Korgdog, I was able to get the water pump off with a little muscle work. Thanks for the suggestion!
I feel bad for whomever gets to remove the front coolant pipe (hopefully never needs…or during a full, non-emergency rebuild :D)
best way to replace the water pump gasket - if you don’t buy it as an assembly - is to use a flathead screwdriver to help guide the new o-ring around the contours of the pump body.
FINALLY some real progress. now to get that damn oil pan on and not leaking…
And just like that, I am brought back down to earth. Make sure your water pump shaft alignment is perfect.
In theory everything should slide in nicely. If not, you will likely break it if you try and install the water pump bolts. Ask me how i know…(no harm appears to have been done engine-side, thank god).
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/843080852.jpg
^^ edited the post to include the correct picture, per fenixgoon’s request
Oh shit that sucks. So the shaft wasn’t in all the way and when you tried to tighten it down the pump broke… is that right.
sealed the oil pan again. 3rd time is the charm? this time i used the renzoil stuff (more like a toothpaste tube) than the henkel/loctite stuff. wayyyy easier to apply. put the RTV on the machined surface of the block this time because it’s that easy to apply even upside down, on your back, with little working room. crossing my fingers it works!
@justincredible - yes the water pump didn’t line up with the shaft correctly and created some bending forces that snapped the WP female shaft end. RIP :’(
finally got the water pump back on.
what i found helped a ton was to put the pump on by itself first to get the shaft alignment correct. i did this by turning the compressor blade, pushing the housing in, turning, pushing, etc. you’ll know things are lined up when you can’t turn the compressor due to resistance from the rest of the engine.
at this point, you can pull the pump back out, attach the housing (making sure not to allow the blade to be turned), and reattach the whole assembly. when everything is correctly aligned, the assembly bolts only have to make up a relatively small gap between the back of the pump and the engine block. the assembly should be able to be readily tightened down with a 1/4" drive and the t30 torx bit. if you’re having to crank on it, chances are the alignment is not correct and you too may risk busting a water pump 
Buttoned up the water pump and associated hardware. Onto IM removal. Anyone got tips for removing the electrical connectors when the tabs are broken? One of my knock sensors has a broken tab.
Almost ready to pull the IM off. Just gotta clear the fuel lines and the lifting eyes. How did yall get to the fuel lines? There are 2 connections that are BURIED in the rear by the lifting eyes (1 passenger side, 1 driver side) that clearly need a better tool than an adjustable wrench. Might be able to squeeze in with a fixed one?
Once I get those fuel lines off, getting to the lifting eyes should be straightforward.
There is enough room to lift the back of the manifold to get to those rear fuel line fittings.
I used a set of crows foot wrenches to tighten and untighten the fittings.
I use zip ties in that case to help hold them on. To get them off. place a eyeglass flat hear screw driver between the tab and the flap. Works like a charm.
Same get a set of low pro crows feet. Very helpful.
Finally got the IM off. Thanks for all the suggestions!
Carbon levels don’t look too bad, but may as well clean the valves while I’m here.
I noticed a bit of oil in the “vee” section on the underside of the IM. What are the common leak points that lead to this? Normally I go with “liquids drip down” but there really isn’t really much above aside from the IM itself.
Also, what’s the best/safest way to clean out this area? Would like to get it nice and shiny (or as shiny as it can be).
I had a inner v oil leak. Can be a number of things but it’s good to start with th oil filter housing o rings
We did those and the tappet cover gaskets.
From that angle its hard to see just how much oil or the oil area is in the “V” as mentioned generally the biggest area oil will come from will be the oil filter O rings. But generally you can kinda eye ball that area to see if its the main supplier. The O rings are always a good thing to just replace just make sure you do it correctly so you don’t have to go back and do it all again.
When I did my carbon clean, the v-area of my engine looked just like yours; some grime and a small amount of oil.
I changed out the two o-ring seals for the oil filter housing. They are pretty cheap and it is extremely common that these are leaking.
As for cleaning the area, what I did was get a few cans of brake kleen. I kept the intake holes covered with blue paper towels and sprayed the brake kleen starting at the top on the sides of the V to dissolve the oil and grime and wash it down. I then used a shop vac with a piece of tubing at the end to suck up the liquid and the dissolved debris. I used a piece of tubing that was small enough that I could get suck up the liquid from all of the nooks and crannies. When I was done the V-area looked way better.
Good call spaceme1! I picked up a small shop vac the other day so this will work perfect.
So I’m trying to open up the intake manifold and one of motor arms is in the way of a t30 bolt that mounts the motor to the manifold. Anyone else run into this? How’d you get around it? Can the arms be forced to another position? Or did you use some vise grips/locking pliers or some other creative means to get it undone?
Just pull out the bolt. In the intake install instructions it mentions to remove the bracket and bolts.
Fuel rails out, but my fuel injectors stayed in the block. The bentley guide says there is a special tool for removing the injectors. Any of you guys use that tool (or generic version) or have some other method to pull the injectors?
Also, on the valve covers, there is one T30 on the driver’s side that is absolutely buried and my stubby T30 + 1/4" drive ratchet can’t get to it - just not enough height clearance from the bolt head. On the passenger side, there is a bracket that gets in the way of removing the valve cover - also have clearance issues here because the wiring harness is right behind the bolt to this bracket, so I can’t fit in the T30 + 1/4" ratchet here either.
Will try the intake manifold again tomorrow.
TIA, you guys are the best 
For the rear corner valve cover Torx bolts you need a stubby ratchet that holds a Torx bit; something like this: https://www.amazon.com/MulWark-Quarters-Screwdriver-Profile-Reversible/dp/B0748DCVHN/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1535983552&sr=8-20&keywords=stubby+torx+socket+set
On the passenger side, you need to bend the bracket up. The metal is thin so this is quite easy. It is also very easy to bend it back when you re-install so don’t worry too much about this. For the wire harness, if I remember correctly, you can just cut the zip tie holding the wire harness on this bracket and move it out of the way.
As for removing the injectors, when I do mine next year I will be using this tool: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01962JOYK/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_9?smid=A1VY8W4KN5O2IU&psc=1
It looks pretty easy to use.
2 new valve cover gaskets and 10 new plugs/coils today. My list of things to do is getting shorter, and I might actually have a driveable car :o ;D