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Gsrob,
What year & mileage on your car? We somewhat recently got my son's 2.7 back together after going a couple steps beyond where you were (pulled engine for clutch, turbo rebuild, etc). Looks like your making good progress & paying attention to detail. Catching that torn VC gasket early saved you from having to reclean your engine again!
So here's a lesson learned. While your electric fans are out, put 12V to them to be sure they work. My son's car had ~170K miles & after we put it all back together, one of the fans worked intermitantly. With 12V applied directly it would work OK, but later, it wouldn't. Bottom line was the internal brushes were worn down to their stops, so minimal spring load on the motor brushes. Had to go back to service position (we've had lots of practice) & remove the fans. When I opened the fan housing up a pile of black carbon poured out. Looked like emptying a pencil sharpener w/o the wood shavings (assuming anyone knows what a pencil sharpener is now-a-days). I cut out the 4 old carbon brushes, soldered in new ones, oiled bearing, & they now run like new. So just a heads up to at least test your fans now by putting 12V to them, so you don't experience same issue. Good luck.
Got home, put some work in, just about 2 hours, not as much as I would've liked...
1. I have not checked the brushes in the alternator, but definitely sounds like something to check out. While the front end is off.
2. I will definitely check the leads on the fan... The last thing I want to do is button things up just to find I could've made a couple of simple fixes.
3. Car = 2002 Audi A6 2.7t 6 Speed - 152k.
4. Thanks for all the tips guys, I will definitely put the extra time in to check it all out!
So I got the remaining cam seal installed on the driver side bank. All cam seals, tensioner gaskets, and 1 out of 2 valve cover gaskets are done. The new replacement valve cover should arrive Friday. As usual, FCP has been a pleasure to deal with. They don't even request the original being sent back. I also got the cam gears back on the cams, hand tightened down and I got the passenger side cams lined back up in time with the driver side. I had to pop the snub mount off to maneuver the bar back around but it all lines up now and stays put.
After that, I pulled the water pump and thermostat housing, made another mess, cleaned it up and made another one again. I took my time and used my drill and a brass brush attachment to clean the heck out of the surface where the gasket will make contact and it looks like new. Also cleaned up the thermostat o-ring contact areas really well. Unfortunately ran into another set back though. My thermostat housing was the old plastic one and I've read a lot about them being prone to leaking when they are worn down on the edges and no longer provide a sharp bite. I was really, really hoping mine would look like new, but no such luck. I will post a picture below. It's all chewed away where it makes contact with the thermostat on one edge and I am not about to put it back on the car. I've got one on order from Europaparts since they are by far the cheapest and just went with the plastic one again. It should be here by Saturday via USPS, so if all goes well, I hope to have the car together in the evening. In the meantime I will get the new v/c gasket in, spark plugs swapped over, top of the valve covers all put back together and ready everything else so that it's straight forward. Here are a few pictures of the little bit of progress I made today.
Keep the suggestions coming, I really appreciate it!
Everything back in time and upper timing covers are back on after finalizing the cam seal install.
Gasket surfaces are all cleaned up. Too bad I have more grease scrubbing to do....
The culprit... Sorry the picture is out of focus but the damage is apparent at the front lip. I'm not willing to risk a leak at the thermostat.
GSrob - You're smart to replace that thermostat housing now, while you have everything open. As to the engine fans - I noted that who posted about the fan brushes is located in South Florida - the car's fans no doubt get a constant workout there. You may be in a different place, where the fans have been used much less. Still, easy to check the operation of the fans now and ensure proper operation.
[QUOTE=Gsrob;24615248]
1. I have not checked the brushes in the alternator, but definitely sounds like something to check out. While the front end is off.
[QUOTE]
Agree. If you do decide to change the alternator brushes, change the front & aft bearings as well. Shortly before we pulled my son's engine I had rebuilt the alternator, again because of worn brushes. You could certainly follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy, since you have your hands full doing TB/WP.
Not a whole lot to report today since I'm kind of at a stand still while waiting for the valve cover gasket (tomorrow) and the new thermostat housing (Saturday). I hope to have everything done on Saturday and the car up and running. I spent a little bit of time cleaning up the garage out there because it was a disaster, swapping over hardware to the new idler, tensioner, etc, replaced the spark plugs, buttoned up the passenger side upper engine area since that V/C is done and installed the new expansion tank, which looks about a million times nicer. Stay tuned for the next episode...
