Sorry. I asked a general question in the new members area and it was about to turn into a more in depth discussion of my situation. To whit...this post for that discussion. The first was titled motor. I have taken some pictures to help illustrate but I am not sure how to go about posting them here. I will try and see what happens.

 

Cool so that worked nicely. It is plain to see from the pictures above that the timing on this car is almost guaranteed to be off from what i have learned in the last couple of days. The cam on the first picture appears to be slightly behind the rotation of the one on the right which based on what pictures of the cam locking tool in place look like means timing must be off. The timing belt is soo loose i could slip it a notch by hand if i wanted to. It was driveable but it was running rough and it had a "blown pulley bearing" like sound coming from the front end and it was leaking coolant.

Wouldn't it be wise actually set the timing properly rather than relying on the current setting to change the belt?

 

My goal here is two fold. First find out from all of you Audi enthusiasts if this car is worth what it would take to get it running nicely, and two, get your expertise on how best to accomplish that.
I have not paid any money for this car as of right now. I have two options as offered by the current owner, my neighbor. First option is he and I split the parts cost on the repair with me providing the labor and then we sell the car and split the proceeds. Second option and the one I currently favor is I buy the car outright for $1200 US and do with it as I wish. It has 142K miles on the odometer and the obvious problems I already denoted. Which route I take here depends on the problems this motor could have that I am not currently aware of and what those might cost to fix.

 

My last post of questions then I will wait for your feedback. I have done this in multiple posts so as to make them shorter and to allow someone to answer individual questions. The evidence that could mean there are larger problems is as follows. There was a lot of oil and grime on the front side of the motor which would lead me to believe that the cam seals and or valve covers have been leaking which could mean there are problems deeper into the heads namely the main cam bearings and possibly the cams themselves. Secondly the way the motor ran along with the current position of the cams and the looseness of the timing belt could mean bent valve or valves. Lastly there is oil in the spark plug "channel" of most of the cylinders and i don't know what that means.

 

why not get the cam timing and belt tension sorted out with the existing hardware, perform a leak down test and go from there.

 

Sounds like a good start point. Just to make sure I understand what sorting out the timing means. I have ordered the special cam and crank locking tools. With the crank locked with the pin and the cam tool in place timing should be correct. So you would leave the old timing belt on just set the timing correctly and do the leak down test with that?

 

Yes, set up the timing with the crank pin in place and the cam tool with the existing timing belt. Tension the belt as per the manual , turn the engine TWICE through 360 degrees by hand to make sure there is no interference.
Do a leak down test on each cylinder. Each cylinder should be at TDC on the compression stroke.
For the leak down test, 8% is good, with your mileage I would expect less than 10% if the engine is in decent shape. If you hear air coming out of the throttle body then it is valves, or out of the oil filler it is rings. Although I had an engine with around 15% on a couple of cylinders and it still ran fine..

 

10/4. My cam lock and crank pin are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I will advise as to what I discover. Thanks for the advise Paul.

 

I dont have a repair manual so i am just going on a compilation of what I have found out at various places on line. I assume there is no reason why I should not remove all the spark plugs so as to make turning the engine over easy.....I will find the crank lock spot by turning the motor over 1/2 revolution at a time from the cams being mostly lined up horizontal until i find the "sweet spot". I will be hoping that when the ctrank lock is in place that the cams come close to lining up. I will then place the cam alignment bar in place and loosen the sprockets on the cams. Once i get the belt situated and tight all the way around I will tighten the cam sprockets back and remove all the above and turn the motor over two full revolutions and then perform a leak down test. Praying that leakdown is good. IF it is then I do all the above again but add in all new parts. Then reassemble to the point needed to have coolant and ....start her up! Please keep in mind that the last car I really worked on was a 1976 Trans Am. Anything I am missing here??

 

PS. I did try to put the cam bar in place and timing is off by at least two teeth by this reconing so I dont hold out much hope that I dont have a bent valve.