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Just completed the teardown of my A4.
Broke both thermostat studs off with the stud removal tool. I was eventually able to get them out, but now the tapped holes are badly oversize. Will be going the repair bushing route on those.
While chasing the threads in the block, discovered the hard way I was "chasing" not an original threaded hole but a Helicoil someone had installed previously. har way being I broike the tap and then pushed the Helicoil into the water jacket. I was able to get the tap out with a four finger extractor ($18) then grab the Helicoil through the hole with a pair of needle nose pliers, "unravel" it and pull it out as one long string. That will be repair bushing number 3.
Rust chips are piled up in the water jacket to the level of the side plate opening.
Exhaust valves and seats on cyls 2 & 3 are pretty ragged, though it was 1 & 2which were reported to be no compression by the previous owner. Valve job is in order.
Rest of the teardown went pretty much as advertized without major problems.
Cam and tappets show no wear ar all.
Main bearings appear as new, as are those on pins 2 and 3.
Bearings on crankpins 1 and 4 are well worn and show some scoring on the pins. I'll try polishing the pins and see if they're too worn for standard size new bearings. Otherwise I'll go for a .010 undersize regrind. I've never had a crankshaft reground on the pins but not the mains, but don't see any reason to have the mains ground when they're in such good shape.
Bores look OK with minor scoring, pistons have some fairly heavy wear on the skirts; we'll see how everything measures out before I decide what to do with them.
Interestingly, the "last appendage" as Don puts it, was by far the worst, as Don also warned it might be. The idler gear was literally flopping around on the spindle. I could rock it a good 1/8 inch back and forth. Didn't even bother to measure it, but I guess the bearing was worn .025" oversize at the block end, .010" at the other end; i.e., tapered. The spindle is toast as well, no way that will clean up for a standard size bearing. That can't have been good for oil pressure. The oil feed hole was pointing right rather than down as Don suggests is normal, but I can't imagine it would make that much difference.
Starting to make a list of the purchases for the rebuild. I figure that a good chunk of the "cost" of this rebuld will actually be in my labor, so my tendency at this point will be to replace rather than put it back together with possibly marginal stuff.
Question: Does the full gasket kit contain the double head gaskets?
Broke both thermostat studs off with the stud removal tool. I was eventually able to get them out, but now the tapped holes are badly oversize. Will be going the repair bushing route on those.
While chasing the threads in the block, discovered the hard way I was "chasing" not an original threaded hole but a Helicoil someone had installed previously. har way being I broike the tap and then pushed the Helicoil into the water jacket. I was able to get the tap out with a four finger extractor ($18) then grab the Helicoil through the hole with a pair of needle nose pliers, "unravel" it and pull it out as one long string. That will be repair bushing number 3.
Rust chips are piled up in the water jacket to the level of the side plate opening.
Exhaust valves and seats on cyls 2 & 3 are pretty ragged, though it was 1 & 2which were reported to be no compression by the previous owner. Valve job is in order.
Rest of the teardown went pretty much as advertized without major problems.
Cam and tappets show no wear ar all.
Main bearings appear as new, as are those on pins 2 and 3.
Bearings on crankpins 1 and 4 are well worn and show some scoring on the pins. I'll try polishing the pins and see if they're too worn for standard size new bearings. Otherwise I'll go for a .010 undersize regrind. I've never had a crankshaft reground on the pins but not the mains, but don't see any reason to have the mains ground when they're in such good shape.
Bores look OK with minor scoring, pistons have some fairly heavy wear on the skirts; we'll see how everything measures out before I decide what to do with them.
Interestingly, the "last appendage" as Don puts it, was by far the worst, as Don also warned it might be. The idler gear was literally flopping around on the spindle. I could rock it a good 1/8 inch back and forth. Didn't even bother to measure it, but I guess the bearing was worn .025" oversize at the block end, .010" at the other end; i.e., tapered. The spindle is toast as well, no way that will clean up for a standard size bearing. That can't have been good for oil pressure. The oil feed hole was pointing right rather than down as Don suggests is normal, but I can't imagine it would make that much difference.
Starting to make a list of the purchases for the rebuild. I figure that a good chunk of the "cost" of this rebuld will actually be in my labor, so my tendency at this point will be to replace rather than put it back together with possibly marginal stuff.
Question: Does the full gasket kit contain the double head gaskets?
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