[s-cars] Thanksgiving Misadventure

[Fred Munro]

Keith;

Sorry to hear about your problems. Not a good way to spend Thanksgiving.

The plugs on the AAN engine seem to loosen up over time. I've taken to
checking the torque on mine at every oil change and have found that they
need tightening for 2-3 cycles (2-3 oil changes) after I install a new set.
After that, they seem to stay tight. Several listers have reported that as
the plug is backing out, it can result in a "ticking" sound before it blows
out of the head.

The turbo likely survived the unburnt fuel, but your cats may have gotten a
mite hot. If pieces of the plug blew through the turbo, there is a chance
that the impeller may have been damaged. If you can get access to a
borescope, take a look at the piston head for dimples that would indicate
something was bouncing around in there.

If the plug did back out, you may only have lost the top couple threads. In
any case, a Timesert should get you back on the road. Used heads sometimes
come up in the Audifans marketplace if you'd rather go that route, but watch
out for cracks.

It's odd that after unplugging the injector you still had that much fuel
coming out. I used that trick to get home when I had a coil go bad and it
seemed to work fine. The cats didn't seem to heat up, so I assumed most of
the fuel was shut off in that cylinder. I wonder if that injector is damaged
or leaking?

Good luck with the repairs and I hope your Thanksgiving gets better from
here on in!

Fred Munro
'97 S6

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Keith Franchetti
Sent: November 24, 2011 5:56 PM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Thanksgiving Misadventure

Thanks everyone!  For the commiseration, first, but especially for the
encouraging words of advice.  I'm hopeful something like a timesert might
work. 

You know, I did unplug the fuel injection for that cylinder and we did drive
the car (very gingerly, and very much against my better judgment) a few
miles back to bus station. But unplugging the injector did not seem to kill
fuel delivery, as an alarming amount of it continued to blow out the back
end of the cover and pool on top of the other plugs. They all looked like
drowned rats!  And if we had to accelerate after sitting a minute at a
light, there was an ENORMOUS plume of white smoke out the back. I'm telling
you:  BAD day for this car and it's family!  Anyway, but we made it. And
there was really NO other choice for getting there.  (Tgiving is not a good
day to break down.) I'm hoping all that unburned fuel going through the
turbo wasn't too catastrophic. 

Thanks again for all the help and feedback. It's making me feel a lot
better.  Which may be inadvisable, but is still welcome!

Keith Franchetti
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