Got that pre-lubin' feeling

[Dan Bocek <dan@di.com>]

Those of you who kindly responded to my engine pre-lube question, thank 
you for the many and varried ideas.  In the end, what ended up working 
was dropping the sub-frame, removing the pan, attaching a long hose 
directly to the oil pump inlet, raising the other end of the hose higher 
than the feed line, dumping in tons of oil, and spinning the engine (via 
starter motor) until oil was flying from every exposed orifice.  A handy 
wine bottle cork was the perfect size to temporarily prevent oil from 
draining back out of the pickup after the hose got yanked and the pan was 
being prepped for re-installation.  Just to be anal, before I put the pan 
back on, I filled it with 4.5 quarts of oil so the pickup would be under 
oil at all times (don't think this step was really necessary, but you 
know....  Lesson learned:  The best way to an Audi oil pump's heart is 
through it's main artery.  This sounds like a lot of work, but it's 
reallynot all that bad - about 2 1/2 hours.  If I had done this in the 
first place, it would have saved days of frustration.

Things that didn't work:

1) Over-filling the pan by 1.5 quarts (didn't really wanna go much higher 
   than that.

2) Jacking rear end of car up and letting sit overnight.

3) Trying to back-fill the oil passages by pouring oil into the pressure 
   sender hole and/or the turbo oil feed line.

4) Any and all combinations of the above that you can think of (believe 
   me, I tried them all!) but your mileage may varry.

Note: all priming attempts took place with both oil filters pre-filled and
with a fully charged battery. 

                                                         Dan Bocek
                                                         dan@di.com