amwafa

I have a 98 Audi A6 quattro 2.8L.

I'm working on replacing the valve cover gasket, half moon seal, and cam tensioner gasket as well as a newly discovered broken cam chain pad. This is all on the passenger side of the engine. I have already removed the metal cam caps closest to the driver side and left all of the cam caps alone closest to the passenger side (again, this is all on the passenger side of the engine). I did not put the engine into TDC before removing the caps, as the instructions from the parts store I got did not say to do so, but the forums say I should have. Post #13 here (https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...708648&page=2#) states I won't be able to compress the adjuster, though I'm not sure how that'll be affected. Am I still a go to continue the process, or did I completely ruin things? Please help!

amwafa

Also to be clear, I haven't changed any of the things I planned to change yet, and I haven't put the cam caps back on yet. I also marked the positions of the camshaft and chain relative to the small arrow on the top of the rear-most cam cap before loosening all of the caps.

Airbag

Well to start off you did NOT completely ruin anything .... yet.... It is tough to visualize everything you have done from this .. is your timing belt still on and are your cams still timed ? What about your chain ?



When i did mine I had it at top dead centre because i was doing timing belt at the same time.

I would get a more thorough set of instructions than your auto parts store and get the correct tools.

amwafa

My timing belt is still on, my cam is still timed, and my chain is still on too even though the cam is loose now (took off the cam caps). The only things I took off so far are the cam caps on the camshaft closest to the driver side but on the passenger side of the engine. The problem is the pistons are a bit high...I tried to put the camshaft back in its slot, but the pistons were pushing it up. I think that's what top dead center is for - to get the pistons furthest away from the camshaft so that it's easier to put back. I may just continue changing the things I wanted to change on the tensioner. Any thoughts? Should I put the camshaft back in as much as possible to push on the pistons and then rotate the engine to TDC?

Airbag

I think you are talking about the valves not the pistons.. The Valve springs will ALWAYS provide tension one way or the other . There is not a position where this will not happen. I would say just carry on but others who have domne thi smore recently may have differing comments.

amwafa

You're right - they are valves, not pistons, my fault. Thanks a lot, that's very encouraging. I'll continue and let you know how it goes.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

I suspect if nothing has changed you need to put the cam caps back on and tighten them to just enough (not torque), then remove anything you've got holding the cams (special timing tool) and then turn the engine to TDC (the right TDC..there are two on the 4.2 for example, one has the cams 180 out) and pin it. Then use the timing tools, etc., and cam tensioner tool to hold the tensioner compressed and then release the cam so you can get the tensioner out.

Prospeeder

Do this. Just to be safe

CRuby

I don't think you need to have engine @ TDC to change tensioner seals. The resistance you have on getting cam back in place is the spring load on some of the valves. That's normal. One of the more critical issues to not screw up is the cam chain links on both the intake & exhaust cams. That times the cams to each other. It's OK to slacken the chain if using the cam chain tensioner tool, but don't change the link count btwn cam sprockets. Admittedly, I've only done mine while also pulling TB, but I've seen this & other articles that did it w/o pulling TB.
Note that putting engine @ TDC does not relieve intake cam spring loads completely, but just on cylinder thats @ TDC compression stroke (#3 for my 2.7L). The other cylinders 1 & 2will still impart some spring load to the cam.

1 writeup here & others via google.: https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=1710287

I don't think you will be able to remove the tensioner for changing the shoes, but this approach can work for changing tensioner gasket & 1/2 moon seal.

Prospeeder

Well his issue is he found a chain tensioner shoe broken, so he needs to remove the intake cam and tensioner. He really needs to put the cam back tight and rotate the engine to TDC