Got it! 1250 miles and 11 states with zero hiccups. Even in Manhattan traffic temps remained perfect. My leg on the other hand suffered some real cramping with the clutchwork…NYC drivers are savage. Ill post more pics soon but here’s what I have for now.
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Cleaning the engine before I really take anything apart. Best to start without gunk everywhere. Im thinking ill take the heads off and do full valve job, head gaskets, timing chains, and carbon clean. That will make me feel a little more confident in this motor’s health. I took off the oil cooler and found a separation in the o ring, very likely what caused the leak and ultimately caused the car to be parted. Lucky for me!
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Stripped down to long block and cleaned over the holiday. Much better start point. Intake manifold flaps are mint surprisingly, manifold is dated 2020, win! I absolutely annihilated cyl 5 injector while pulling though. Should I replace all 10?
Super clean work. Love the motor cart. The injectors should all be cleaned at the very least. you don’t need to replace all of them if you service them but if you’re not able to then I’d suggest a full replacement.
Thank you Justin, the cart is a repurposed package delivery cart I got free from work. Some slight modification and its a motor cart. Very easy to move, and plenty of space for tools. I plan on mating the 0A3 to the engine on the cart in the future, hence the forward location of the motor.
Sounds good, I’ll find a single replacement and get them all cleaned.
QUESTION, advice welcome.
Should I take the heads off, do head gaskets and clean exhaust ports?
I’ve been contemplating it this week if I should or not. 178k miles, ran fine when parked minus the oil cooler leak. Hardly any weeping from them before I cleaned the block.
PROS: Less to worry about, carbon clean probably easier, I could thoroughly clean and lap the valves, maybe a HP gain from this, ability to check cylinder walls
CONS: More money, more time, may not be necessary
Because I’ve become addicted to project management, I made a sheet for my project. Here’s the stats…I’m certain I’m missing probably half of what needs to be completed but at least it puts things into perspective. Don’t hold me to that end date just yet 
I guess with these engines it can be hit or miss, but 90% of the time you’ll hit…
I pulled mine out of a Copart car 3 years ago and did the normal valve cover, oil rings, and gaskets…
That was +30,000 miles ago and this engine is still kicking very strong. I say leave it and get it running. If issues arise and you deem pulling it apart is necessary THEN go for it
Motor wise Do a comp test and a leak down test. Expect with the cold motor to get not great leak down but the comp test can be ran by hot jumping the starter. I’d do this post the numbers and then lean on that data to move forward.
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I agree with Justin in doing a Compression and leakdown test. Also, if you don’t have a video borescope then buy a cheap Amazon one that hooks to your Iphone or Android, they have pretty good pictures now and you can inspect the bores, they even come with the reflection mirror attachment so you can see the head of the valves. Just make sure the head is small enough to fit through the Sparkplug hole.
Personally I wouldn’t do anything to the engine until you have had it swapped over and running. A running project will get worked on, a project that becomes a rabbit hole will end up unfinished
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I appreciate your thoughts guys! I’ll go as deep as taking the cam plates off to replace the weepy spark plug wells, and leave anything deeper for later, or never.
Just get the damn motor in the damn car
That’s a lot of work getting it all in the car just to find out something with the motor is wrong, At least inspect the cylinders. Take a look at the S6 engine post just above yours. Better to find out now than later.
I think my biggest hurdle ahead is fab work fitting powertrain and exhaust into the B5. To Kaclaytor’s point the sooner I get to that the better which makes sense to me to avoid project creep. However I’ll take some precautions to check health. I have a borescope I’ll do some investigating with and leak down test. Not sure if a compression test is feasible in the engine’s current state.
You have never done a project like this have you? Pulling the engine in and out isn’t a big deal. Getting the engine swapped and running is the hurdle. Pulling the motor once that is all taken care of is nothing.
Well, between my 8 vehicles I’ll narrow it down to the two most recent swaps, a C5 RS6 and a B8.5 RS5 that I’ve had and engine out and in each twice. I know exactly what kind of work it is. But just bolting it in isn’t the same as getting a driveline, electrical, cooling, ECU, etc… all hooked up just to find out that the cylinders are scored or it needs Rod or Main bearings. Why wait until it is in and have to do the work twice?? The post above with the guy who’s on his second engine (V10) which looks like it has issues and with similar mileage to the poster. Following Audi’s factory Mx intervals doesn’t leave a healthy engine at 150k miles. I’ll just see what happens from here on out, but I’d at least throw a set of fresh Rod bearings in since the V10 has been known to occasioanlly eat Rod bearings.
You have never done a project like this have you?
Guilty. I’ve pulled and dropped in motors before but this is my first cross-platform swap I’ve taken on.
hahnmgh63 thank you its a valid point. Why put a motor in that’s not healthy? However, if for some reason this motor is toast I would just replace it with the exact same thing, still leaving driveline, electrical, cooling, ECU, etc… still to do. I know its running, but more thinking of the motor as a mock up piece for the project at this point.
Nevertheless, cylinder photos and leak down results incoming this weekend.
That comment wasnt meant for you. It was for Hahn. Keeping momentum on a large project is going to be key to getting it done. Taking on a full engine rebuild before even diving in is just going to empty your bank account and motivation. I can all but guarantee the engine will need to come back out for one reason or another before it is a fully running and driving car. For the first start the car isn’t going to be fully buttoned up. It will be no core support minimum components hooked up and you’d be able to pull it back out in under an hour. This is all just my opinion and based on taking on projects as a husband, father, with a full time job and side work. If you have nothing but free time and money obviously your path would be extremely different
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Agree with above. Get the engine and transmission situated. Martin Harp can get your immobilizer coded out and I can sent a pinout of the 8 or so wires that need to be connected for a first start.
Eventually get some coolant in it so you can run it long enough to see if there’s any abnormal smoking, or misfires. Then go from there.
You got this bud!
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@Nordy1865 put together a great shopping list in a post on here for rebuilding the BXA V10. I present to you, my essentials list, based on what I think is worth replacing while the engine is out, but not trying to overhaul the motor. Call it a motor freshener.
Posting for others in the future who may end up where I am. I’ll probably make a google sheet link with copyable text and links later on in this thread, after more is compiled. Not a bad price tag for so many gaskets.
UPDATED SCREENSHOT: LINK TO SHEET
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