OT: dead a6qa

[Tony Hoffman]

Bill, with the amount of sludge problems VAG has had with cars of that
era, I'd say you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a good used
set of pistons for that. Typically, if the oil pressure problem gets
severe enough to necessitate a replacement engine, the damage that is
done is the rod bearings and cam journals. So, you may also find a
decent complete bottom end that just needs heads and a freshening, but
who knows. I will say this, if you do end up putting in a good used
engine, clean that oil pump pickup tube. That is where the oil
pressure/sludge problems end up posing a problem.

Tony Hoffman

BTW, what's a Z28/A4? Also, I love the Ferarri!

On Feb 2, 2008 4:42 PM, Bill Shaw <b.shaw at comcast.net> wrote:
> On topic for a change :-)
>
> I spent the afternoon tearing down the wife's 2.8L 30V engine.  My
> original plan after it gave up the ghost was to just find another engine
> and stick it in to get it back on the road quick (and get her out of my
> Z28!) but after 2 bad engine purchases 'quick' has long gone by.  The
> first engine was a manual (wtf?  Why do they make a different crank for
> a manual???) The second engine was fubar'ed by the PO,  closed up then
> sold to me as a good engine.  The end of the driver's side cam was
> broken so there was no way to set the timing.  I have to give Tom's 4n
> (ebay) credit though,  they gave me back my cash without a problem.
> They went and got the second one as a replacement for the manual from
> somewhere else,  then ate it when I discovered it was wasted.
>
> SOoooo,  the next plan was to finish tearing Amy's dead engine apart,
> hone the scratched cylinders,  replace bearings & gaskets and put it
> back in.  I got deep enough into it today to see that the original
> problem with this engine was just filth.  The oil pan had a thick layer
> of sludge,  there is grit everywhere, the pistons tops and combustion
> chambers in the heads are heavily carboned,  so thick there were large
> flakes on the piston tops. It looks like the flakes on the driver's side
> cylinders broke free and wedged between the cylinder walls and the
> pistons causing some light scoring that caused the compression loss.
> The rod bearings look like they've been sand blasted,  all rough and
> gouged.  Fortunately the soft bearing material took the brunt of it,
> the rod journals look good.  The crank's still in the block but I expect
> the mains to look like the rods when I get them out later this evening..
>
> I may need to source some pistons,  at least the 3 on the driver's
> side.  Anyone have any 2.8L 30V pistons laying around?  I would also be
> willing to go back to plan A if anyone has a complete good engine with
> less than 80k miles they'd like to sell.
>
> Best,
>
> Bill
> '99 a6qa (lock carrier in service position)
> '94 Z28/A4 (my winter car,  but SHE's driving it now!)
> '84 928 5.0L Vortech/749 (now my winter car !!????!?!)
> '84 Mondial Cab. (on the block)
>
> PS - enough on-topic talk -  In the never-ending quest for more
> horsepower I've decided to sell my beloved '84 Ferrari Mondial Cab. (one
> of 629 produced) to finance my next adventure. Details can be found here
> if anyone is interested:
> http://www.bargainnews.com/viewad.cfm?Show_Notepad=Yes&bnAd_ID=6556682&TheDealer=
>
>
>
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