ninefingerz

I recently acquired a 2002 Audi with the 3.0 motor in it. The car is absolutely immaculate inside and out. The owner said that the cam came apart on the drivers side, may have taken out the drivers side head or both.
For what I paid for it, I couldn't refuse the deal. What I know about it at this point is the exhaust VVT assembly on the drivers side did in fact grenade. The outer mounting ring (sits inside the gear that has 6 bolt holes in it) was sitting on the shock tower when I bought it. The good news about it is the car will still start. This tells me right off the bat that at least the passenger side bank is healthy. I have no idea how the gear stayed in place after the bolts sheared, but it did. So the passenger side timing is correct, drivers side intake is correct, and the drivers side exhaust is unknown. Considering that the drivers side timing cover was removed, the damage discovered, and the cover put back in place correctly, I assume that it was taken to a dealer or shop for assessment, and the estimate was ridiculous, as it usually is with these cars, and especially these motors. What I'm hoping for at this point is when the gear cut loose. On this 6cyl motor, the exhaust cam has lobes 120 degrees apart, which by pics and lobe geometry, there are 3 places the cam could have come to rest without causing valve damage. First I'm going to pull the valve cover. If there was severe valve contact, I will have lifters that aren't contacting the cam. If I have no gaps in the lifters, I will pull the exhaust manifold and 'gas check' the exhaust valves, meaning make sure the cam followers will spin freely by pushing by finger, and pouring a bit of fuel on top of each of the exhaust valves and look for leak down. And by leak-down, I mean if you pour in a cap-ful of fuel, and it dissappears as soon as I pour it, I'm in trouble, or at least have to get into the motor further. Timing wise, I have read a bunch of screaming about how this motor is timed, but I think it's actually pretty clever. Put the cam alignment tools on, set the crank at TDC, put the timing belt on (with all 4 camshaft bolts loose), tension the belt, set the VVT clockwise (in case it hadn't returned for some reason not under oil pressure) and torque the bolts to 75ft/lbs. I've built a bunch of motors over my lifetime, and I've had plenty of situations where you 'fudge' timing marks to make it work, or clock to get is as close as possible. Head gasket thickness, head dimension, block dimension all come in to play with 'correct' alignment. This method, albeit different, takes all of that out of play.

Any input or comments are appreciated, I've done a lot, but do not share as much as I should, so here's my attempt.

BTW, I'm just an owner. Not a shop, a flipper, etc. I've built every type of motor imaginable, from jet turbines to string trimmers.

terrance73

Not much help in this site. Did you find any answers?

ninefingerz

I did get it up and running, and it runs great. I also recently picked up an 02 A6, but when it jumped time, it hit valves. I currently have it half torn apart. Depending on what you have to do, it could be straight forward, or it could be a pain in the ***. Do you have any idea what's wrong with the motor?

terrance73

I ordered a used motor to put in $750 to my shop. I'll disassembled the original in a few weeks