Bothh are seeping onto exhaust manifolds so they gotta get changed. THe one rear bolt looks like a PITA, I have to use a ratchet 1/4" wrench over a stubby hex drive t30 bit to get at it…no guarantees if it will fit once i start backing it out though…
Otherwise, is there enough room to just lift the cover up and out to replace the gasket?
Thanks,
Did you take the engine air boxes and intake tubes off? If so then there should be plenty of room. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is oil inside the spark plug tubes too. Had a S6 V10 that some of the spark plugs were fully submerged in oil at one point.
By the way get yourself a stubby 1/4 inch drive T30 Torx socket like in the link below and you can thank me later.
I was all the way in there couple nights ago, untill i realized the torx bit I had was too large. I ended up buying a 1/4" swivel head ratchet wrench. So its even slimmer than using it for a regular 1/4" drive ratchet. Now I can get in there and do it.
Yes i did have a bunch of oil in the plug tubes, however upon inspection it looks to me like its actually leaking between the hed and cam carrier interface, as above it where the VC meets the cam carrier appears dry…
Unnerving as this would be a huge job…but realisticaly if it is leaking there…Id rather just pull the coils ever 15k miles and clean in there…
My left side is leaking a bit. This is coming up for me as well. A new howto would be awesome for the v10 crowd.
Ok that tool works too. I am just spoiled from using that stubby T30 and my 8 inch long 1/4 inch drive Snap-on ratchet to crack the rear bottom corner valve cover bolts loose on the B6 A4 3.0 V6, B6/7 S4s, and these V10s.
I was afraid of oil leaking between the camshaft ladder frame and the head on the S6 that I worked on but after replacing the valve cover gasket and cleaning everything up it seems that the oil leak is gone. Only time will tell though. That S6 has something like 120K miles on it too. How many miles does your S8 have?
Multiple times I have done a timing service (the chains are on the back of the engine like the V10s but they use camshaft bearing caps instead of a ladder frame) and head work on the old V8 B6/7 S4s with the engine in the car but it looks like a nightmare to try to get the transmission out of the car and keep the engine in the car with these V10s. I would rather just drop the whole engine and transmission and make life easier with more room.
Let me see if I can get permission to post some of the pictures from the S6 that I worked on and then I can put something together for you guys.
82k miles on ours.
We have owned it for 16k of those miles. I dont know if the dealer that had the car before changed plugs or anything before, so who knows how long that oil has been in there for.
worst case, 16k miles
best case, 20, 30, 40k miles. I know at around 50k miles the single PO had an ignition coil changed at the dealer.
Not worth it to me at this stage to drop the entire dang thing out to reseal a very small minor leak. Untill I start getting crazy misfires and oil pooling out the plug holes, Ill jsut pop the coils off every 15k miles and blow the oil out of there.
Realistically, I have personally seen RTV do great work on areas that are not under pressure. Clean the inside of the plug bore real well, little smear around the carrier/head joint and it should be fine.
Had a persistent small leak from the oil pan as someone before reused the old crush washer too many times. Even new washer and bolt small leak. cleaned it, little rtv around the bolt, spritz some water on it to cure the RTV quicker…not another drop.
By a means give this man permission to upload! ;D
Glad to hear that the valve cover gaskets are managable. From what I’ve seen on the 4.2’s seems very similar. Not sure what you mean on the chains though. They are doable from the front in servive position, correct? What are you worried about needing to drop the motor/trans for?
Errr belts, not chains, right? Need to look this up…
s8 same as the FSI A8 has chains on the rear.
only accessory driven by belt on S8 is alternator, which as i personally found out you do not need to put front end into service position. a long skinny pusher tool helps.
If one were to reseal the cam carrier to head interface to do the job right, youd have to remove trans, remove rear cover remove timing chains, then lift the carrier.
I have been able to tilt the entire cam carrier assembly up on a DOHC hot v v8 previously to change tappets, however i wouldnt recommend it. a few mm more of tilt and the tensioner would have ratched out another tooth and cover woudl ahve to be pulled to take off and reset tenisoner. Development engine in a test cell, so not a big deal to pull a cover.
If you can get away with a RTV fix, even just temporary, then I would do it!
My client is not on here. I have to text him and wait for his response.
Here is a link to my thread where I did the timing service on my engine with it out of the car like what I described with the V10.
http://audirevolution.net/forum/index.php?topic=995.msg101902#msg101902
Also a picture from that link of the V8 for reference.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll37/Jimmybones777/SAM_0387_zpsxbmmhyh0.jpg
I would want to take the tension of the timing chains off the back of the camshafts before lifting the whole ladder frame because I would be afraid of breaking the camshafts.
Greg is it the entire side or just that one plug spot that gets the oil in it
Thanks Jimmybones. So from a bit more reading it appears you can get the left and right gaskets without needing new value covers since i have an 08 s6. Do you agree? All can be done from the top. Pull the vc, clean, reseal, bolt back on. Any words of advice? This will be a first for me. I also need to reseal the oil pan it appears. Which would you recommend I start with?
Hey jc_io. I actually got permission to post pictures of the valve cover gasket change from my client so I will try to get that up soon in the DIY section. It slipped my mind with the holiday season and drinking heavily.
