[V8] the endless, ongoing saga of my (oil) leaking V8....and update

[Roger M. Woodbury]

The original issue was a an oil leak that was getting slowly worse.  It developed over the last, oh, 25000 miles or so, and was beginning to cause development of clouds of smoke coming from the front end of the car when stopped at traffic lights.

Initially, it appeared to be the oil pressure sender, or something like that, and when most of the front of the engine was cleaned off, it seemed like it was the oil filter housing.  And that might have been leaking, too.

But the oil leak continued, and it seemed to be coming from the cylinder head, in back of the camshaft cover itself.  There was no way to tell, without removal of the camshaft covers themselves, which of course, meant that the timing belt (1/2 gone), would be removed.  Once there, then the tensioner, and assorted wheels were exposed.  The tensioner was fine, but the wheels were a bit "spongy"....it seemed likely that at 60K, when the previous owner had the belt changed, that these might not have been changed. (He traded the car a few thousand miles after the timing belt was changed.).

Since we were THERE, well, replacing the whole business was in order....don't want to tear the thing down again in 30,000 miles.  And since the hydraulic pump was leaking a tad, well, just replace THAT, too.  Easier now than later.

So, it really does appear that the right side cylinder head gasket failed.  THAT leak is fixed, and new gaskets are installed EVERYwhere, including both head gaskets.
And it seems like the front camshaft gasket is the final culprit....a NEW gasket.  I asked if it could have been a defective gasket from Audi, and my wrench said "either that or I screwed it up.".  

We'll see.

Now, how about this.  What caused the head gasket to fail?  Could have been defective from manufacture.  Could have been other than an original head gasket, but with both heads off, there appeared to evidence that there had been any work performed on the valves, and they were all fine.  

When I picked up the car in Philadelphia to drive back, after driving for, oh, a couple of hundred miles, while in cruise, I noted that the "check engine" light would come on when the car started to climb hills.  Once at the top of the hill, the light would go out, and not reappear until another rise was reached.  

After driving the car for a little while, the check engine light never came on again.   Over the next thirty thousand miles, I saw the check engine light come on perhaps half a dozen times or so.  Frankly, I would forget about it, since it was so rare an occurrence.

Here's a theory.  Before I got the car, the car had been fed some really bad gas.  The result was some detonation, that might have caused a gasket failure....but it would have had to be SOME detonation, and the car doesn't seem to have been subjected to ill treatment.  Presumably, buying cheap, or poor gas wasn't a practice of the previous owners, and it certainly hasn't been my habit, either.

Anyway, we'll see, soon enough.

Roger

(I really hope this ends soon, because I want to start working on my 200 20valve Avant project!).
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: DasWolfen at aol.com 
  To: David.Coleman at blackrock.com ; rmwoodbury at downeast.net ; V8 at audifans.com 
  Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 11:26 AM
  Subject: Re: [V8] the endless, ongoing saga of my (oil) leaking V8....and update


  In a message dated 3/11/04 11:07:45 AM Eastern Standard Time, David.Coleman at blackrock.com writes:


    Has ANYONE ever repaired an oil leak by replacing the head gaskets on one of these cars?

    So many times, my own included, have I read about V8s w/ leaky head gaskets that invariably end up being mis-diagnosed.  Al Head / Fe Block, maybe.  But Al-Al together seems to work pretty well, along with a superior OEM gasket.


  I have a V8 here that's definately leaking from a head gasket, dead center of the right side head at the oil return..... My recommendation... deal with it until he wants the heads rebuilt to do otherwise is pointless in this case.