New expansion tank hooked up...
Passenger side upper engine more or less put together. Still waiting on the v/c gasket to finish up the driver side...
Did you pick up an aluminum thermostat housing? I switched mine from plastic to help prevent future issues there.
Honestly man, I wish I could have, but my budget has been blown by this whole project by a couple hundred bucks already. I know that sounds cheap of me but I do have a wife to answer to currently. Although if I have this car much longer, I may not have one... Seriously though, I gave it some thought and decided that if the stock one lasted 150k without leaking, then another plastic one is good enough for me. The other thing is that I like have the plastic one uses the three bolt set up rather than the aluminum one that uses two (not that it probably matters at all).
I am doing all of this work in hopes that I will have a reliable vehicle for sometime and hopeful find a mild stage one tune. Although I do value my current clutch and turbos...
Honestly man, I wish I could have, but my budget has been blown by this whole project by a couple hundred bucks already.
I understand that. I don't want to have to pull my car apart for along time. My whole fiasco has been about $2300 to get mine back together. I blew right through my budget just to get what I can replaced that would fail by the next oil change. And it's been a very slow process at that. I'm hoping to have the motor in the car this weekend. Then running by the end of next week.
I understand that. I don't want to have to pull my car apart for along time. My whole fiasco has been about $2300 to get mine back together. I blew right through my budget just to get what I can replaced that would fail by the next oil change. And it's been a very slow process at that. I'm hoping to have the motor in the car this weekend. Then running by the end of next week.
Just a few updates. I finally got the thermostat housing in the mail today. Got everything pieced back together with some pics... The wife called me in around 8pm and I had to call it quits for the night. Tomorrow: Need to put on bumper, plug in fog lights, find missing power steering cooler bolt, verify that radiator hoses are indeed locked on as I think they are, make sure that crank lock plug hole is capped and torqued properly, make sure the plug next to the crank lock plug is as well (since I originally thought it was the plug), throw in some coolant + distilled water, and hope for no leaks...
Water pump, new thermostat housing, thermostat, and all tensioner devices installed and torqued.
Engine cranked 720 degrees with no hang ups and things line back up. Everything is in time and ready to go after pre-tensioning the timing belt.
Timing covers reinstalled, power steering pulley back on, fan pulley on, and accessory belt routed and tensioned.
Top end of the motor put back together, electrical connections and hose clamps done.
Lock carrier back on the car with minimal tasks tomorrow. The longest part of the day was getting the crankshaft plug back in after removing the locking tool.
...And she purrs. I got out there at 6:30, finished up the lock carrier and made sure to double check all connections and hoses. Started it up and it ran rough for about 5 seconds, had an oh crap moment, then it cleared up and runs great. No leaks, no check engine light (for once) and it sounds good. I bled the coolant system at the throttle body bleeder valve but I must still have an air pocket somewhere because although the car warms up properly to the mark I am not getting heat at idle. I am going to try to bleed it at the firewall heater hoses and hope that clears it up. Anyone else ever run into this?
Thanks for all of the help, suggestions, etc. Also, the car started right up so it was a bad starter the whole time. I'm very thankful everything worked out, it just took a little longer because I always seemed to be waiting on a part.
...And she purrs. I got out there at 6:30, finished up the lock carrier and made sure to double check all connections and hoses. Started it up and it ran rough for about 5 seconds, had an oh crap moment, then it cleared up and runs great. No leaks, no check engine light (for once) and it sounds good. I bled the coolant system at the throttle body bleeder valve but I must still have an air pocket somewhere because although the car warms up properly to the mark I am not getting heat at idle. I am going to try to bleed it at the firewall heater hoses and hope that clears it up. Anyone else ever run into this?
Thanks for all of the help, suggestions, etc. Also, the car started right up so it was a bad starter the whole time. I'm very thankful everything worked out, it just took a little longer because I always seemed to be waiting on a part.
FInally!
I have been able to bleed the heater hose by unscrewing the coolant reservoir and raising it above the heater hose connection. I think you might even be able to get the air out of the heater core by just running the engine with the reservoir raised and heat set to high temp.
10-15-2014, 03:28 PM