The 2008 S6 should have the updated valve cover so yes you should be able to pull the valve cover, clean, replace the gasket, and retighten. If you call your local dealership with your VIN handy then they should be able to look up the valve cover and gasket to double check.
I don’t know how much information that you found about the valve covers and gaskets but the early V10 cars were like the early RS4s and probably the early low revving Q7 FSI V8 versions too. Koolade9 posted about his RS4 and how the valve cover gasket doesn’t go all the way around the farthest back spark plug hole on the driver’s side. I have cut/trimmed the gasket for early cars on certain occasions. With that situation a bit of sealant around the rest of the spark plug tube opening should prevent any leaks.
Remove the valve covers by loosing the outer corner bolts first and criss-cross your way inwards until the cover is free to come off. To reinstall with new gaskets tighten the valve covers in the middle first and then criss-cross your way outwards. That is pretty typical of tightening any cover though to get an even seal.
There is an annoying wiring harness zip-tie holder bracket over the back of the valve covers that gets in the way of physically lifting the valve cover out. I have seen people bend it out of the way, cut it, and/or not reinstall them. I personally don’t think that it is needed but some people care.
Do the valve covers first and then reseal the oil pan.
Thanks for the reply Jimmy. Will be doing this soon along with new coils and plugs.
jc_io, just an FYI. I have an 08 S6 and it had the older valve covers, so having an 08 is not a slam dunk. I think mine is an early build, though, so maybe you have the updated covers if yours is a later build. Regardless, as Jimmy said, you can just purchase the newer gaskets and remove a small section of the gasket to allow it to fit in the older covers (if you indeed have the older style). And that annoying bracket was only on the passenger side in my car. I just bent it out of the way. If you’ve seen some of the write-ups, you’re also going to want a low profile tool for the bottom rear screw on each side, there is very little space to access them.
Well it had been a month of smoke tree smell free swell driving. then yesterday pulling into my garage…i smell it. get out, yep i see smoke coming from the bottom driver foglamp grille area, pop the hood and appears to be originating from the driver rear of the motor again.
take the air cleaner off, etc etc to check bolt tightness of gaskets, they are fine, nice and snug. well thats kind of dissapointing…was hoping it was easy/obvious…
It happens only after driving and/or driving it hard/high rpm. It does not smoke when hot idling. I took the best pics that I could…I cant tell where it is coming from. THere are a few wet areas, but nothing that looks like it would drip down onto the exhaust…
I used my super crappy inspection camera to poke around near the base of the filter housing. there is some oil pooled there in fact. hard to tell if its just old oil from filter changes, or there is a small leak somehwere. nothing obvious leaking out the back of the V though, some dampness but nothign that looks like it is actually leaking enough to be burned by the exhaust…UNless it it something further down the block, enveloped by the headers which is impossible to even see/access with the engine in the bay…
SO first thing that looks like it is seeping the most are the OCVs at the rear of the heads. If it a metel/metal seal or is there a small gasket or O ring in between? Looks fairly straightforward to pull them and change the seal if there is one.
2nd, the metal vacuum (i think) tube that runs up to meet the diaphragm of the oil separator, I am able to wiggle this when the separator is not attached to it. If it just a press in O ring seal into the block?
OCV passenger side seepage
OCV diver side seepage
driver side rear of engine
this one is super tough to see, look near the top left. thats the filter housing occupying the left side of the pic, and the base of the block i beleive that looks all oil covered in between the hose sheath and filter housing.
I read about the o ring going baad on the v10 at the base of the filter housing.
Can this be changed in vehicle? If I could access that rear bolt on driver cover, this should be ok then…
Finally, wjhat is this hose? It is severly deteriorated and want to replace it tonight before taking the car to chicago tomorrow morning. Looks like a standard 3/8?
If it for power steering?
(it is the uppr hose with the OEM clamp on it being visible)
Yes, the oring at the base of the filter housing does go bad, I replaced mine a couple of months ago. The oil runs down the vee and out some weep holes at the front of the engine. I don’t think it typically results in any smoke though. Could just be a secondary problem like mine was (I still have smell and smoke from a likely cam guide frame leak). The oil filter housing has two orings that you should replace at the same time while it’s off. In order to replace, you’ll need to remove the IM. Takes at least a couple of hours to get off.
I have narrowed it to the rear corner of the driver side. unfortunately too tight in there to see a darn thing. I can run my finger along the bottom of the valve cover and does not appear to have fresh oil there.
I dont think I see anything from the base of the cam carrier.
I am wondering if it is the bottom/side of the cam/chain cover gasket that is compromised? From underneath the car witht he belly pan off i see the CV boot shield is wet with oil. I dont think its anythign in the valley oozing out… It has to be a direct drip onto the exhaust/around it.
Also the leak only manifests either at higher RPM (2000+ or load). Dont know if this is due to pressure or extra volume in the heads/splash?
It does not show up during hot idling.
Here are some pics from AR and the net.
Not the best so hard to see what else can be there.
Unfortunately…to freseal this timing cover…the engine has to come out???
Or can I undo enough lines and brackets to slide in there?
http://c8.alamy.com/comp/F771HJ/der-motor-des-audi-r8-52-fsi-v10-sportwagens-berlin-F771HJ.jpg
actually…could I pull off the plastic shielding /housing at the cowl? Will the gain me some direct access with bending the heat shields out of the way?
