what is the proceedure for turning the engine over manually to make sure it is at tdc when replacing camtensioner seal gaskets? is it more than likely something that has to be done when replacing these? i am about to replace valve cover gaskets and cam tensioner gaskets an di have found bentley's to not be very clear on this. any diy write-ups?

 

Here is a very good write-up:

http://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/600761.phtml

As for turning over the engine, I just used a ratchet on the crank pully bolt. I don't recall what size it is.

 

is it a 360 degre clockwise turn or what?

 

I basically just watched the cam tensioner. You can see it rise and fall. I believe there were some index marks on the cam that lined up, also. What you're really after is for the tensioner to be near the top of it's travel, so that you are able to compress it. I don't think the precise position is important. A few of the people that have replaced the seals never even knew about this, I guess theyjust got lucky with how the tensioner was sitting. It's really pretty simple, I was just thrown for a few minutes because the tensioner didn't want to compress at all. I loooked back at some pictures and at the Bentley. When I saw the mention of TDC, I realized what was going on.