First off, it’s all good asking questions. that’s what the forum is for.
For the power steering cooler I moved it out of the way. You can bend it gently to do so, but again, I took pictures of how everything was before I took it apart. I took the a/c condenser off and put it to the side. I did not disconnect any of the lines (releasing refrigerant to the atmosphere is illegal in most places)
I don’t have my own pic, but one of the other members had this one:
You can see the power steering cooler under the car. Pay attention to how it comes out as you will have to put in a certain way for it to fit… I did it wrong and had to take the whole cradle out again. I
Hope that helps visualize what bolts to take off, ect. Again I did this with no manual or DIY, it felt pretty straight forward to me.
Thanks murphenur that definitely helps having the visuals. I think this is maybe just me misunderstanding exactly how guys were pulling the core support and setting it aside. So let’s see if I have this straight now…
I think the problem I was having was thinking that I could leave the condenser and rad and such attached and be able to just set it out of the way but of course the power steering line running through the core support doesn’t allow this. So if I’m understanding this correctly, I need to remove the condenser and set it aside, then pull the rad and fans off the core support to be able to move the power steering cooling line out of the way to then fully remove the core support?
K got it! Was a classic me overthinking it all situation, was as you said, quite straight forward.
Need to set up a image sharing account to upload pics but will try to add some later but just wanted to throw up a quick update that I got the core support handled.
So anyways after getting the core off and doing some inspecting, I went ahead and got the intake manifold removed to get ready for carbon cleaning, injectors and when re-assembly happens, a fresh new intake manifold.
Then the carbon cleaning…what a process that is! Definitely takes some time and patience to get it done but at least you end up with a nice finished product! You can see how bad #1 and #6 were due to the oil going through the intake manifold.
So anyways after finishing the carbon cleaning I got my injectors swapped which turned out to be an easier job than anticipated, all but one pulled out with the rail.
So this weekend I’ll be aiming to do the valve cover gaskets, spark plugs and coil packs. I’m grabbing some OE spec flange sealant tomorrow for the valve cover job to go with the fresh gaskets to help ensure there aren’t any leaks. I also need to strip out the SAI system at some point.
Other then that I’m waiting on parts to get re-assembly going. I discovered some bad connectors on the injectors but was able to find a used harness on eBay that’s on the way. Also ordered a new oil separator, oil level & temp sensor, upper rad hose (small stem was brittle and broke as soon as I touched it), idler pulley & tensioner. The later two didn’t seem to be in terrible shape but still sounded a little rough and potentially on their way out so figured just get things done right the first time while I’m in there.
I’ve got a busy few weeks ahead so I’ll just be picking away at this when I can so it’s looking like it’ll probably be 2-3 weeks or more before I can get it done and going again but I’m getting really excited to see how it feels after the cleaning and round of fresh parts!
Shine great work thanks for the pix. I think some don’t get a chance to see carbon build up all that much.
The intake you can clean that with a good healthy amount of simple green if you wish.
I would NOT put back in the port spacers. Those port spacers are just a magnet for carbon to latch on. ITs been common for years for people to remove them. If you have the JHM intake spacers they help a great deal keep things like the oil separator and intake manifold temps down and happy with a nice free boost in power.
Overall tho. I was really impressed with just how good the front of the motor looked. The VC gaskets don’t show any sign of leaking. If you are going to replace them just make sure to really put a strong bead of RTV in the lower corners and bottom of the head where there can be standing oil activity. While the oil obviously drains down those areas are very active.
Smart move on the injectors. I have looked at two S6s this year trying to get into one and both of them were supper clean. The only hang up was one of them you could tell had injector issues and on the compression test the lower cylinder compression wise seemed to correlate to the same cylinder that had misfires and you could tell from the LTFT data that the injectors were not flowing correctly. A big must.
On the valve cover… Thanks its always nice to hear people appreciate input. Honestly now that you know that. Look at most Audis but mostly the 4.2 and 5.2 cars. They all leak in the lower corner and on the sides. Oil just weeps out in those spots. A good healthy bead of RTV and your all set.
What is the LTFT data? (it’s morning here still and I can’t remember if we’ve gone over this)
Yeah I definitely appreciate little ideas like that. There are days where I feel like I have to document some of the ways I’ve done things just so I remember how to do it again.
This forum has been especially helpful and I try to share anything that I’ve encountered because like you said, there is going to be someone else that may have a similar problem and if we all share our solutions it will save everyone time in the long run.
This forum is small but its got some of the best guys on it both technical and enthusiast. I know other people direct people here and I think that’s great for the people coming over here for help and its great for the site.
Sorry on the LTFT. / STFT
L Long
T Term
F Fuel
T Trim/s
Been a busy few weeks but here are some replies and an update finally…
I used the chemical method, got the Liqui-Moly fuel system cleaner from JHM. Took quite a bit of work to get them done but yah they weren’t quite as bad as some I’ve seen.
More than happy to share what photos and info I can!
My intake was malfunctioning and throwing codes and going back through the service records both of the motors have been replaced through the years so I just included a new intake in my order from JHM & got a Oct/17 build!
I definitely left the port spacers out as I noticed in the other posts on here that those were better to leave out but thanks for the heads up.
I was also quite happy overall with the front of the motor and no signs of any major leaking. The valve cover gaskets although not leaking down the engine, were definitely leaking into the spark plug tubes. I’ve got the L side done already and I did use some of the OE spec flange sealant Loctite 5970 around the entire sealing surface of the gasket so hopefully that will help keep things dry for good long time.
So last time I had some time to work on the car I had got as far as the one valve cover gasket change and had installed the new spark plugs on that side. I just finally got back out to the garage for a bit today after a few weeks and got the new coil packs installed, replaced a few bad connectors on the injector harnesses and one on the coil pack harness and put everything back together for the L side including a fresh wire cover on the coil pack wiring harness. Then I just got a start on pulling the R side valve cover but only got as far as pulling the coil packs and discovering every spark plug tube on that side had oil in it and 3 out of 5 had a fair bit.
The only thing I still have to pull off is the rest of the SAI system. I pulled the pipes along the front of the engine and installed the block off plates and was preparing to pull the remainder of the components and then realized I was unsure what to do in regards to the vacuum line that comes out of the SAI system and runs to the vacuum sensor I believe it is. So just hoping someone can shed some light on removing the SAI system for me or if it or certain components of it need to stay.
So should be able to get some good time in out there this weekend so first off will be to finish the R side valve cover gasket replacement and re-assemble with the fresh spark plugs, coil packs and wire cover. After that I think I’m pretty much ready to finally start putting things back together so will just start working through all of that. I’ll post some more updates and photos as I start to make some more progress.
So quick update…I finally finished getting everything back together today & got it fired up and got out for a short drive!!
Running super smooth, idle is like butter! Can’t judge any of the performance of it yet as it decided to start snowing here tonight so although I got out for a drive, I couldn’t really lay into it.
However just revving it up in park, the engine sure climbs through the RPM’s a lot quicker now, that crank pulley really wakes it up!
Anyways I’ll get some more photos and details up here soon, but have a few small bits to finish off and will hopefully get the exhaust on soon.
Taking all the weight off the front end of the motor with the JHM crank pulley really helps free up the motor and you can really notice it. Its again one of those small changes that you can only understand once you did it.
