 degrees to get the proper stretch on the bolt (use a new bolt obviously). I marked mine with a Sharpie so I had a visual reference.

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Now, using a breaker bar & a pipe, proceed to break your tools.

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In an effort to make my trip to Sears worthwhile, I decided to break one more & got a little closer.

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Since I’m out of tools to try going any farther, I decided that was good enough. Multiple people have only been able to get an additional 45 degrees & I got close to 60, so I think it’ll be fine. Keep in mind that the toque spec for this bolt will be different if you choose to use the $50 ARP crank bolt instead. I didn’t really feel it was necessary to spend $50 on a bolt again (I have it in my current engine).

After the new pickup finally arrived, I got that bolted in place with a new o-ring & bolt. 15 Nm/11 ft lbs for that guy. You can see hear the backup suction for the pickup. This is a relatively new part revision (not sure how new) that can save your engine in the event the main pickup gets clogged or frozen.

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Now it’s time to button up the bottom end. Squirt a bead of sealant on the oil pain seam. Make sure both the block & pan surfaces are clean before doing this.

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Install the oil pan bolts & torque to 15 Nm/11 ft lbs. You can see in this picture that I’ve installed my new crank sensor and knock sensors. The knock sensors get torqued to 20 Nm/15 ft-lbs. Knock sensors can wear out over the life of a car, so I figured I would just get new ones since they were only about $30 each. I just tightened the crank sensor nice and tight.

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All done. Just ready for the head. I won’t be installing that until my current engine is out of the car. I don’t really plan on documenting the engine removal/install because my engine bay barely resembles that of a stock B7 anymore. I’m not sure it would be worth the time investment in writing it up.

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See my thread about replacing valve seals/guides for more information regarding head assembly.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/660270-I-think-I-finally-found-the-smoking-gun-for-my-oil-consumption!?highlight=smoking+gun

[aluthman]

Reserved for updates

[justincredible]

My kind of thread. Great work. Motor assembly is a very detialed job. Long and tedious. Karma bump for you. Look forward to more updates

[beringela001]

Amazing. Subscribed for more on this.

[aluthman]

Updated with progress.

[aluthman]

I’ve gone as far as I can go for now until my oil pump shows up in the mail. I’ll be using a 2.0 FSI oil pump/balance shaft assembly & will be deleting the balance shafts. It should be here any day now.

[aluthman]

Updated. Once my new pickup shows up, I’ll be able to finish up inside the motor and seal/bolt the oil pan and front chain cover on. Maybe by next weekend.

[justincredible]

I think i asked this before. What is the benifit of removing the balance shaft.

What budjet did you have for building the motor

[aluthman]

The pros of removing the balance shafts (via disabling them in place) are reduced rotating mass in the engine and it increases reliability by removing a somewhat common failure point. The downsides are increased NVH and a somewhat buzzy engine at higher rpm.

I decided to keep them because I intend to drive this thing everyday, and the increased vibrations would probably get old. I have stiffer drivetrain mounts also, so that isn’t helping. I have also never really seen an enthusiast owned (aka well maintained) motor have a balance shaft issue. I have them in my current motor and have consistently revved to 7200 rpm with no issues. That particular set of balance shafts has 152k miles on it at this point.

I will also be using the updated oil pickup that has an alternate suction tube on the side. In the event the strainer becomes clogged, this tube opens to prevent a loss of oil pressure and can save the motor. I think this may be an underlying root cause of a lot of balance shaft failures. Low oil pressure going to steel shafts spinning inside an aluminum casting is a good recipe for seizure.

I didn’t really have a set budget per-say for the build. I wanted a solid motor for a reasonable price, but I didn’t want to cut corners. I will probably have about $2k in this one including machine work and buying the broken engine I started with. Obviously, tool costs are not included because they are an investment towards future projects also. I was also able to save a lot by buying things from other forum members. I saved $170 on the rods alone, and they were still brand new in the box. I also got rings and a ball hone for $100 vice the $260 it would have cost otherwise.

[aluthman]

At this point, I’m ready to start the install. I just need to find the time.