All, just recently started attempting to address ticking and an oil leak. Thought I'd start with the valley pan & oil check valves because the procedure looked relatively simple.

Got the intake manifold off (the gaskets here looks good as well) with no trouble.

LOTTTSS of oil around the valley pan and leaking down onto the tranny, etc. Looked to be the source of my leak.

I went to break loose the valley pan bolts and was surprised to find that all of them were loose enough that it took almost no effort to turn them. After I got them all off, the valley pan came off with no effort and to my surprise, the gasket was intact.

Loose bolts, intact gaskets, straight/non-warped valley pan, what gives? A botched previous fix?

Question is, should I go ahead and replace the gaskets? They all look good, no cracking, peeling, gumifying or anything like that.

Next question is, I read the valley pan bolts should be torqued to 7ft/lb. Is that accurate? If so, I can't imagine that they would have come off so easily. Thoughts?

Here's a couple shots of the valley pan & gasket.

 

New gasket with sealant would be good.
Clean the surfaces well.
Tighten to spec.
Tight is tight but too tight is broke.

Hopefully you don't do this, as I did, and then find the head gaskets also leaking.

 

Cleaned contact place and you can use the sealing compound (02 sensor free) and torqued.
That is. Every bolt contact the sealing compound for lock. x19

 

X19,

Without fail, bro. Every time I read a post that you wrote, it makes me think of:

"All your base are belong to us."

 

Engrish!
Welcome to every instruction booklet written for imported Chinese products.
I learned Engrish at 16 when I started building computers.

The LED lengthwise to light jumper must be placed.

 

Come on Man! The intake manifold and valley pan gaskets are inexpensive. The time involved in removing the IM is precious. You don't want to have to do it again. Do the valley pan flattening procedure and use some aviation sealant along with the new valley pan gasket. If you're in a "while I'm in there" frame of mind, I'd think about splitting the IM open and do the EGR polish procedure (if you have an EGR valve).

 

Just ordered the valley pan and intake gaskets. I'm *trying* to find a decent deal on the oil check valves in the valley pan, because I think it would be smart to go ahead and change those as well. Any one know a good resource for them?

If I can get them, hopefully I can get the ones that are in the heads as well, then do the valve cover gaskets while I'm at it.

Then I'll hopefully have a quieter, less leaky 90Q to get me through the winter

I might consider the EGR polish and IM cleaning, maybe I could do that while I'm waiting and searching for parts. Any tips or gotcha's on this would be appreciated.

Thanks all

 

I just did the egr passage polish. There are some good posts on this as well as cleaning the IM. I would spend the money and buy the recommended cleaner/degreaser soak as I probably spent more money and time with other products. Your IM will be filthy. I used the dowel rod and varying grits of sandpaper method to clean the passage. One note not mentioned in other posts. The EGR/temp sensor passage is not one straight bore. That would be too easy and an insult to any Audi engineer. The temp sensor side (the wired thing you remove before lifting the IM all the way off) is bored at a slight angle to the EGR passage. I'd recommend measuring the threads and putting a bolt in there or just be careful not to mar the threads during the procedure. Also, just order all 12 injector o-rings along with the other parts. They're cheap ($0.75) online when included with other parts for shipping, pricey at Audi ($3.50 each), and almost $4 for two when buying the injector kit at NAPA. Yeah, I had to buy them at NAPA because minimum shipping and time was killing me.

 

So I ended up doing the IM cleaning, that went pretty well. Took a *long* time, but looks to be worth it. The EGR passage was what could only be described as a bitch.

While I was in there I pulled out the injectors to inspect the o-rings. All looked good except that I noticed the plastic bit around the jet on one of the injectors was cracked. No problem, I'll just add it to my shopping list.

Did the valley pan procedure by sanding down the mating surface. Taped down some 220 paper and lightly rubbed in circular motions until the surface was clean and even all around. Took about an hour.

Got new valley pan and intake gaskets. Went to torque down the valley pan bolts in the criss cross pattern starting with 5 ft/lb. My torque wrench must need calibration because it snapped one of the bolts . It was simple to get out and I added that to my shopping list.

Also noticed that the plastic tubes that go behind the IM and into the valve cover were cracked or cheaply repaired. Added that to my shopping list as well .

So now my list looks like this:

1. 2 Oil check valves in the valley
2. 2 Oil check valves under the valve covers
3. Valley pan bolts
4. 1 or more fuel injectors
5. Valve cover tubes

So I made my way to pull-a-part (if you don't have one of these, you're missing out) and proceeded to snipe my parts in record time. Walked away with all of the above (one injector) for 18.95. All appeared to be in working order, but got the 30 day warranty just in case.

Got home, happy as can be, ready to get this thing on the road.

All was going well until I went to replace the oil valves under the valve covers. I discovered that both of them were roached, one of them was broken into 3 pieces and two of the pieces are stuck in the bolt hole.

I carefully removed the pieces, but the bit with the o-ring slipped from my fingers and fell into the bottom of the chamber and into a hole where it proceeded to tumble for what seemed like an eternity. Yikes.

This hole is one of 4 at the bottom of the the head, you can see them with the valve cover off. It seems to me that it is an oil return passage, and my *hope* is that it just dumps oil straight back into the oil pan when it circulates through the top of the head.

My *fear* is that clever Audi engineers wouldn't let it be that simple and I have now inadvertently destroyed my engine.

So, my questions are:

Thoughts on the part I dropped? Can I just drain my oil, or crack the oil pan and find this little part?

The replacement valves I got were from a 95 (mine is a 94) and aren't constructed the same, but appear to be functionally the same. They even fit perfectly. Think that will be a problem?

Also, the injector I pulled was off of a 95 (mine is a 94) and it's a different color, and only has two jets. Didn't realize they differed that much. Thinking of taking it back. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

Get a small diameter telescoping magnet from Lowes and run it down that hole and see what you come up with. It worked for me when I deopped a bolt straight down the spark plug hole. At least it has a chance of picking up that piece before you take apart the upper or lower oil pan.