ridinfool

Hi guys,
Ok, so I love my A8. Out of my 5 German cars, its my favorite for many reasons. Im too emotional about it probably to make a good choice maybe on what action to take. PLZ help me make a wise decision about what to do.

06 A8 150K miles. Pretty mint condition and everything is sorted. I have about $2k in this car as I bought it wrecked and fixed it myself.

I knew it needed a tensioner on the passenger side cylinder head as it was making some noise. Supposed to be a winter project, but got put off and on a -20f morning I started it to move it and it made a BAD noise.

I have since tore into it and found that it did what I thought and jumped time and bent valves etc.. Cause is worn tensioner that wore down exhaust cam sprocket and jumped time.

My choices are buy a used head ($250) that might need some work and all the items to reinstall (gaskets, new bolts etc...). Or I can punt and part it out. OR just sell it as is....

My first question is if anyone knows if the head will come out while the engine is in the car? Ive seen the V6 Audi motor head removal with it still In the car if the exhaust manifold is left on and pulled out as one piece.

The big issue is mostly about how much time it will take as my time is worth something I guess.

Thanks

MP4.2+6.0

I pulled just the passenger head (only) on my 2000 A6 4.2. Engine was left fully in place, pulling only timing belt, air box and intake related items to get head out, plus unbolting exhaust underneath. Exhaust manifold has to come out with it. D3 (and C6) design moved cats in closer AFAIK. Thus, make sure you can validate the headpipe bolt up point and how much mass there is to exhaust manifold related components that have to come out--espeically if on D3 there is any pre-cat or other big new mass to the manifold.

I paid around same low $200's for a head. You need gasket set and new stretch head bolts, plus the weird one off head bolt tool Audi used--it is NOT triple square like it first looks. I took best of both basically from tensioner, and opted to buy a new cross cam link chain. Found both the head bolts and that chain from online smaller parts suppliers.

BUT... how do you know the other head is not messed up too? It all connects through via the timing belt. That seems like a big question mark to me, and by time you do both heads, is it really saving much compared to engine pull. FWIW, labor time for me was 2-3 man days, in my garage with car on ramps. I have pulled probably 8 or 10 heads from 4's, 5's and inline 6's, so I probably know the drill pretty well, though never a 4.2. No lift, but since drivable was easy to put on jack stands. MY issue BTW was oil burning, so I knew I had no bent valves; the question was whether I had some bad valve stem seals or worn guides in a specific cylinder. That meant I knew other head was unaffected.

I bet car not worth much with blown motor essentially or the death by a thousand cuts part out stuff. Trannies are reliable too, so next biggest part maybe not a big seller either. FWIW, I might look around for a lower mileage port 4.2 and just swap. 2006 was last year of the port 4.2 in D3, so that's probably the same year you want anyway, just not 150,000 miles. Failing that, depends on your time availability and wrenching skills. Ultimately on my old 4.2 BTW it was a real corner case damaged block as I found out...with a second head pull..., plus tranny blew up between the two jobs. In retrospect, I should have junked it when the tranny blew, though ultimately it did stay on road in family for another maybe 70K miles, oil smoke and all.