Compugeek's build/resurrection

A6 All/ S6 All
#61

I’ve got an Audi/VW certified buddy helping at his shop - you never pay a mechanic for his time, you pay him for yours… He pulls the intake off in about 1/3rd the time I can :wink:

He does the heavy lifting, I provide journeyman level labor. I end up spending about 1/5th what I would just dropping it off at the dealer and I get to hang out with buddies, drink, BBQ and get a grip of shite knocked off my list :slight_smile: Plus access to all the specialty tools so I don’t have to buy them for one-off projects (unless he doesn’t already have it, then I just give it to him gratis). win/win

#62

Interested in hearing how the work turned out. That’s an impressive list that should help the car run smoother.

#63

I’ve been ridiculously busy with work - I need to post a full update, but things aren’t great atm.

#64

Oh no, wishing you best of luck

#65

Let us know how we might be able to help depending on what’s up

#66

That was a lot of work. When you take on that much its not uncommon to uncover other small little issues or to create little issues. do let us know if we can offer any help

#67

First off; apologies for the lack of updates…

Carbon clean was done, but…wasn’t done well. Went on an out of town drive of about 200mi r/t and about 30miles from home a big thump? tach went dead, dash lit up like a Christmas tree and was in limp mode for about a mile. Limped it the rest of the way home and have been getting flogged nonstop at home and work ever since… I’m pretty sure it either coughed up a hunk of carbon, or a chunk of intake. More fluid, brushes and a better shopvac attachment ordered.

So here’s where I’m at; I bought a set of injectors, but only 7 still had the tabs still intact. The ones that hold the harness latch on the injector. Apparently all but 5 of the old ones also had the same tab break off. Putting the engine back together I think we lost track of which injector came from which cylinder and I’m pretty positive the dead one from cyl9 ended up in cyl4 - constant misfire. At least I know which 3 need to be replaced!

Since the “big bang” incident, I’ve also had ready errors on SAI, Cat, O2 and O2 heaters. >:( I’ve put about 1200miles on it since then and actually got a full green ready this morning, so maybe all hope isn’t lost. I read somewhere that JHM can adjust the tune to keep gutted cats from throwing codes? Or do I need antifoulers/elbows or some such? I’ll just beat the cores out from the bottom if that’s the case.

Trans is also doing that great ZF lurch. I feel privileged to be a member of the club that knows what It actually feels like. Fluid and service kit ordered for trans.

Car was delivered with “green” coolant. I’ve been putting off filling it with the proper G13, but since I had a cracked expansion tank, I was just dumping a gallon or so every other week until it was replaced. I ordered 3gallons of g13 - is that enough for a complete drain and fill?

I took pics of the intake - holy crap was it a nasty mess in there. definitely at least 2 flaps broken. I’ll attempt to open it and just epoxy the flaps closed until I can get a new intake. The separator was definitely bad/broken.

I pulled a couple plugs; they’re already pretty nasty from the halfass carbon clean. My cheapie borescope wont fit all the way down in there, but I didn’t see any scoring or strange marks with a mirror that fits in there. I’ll stuff it down the intake valves when it’s opened up again to check along with a compression test.

Also had some cheapie generic coils to put on the new plugs - got a batch of current revision coils and new plugs to go in after everything’s actually clean.

#68

ok so, here’s where I’m at today;

another oil change kit
Trans fluid replacement, filter, pan gasket
10 new coils
10 new plugs
3 new injectors
another carbon clean kit
going to split the intake to see if the 2 broken flaps are repairable; if not, epoxy the whole shebang into the “closed” position

I still need to do the suspension bushings and full brakes.

#69

That’s a good list, don’t get discouraged, once you get all the maint out of the way it’s worth it. Then you can focus on the nice to haves / wants (mods). I hear ya though.

#70

to help answer some of your above questions.

2 gallons of G12 or 13 is fine make sure you add water and mix 50/50 or some like 60/40

A broken intake flap will cause misfires but a bad injector will absolutely cause misfire issues.

I would spend the bulk of your time on the injectors. It might not be a a bad idea to send all the injectors out to get cleaned and flowed and tested. JHM has a service that actually flows and tests them at over 1000psi most everyone else only does 4 bar and that’s about idle on the FSI cars. Still shop around even a 4 bar cleaning and flow test will help give you a good idea. If 2 injectors were bad enough to give misfires you never know what kind of shape the other ones are in.

