2010 S6 - Replacing Engine

A6 All/ S6 All
#1

Hey guys.

First post here, but long time lurker. I’ve had my S6 for a few months now and my shop is just getting to the bottom of my oil leaks. After engine out it seems the block had already once been machined and improper gaskets were used.

Unfortunately the shop says I have two options: enjoy a leaky car or replace the entire engine! I’ve invested too much into the car to sell it too.

Wondering where you guys would source an engine for the S6 from? Can I use the S8 motor of the same generation? Would you go used, new oem or perhaps one out of a wreck?

Thanks for your time! Any help or input is greatly appreciated as I’m really new to this stuff.

#2

Can you elaborate at all on what was machined on the block?

#3

I’m not sure unfortunately. I don’t have a paper report, just going off their verbiage in the phone call I had.

#4

How many miles(km) on the vehicle?

Have you been using this shop for a long time?

#5

An engine is going to cost you… even the brand new wholesale completed engine blocks in total are ~$30K. Used on eBay at 120K miles for $4-5K I believe.

#6

The vehicle has 150kms on her. Ive been using them for a while now and was referred from a friend. Everything they have done for me so far has been very top notch - they regularly have supercars in for service.

#7

Wow 30k! They must never sell any of those at that price!
I was hoping for a nice, slightly used motor for 4-5k, not 120k miles, damn…

#8

LKQ has a 92k mile engine for $5600 + shipping. You can even get a 24mo warranty on it (for the low low price of $1900)
https://www.lkqonline.com/2008-Audi-s6-Engine-Assembly/-hmO4KFcnnPcnnP/-i~202609423

#9

[quote=“fenixgoon,post:8,topic:10360”]
Any warranty on a used engine is only going to cover manufacturing defects. It could leak like a sieve and you would be out of luck.
It also would not cover any labor to re & re the engine either if there was a warranted problem with it.

Unless you do you your own work, I do not see the added value in it.

#10

They probably only have to sell one to pay for the rest of the inventory they have to have available.

Any used engine you get is going to be out of either a wrecked vehicle or a runner bought at auction for parts. It is doubtful you will know the history on it and without regular maintenance these engines can cost a substantial amount to get running like they should.

#11

[quote=“eng92,post:9,topic:10360”]

That’s true. Guys, let’s keep in mind if he does keep the car and replaces the engine, it’s wise to relocate (and replace) the o2 sensors. For performance, it would be wise to look into the JHM intake spacers, LW pulley and SAI delete. Then there’s always CountVohn for headers ($$$). Depends how big your wallet is! Lol

#12

[quote=“GRS6,post:11,topic:10360”]

absolutely. getting those O2 sensors farther back means no engine pull and making the rest of us jealous ;D ;D not quite “may as well go all out”, but more like “may as well do sensible adjustments that will save $$$ down the road”

#13

John welcome to the site

I would say that there sounds like your not being told the right story. Something sounds shady. I would strongly suggest you get more info and post it here before moving forward. There isn’t anything that would require machine work and gaskets.

#14

I wholly agree with Justin.

The only thing that could possibly require machining would be the block deck or heads. I have personally overheated my engine very severely before and the heads and the block mating surfaces remained well within manufacturer’s tolerances for flatness.

The only other reason I can think of for machining work being required would be if a head gasket was blown and left that way long enough that the block and/or head material eroded away between two adjacent cylinders.

Obviously they would have to remove the heads in order to determine this so there would be a substantial amount of labor hours already involved.

You definitely need more information and they should be providing pictures to substantiate their findings…

#15

I’m calling BS as well. So, your telling me the PO pulled the engine and had machine work done and the cost of ?? $10k or more let’s say?? (engine R/R, disassembly, machine work, reassembly) No way. I guess there’s been crazier stuff done before…

What’s the history on this car?

#16

Ok I’ll send them a quick email asking for some more specifics so we can get to the bottom of it.

I bought the car from a mechanic who said he did a lot of the repairs himself. Turns out he wasn’t too competent! I even had a pre purchase done by an independent shop… turns out they missed the oil leaks!

#17

Hopefully he sold it to you on the cheaper end! That’s never a good predicament to be in. Keep us updated.

#18

The car was in excellent condition on the exterior and interior, so I paid a medium-low price let’s say. But of course now that low price is biting me hard with all these oil leaks and need for a new engine!

Here’s the reply from the shop, hopefully you guys can clarify that it’s all on the up and up - I still do trust them very much:

[quote]as for the reason for replacement,
Previous machining to the heads has already been done, now the heads and the block are both warped and require machining, these engines have very tight tolerances and can only be machined once, when machining the heads and block material is removed, only so much can be removed. This has already been done once, so we can’t do it again, removal of additional surface material will cause the engine to not run properly, timing issues become the biggest concern.
[/quote]

#19

John,

Take your car to a different shop. You’re getting ripped off or they just don’t know what they are doing.

I could write a 5 page paper on how just the statement listed below is wrong or has nothing to do with your issues.

To be a warped block you’d have way more issues than just a few leaks and unless the shop removed the heads they would have no way of knowing how much material was removed from the heads or if the heads were machined. Further more there is no reason ever for the heads to be machined in the first place. So again nothing there is adding up. It could just be a case of they started to take down the block and have no idea on how to put it back together.

This is a case where you’re going to a shop that works on high end cars you said. All that means is they have a healthy batch of gullible people with a lot of expendable cash. Sounds like they’re hoping your going to be another.

It’s up to you but it sounds like they’re taking you for a ride. If you were able to take your car to the shop running under its own power without crazy missfires than the statement they gave you is BS.

#20

Thank you for your post Count! As I’m new to this I really appreciate all help I can get when trying to assess what to do in this situation.

I do believe they removed the heads, as there were many oil leaks and they were in the process of doing a full tear-down to fix them when they brought the issue of warped block/heads to me.

I still want to believe they are being honest with me and this diagnosis of theirs is correct. Perhaps I am simply not relaying the information to you properly. Yes I did drive the vehicle to them in what seemed to be OK shape, running fast and fine without CEL. But it smelled heavily of burnt oil as I drove.

Could you could perhaps offer me some more pointed questions I could ask them to get more information - their lead mechanic is an audi expert mechanic with a very storied past - he should be able to answer just about anything I ask him.

Thanks again for your time!