After a valve in cyl 7 let go, I have ended up doing an engine swap. I was going to put the intake back on tonight and decided to give it a good shake in case some shrapnel got into it during the catastrophic failure. I would like some input on what the inside of the intake looks like, and my best method for getting the foreign object out. I doubt it’s more than a small fragment of valve, but i am having trouble shaking it out. I believe the the lower portion of the intake is doing a “good” job of preventing me from ejecting the object through one of the intake ports. If I have to take apart the manifold and buy a new gasket set for it, it will set me back a number of days which is not desirable.
Some input from you guys would be really helpful.
There are lots of intake posts on here I will look for you and post some pictures. You have to get the thing out of the intake try moving the flaps and see if that helps dislodge whatever is in there.
Look here and see if this shows you enough if not let me know
http://audirevolution.net/forum/index.php?topic=2735.msg77504#msg77504
Thanks, that certainly help’s a bit, i don’t have a clear understanding of the lower casting, that thread shows views mainly of the top casting. I will also look around some more and see what I find. I got about 15 fragments out and can’t hear anything in there now when i shake it around/turn upside down/back and forth. I have blown a whole bunch of air through all ports over and over, then extracting through the throttle body. I guess I’m worried that there are still a few .020" sized fragments stuck in there randomly that I can’t hear and would need to pull it apart to get at. Likely any really small particles would blow through and not affect anything, but may not be worth the risk. I’m fairly certain that I’ve extracted between 95-100% of anything that was in there…
I think I have lots of pictures some where. Let me know if seeing more of the intake will really be helpful. You have a new motor I think it makes good sense to be extra careful. One of the best ways to get little parts out would be to fill the intake with water. It’s not going to hurt anything. If you have any electronic things hooked up be careful.
Ok much appreciated. I am going to think it over, best thing to do may be to find out if the dealer can get a gasket set here in short order. I will contemplate a few options, and get back to you about the pictures.
I don’t think there are gaskets for the intake. I could be wrong but I don’t think it’s serviceable like that. Let me know if you need more help or pictures. I think I have a spare intake I can take apart if you need pix. I know a few other guys on here have some good pix as well.
I just spoke with the stealership, they do not sell a gasket set for the intake. As you say, it seems to be a component that was not intended to be serviced. I may just keep blowing air through/shaking another 20 or 30 mins to hedge my bets that all small fragments are out. That’s a little un-nerving though.
No gaskets for intake manifold…only gasket is the one that sits between manifold and heads.
You can also unbolt the 10 star key, pull apart the upper/lower and clear out what’s inside. When you’re ready to piece it back together, use the black RTV gasket maker and follow the grooves around bottom half.
10 star bolts take about 11nm; 14 hex bolts are about 11nm too. I posted pics of my extra manifold when I took it apart to experiment with the casting bolts.
Slow backed up what we both thought. The intake doesn’t look like there would be any way to have it serviced. I would consider either taking it apart or flushing it out with water. It only takes the smallest part of debris to cause a issue in the motor.
Thanks guys, just going back and forth about what to do now, it will be one of the other, no sense in being foolish at this point.
I am extremely glad that I split the intake, there was a light coating of oil grime throughout, which combined with the crevices and valleys all over the upper and lower intake allowed quite a bit of particulate to be trapped. I cleaned the whole thing up, ran a cloth through all intake runners over and over, blew out everything, i think it’s truly clean now, I would have been leaving a whole lot up to chance and likely caused engine damage had any of that stuff found its way to a ring landing etc. If anybody comes across a similar situation to mine, please recommend that they split the intake cover, it’s really impossible to clean out properly without doing so! Just doing a shake test and listening for any loose particles doesn’t cut it.
The gasket in the groove seems to be in pretty good shape and protruding above the mating surface, could i leave it in and potentially add a thin layer of black rtv right on the gasket itself?
I’ve attached a few pics, one is blurry but you can see some of the particles in there, it’s not just a random reflection.
Can’t upload the 116 kb image for some reason. “Uploader full”. May have to post through a web link at a later point.
** Remove old sealant
** clean surface of upper and lower manifold with brake cleaner (do not clean TB with brake cleaner, use actual throttle cleaner)
** apply continuous bead of RTV gasket maker into applicable groove
** sandwich manifold
** bolt down in star pattern (I started middle and spiraled out)
Def put up a picture. The oily mess is sorta normal. It’s good to clean it if you can. Put a small amount of black rtv on and make sure to be more generous in the corners and seems. The tightening pattern needs to be followed properly or your going to get vac leaks.
Did you ever identify what was actually broken and in the manifold? Or was it just small pieces?
Oh I most certainly did, just hang on for some pictures. I dug the valve head out of the cylinder head/intake runner, the stem out of the intake, and another 15 distinct sized chunks in the range of 1-3mm. Not to mention another 50+ tiny little flakes and particles scattered everywhere. Some non-ferrous as I discovered when trying to use a magnet for some of it. So there is obviously some high performance coating etc on these valves, but I haven’t researched it. Will post a link with pics when I get home from work.
“You dug the valve head out of the cylinder head/intake runner” and “the stem out of the intake”?!?
Did your engine just sh*t itself a valve? That’s how I just interpreted your post.
EDiT:
Hehe, apparently I suck at reader comprehension as I completely missed your first post. disregard this post 
http://s304.photobucket.com/user/boomer_3_photos/slideshow/Audi%20B6%20S4
Yes, my engine shat itself. It didn’t happen spontaneously though. I did the timing job about 1000 miles before, ran vcds blocks post job and was out of phase by 4 degrees or so, no codes associated with that phase position and no issues that I could detect while driving to be honest. Pulling out onto the road in second gear at about 2500rpm it stumbled and started making a nice ticking sound so i immediately pulled over and shut her down. 0 psi in cyl 7, spark plug mashed, the center intake valve completely grenaded, and nothing else in the whole bank affected. Where did I go wrong? This is a great mystery to me still. It can’t have just been coincidental that i had done the timing job recently, but why was it not the WHOLE head that exploded on the intake cam rather than just 1 valve. I still haven’t solved it, completely mystified for the last few months, but life goes on, another engine goes in, it’s sitting on the motor mounts as of 10 minutes ago, so i’m getting there!
Again thanks for the advice on pulling the intake apart, have a look at the picture of the pieces in that slideshow link.
Here is some help with the pictures. This is crazy. Good thing you got this out.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn184/boomer_3_photos/Audi%20B6%20S4/IMAG1121Medium.jpg
If you can take a picture of the top of the piston I think we might be able to tell you more. If you want start another thread on the investigation of your blown motor. It might be fun and we can all help talk up what might have heppened.
If your saying the plug was smashed then there is a good chance you broke a rod the piston would have to go past its travel to reach the plug
Here is another one of the pictues. You can see some stuff hiding. Good idea on pulling everything apart. If you need help on the reinstall just post…
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn184/boomer_3_photos/Audi%20B6%20S4/IMAG1124Small.jpg