If you get cat codes that’s not a good thing. Post the codes your getting. It’s common for the cats to go bad on these cars when you have a downed injector the one bank runs super lean and eats the cats. You have the JHM tune so it will adjust but if you remove the cats you can just contact JHM They will update the code for you for no cats.

A bad carbon clean is worse than no carbon clean. There are some big carbon chunks that can come off and do some serious damage to the cylinder walls and if you get too much carbon not pulled out it can also get in and clog the cats.

I would pull the intake shut the flaps on the long runner and just disconnect the motors from the shaft. While your in there really check the carbon situation.

#71

yeah, that’s the plan Justin - I ordered 3 new from JHM along with another clean kit and idler. I’m pretty confident that the “old” cyl9 injector ended up in cyl4 because of the broken tab situation. Also looks like it’s the only one that’s unhappy, although 2 others have showed up on cold starts below 50f - makes sense since I only replaced 7 anyway. Should be very easy to confirm as the top O rings are a different color as well. At some point I’ll get a full matched set, I can’t afford the downtime at the moment. : / We’re headed out of state for summer vacation, I’ll try to see if I can get those schedules to line up.

Flaps will definitely be set to closed if I’ve a choice. While I’d love to just gut the thing, I’m pretty sure I’d be a lot less happy with a loss in torque like that. I rarely get this car over 100, so top end is almost irrelevant to me at this point…

How feasible is it to piggy the cats from the bottom in-situ? I’ve cored more than a couple in my day, but every one of them was on a 4cyl car that I had direct visual access to - not sure it’s feasible blind. The amount of overlap and reversion on this engine has me thinking it’s possible for any loose crap left over breaking up the cats might find it’s way into the cylinders as well.

#72

Yes you really need to keep the flaps in the intake. I think even most spirited drivers don’t see much over 80.

To do the piggy style you need to pull the motor. You can get to maybe 2 of the cats but the other banks further up are not possible to get to. Even the 02 sensors on the upper banks require the motor to be pulled.

#73

Finished the transfluid today - HOLY CRAP was that PITA!! the Y pipes on the exhaust are a BITCH!!!

Thankfully, or sadly (not sure which yet), the fluid was in really good shape, no smell, nothing but fine particles on the filter and mag plug… Really really good shape for 174,000 miles really. Didn’t smell like it’s been burnt, wasn’t discolored, wasn’t clear but didn’t look nearly as bad as I thought it would. I say sad because the car shifts rough from time to time, has that great lurch in S mode at stoplights, etc. Was hoping the fluid was complete shit and the change would make all that go away. (sigh) Maybe it still will… This fluid wasn’t cheap!

Oil change done - looked a lot darker than I’d like, but expected since it’s the oil that was in there when I carbon cleaned it.

On to flushing out the generic cheap green coolant, replacing the TStat if it’s where I think it is and topping of with that lovely pink G stuff now that I’ve got no leaks :slight_smile:

#74

Good news that the fluid is in solid shape. How about the TCU? Also have you checked condition of tq converter? Also did u change the ATF filter, and was fluid level good before And after the change?

#75

yup filter was changed, fluid level was on the money, no big hunks in the filter/fluid (should) mean clutches are good.

Fluid changed killed the lurch, shifts are better than before. Cold start and commute tomorrow will tell the tale.

New plugs n coils fixed the misfires, but revealed a new leak - every one of the spark tubes was wet with oil. (sigh) Valve cover gaskets are next I guess :frowning:

Car’s running fantastic now though!

#76

There is always the possibily that the previous owner might have changed the fluid. How long have you had the car.

I change mine every 50k and it always seems to be dark red as the OEM transmission fluid is bright red.

It is a fun fluid change… if you have a vag com reset the transmission and see if that helps.

#77

Should be happy v10 motoring then :slight_smile:

#78

tinted the tails…not murdered out, but just anough to knock off the red a little…

http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/114422054.jpg

http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/76005998.jpg

http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/617504461.jpg

#79

Looks nice. Especially with those carbon’d exhaust tips lol

#80

Hey, they’re not dirty, they’re uh…blacked out. yeah.