I've got a buddy that was told by a mechanic that he could "sneak" the head off and not have to pull the motor. Is this true? He bent a valve.

 

I guess that would depend on the year and model of the car in question.

 

Which motor? I suppose it's possible (anything is, given enough time and money) but there's a lot of stuff to come off before you get to the head on any of our motors, and not a lot of room in the engine bay.
I'd be more worried about how/why the valve got bent in the first place - and how does he know that's what he's got? There might be a lot more damage internally which would mean pulling it anyway...
Jim

 

2.7t 01.5 A6 his rear timing chain slider broke.

 

Any advice guys?

 

Up to you (or your buddy) whether to try it or not. I'd still be really concerned about other damage to the head, piston(s), etc. which may require pulling the engine anyway. Plus just the idea of doing all that work bent over the engine compartment makes my back hurt...
Jim

 

Actually, there's no sneaking about it in the 2.7T. You can pull it off without much hassle - once you get everything disconnected and out of the way. Getting the other stuff out of the way is a BIG hassle.

You will have A LOT of things to remove, with bolts in spaces that are tight and hard to reach and sometimes even hard to see.

By memory, the rough steps look like this:

1. Put the car into service position
2. Remove timing belt components so that you can remove the timing belt and cam sprockets.
3. Remove Y pipe, upper intake, fuel rail, etc.
4. Remove EGT Sensors, Oxygen Sensors, etc.
5. Remove Secondary Air Injection Pump
6. Remove the combination valve on the side you're working on.
7. Remove valve covers.
8. Remove cam caps, cam tensioner, and cam.
9. Remove the 3 bolts that hold the exhaust manifold to the turbos.
10. Remove the bolts holding the head to the block (you cannot reuse these bolts)
11. Lift head up and out with the exhaust manifold attached.

I've consolidated and skipped steps here - it's probably an easy 60 steps - but you can see there's some big jobs involved. When you put it back together, a simple mistake can keep the car from starting - or worse, damage the engine.

When you are half way into the job (i.e.- you have everything apart), you will look around your garage at all the guts from your car and think "Oh no. What have I done?!" You will think that you will never get it back together. And depending on your intestinal fortitude, determination and skill - you may be right.

If it's your first time doing anything this involved I'd plan on having the car down for at least 3 weeks. Partially because you will find parts that you need that you can't get right away, and shipping time will take its toll.

You will need special tools - the cam locking bar, crank shaft pin, and cam tensioner tool. It will also be good to have bolt extractors.

In short, you can do it with the engine in, but doing it is a big job either way.