Thanks for this info, great pic of awesome looking engine. Does the crank shaft pulley have a TDC mark like that old Chevy of mine?

I, too, worry about internal damage but for now solving the puzzle of what happened is uppermost in my mind. Will work on it this weekend, check how much if any, coolant is in radiator after taking off the bottom cover.

Again thanks for the help.

I'll post an update after assessing coolant level.

 

There should be a notch on the harmonic balancer and an arrow on the lower most timing cover. Line those two up and you should (Hopefully) be at top dead center.

You're in for a wild ride if you're used to working on Chevys with your first Audi timing belt venture Good luck and post back if you need help!

 

If you plan on pulling timing belt, then I recommend you get the cam lock bar & crank lock pin, which are tools needed to assure the timing is set up correctly. The bank 1 & bank 2 exhaust cam sprockets are not keyed to the cam shafts, so you need the cam lock bar to hold them in the proper position while tightening the sprockets. The crank lock pin holds the crank @ TDC.

 

^This.

Here are a few photos from the DIY link in the previous post:



These markings along with the positioning of the cam lobes on cylinder 3(pass. side closest to the firewall) would normally let you know when you're at TDC or if you need another full rotation.

Unfortunately if it skipped timing, these may not line up. So you may have to put a long stick or something down in cylinder 3 when the mark on the crank lines up to make sure the piston is the top of it's stroke.


This is true, lol.

^This is what I meant by the 3.0 being a different beast compared to the 2.8, 2.7T & 4.2. Timing of the 3.0 is a slightly different procedure that fits those horse shoe looking tools on the camshafts themselves after removing the valve covers.

The 3.0 has 4 sprockets as you can see in the photo above, while the rest of our motors just have the two sprockets which we use the cam lock bar to align the cams.

2.7T for example with timing tools installed:


3.0 with the tools installed:


But CRuby is absolutely correct when he says that you WILL need the special tools, especially when you're unfamiliar with these motors.

 

More great pics, thanks for posting. Removed bottom cover yesterday looking for evidence of leaks, found a little oil below the dipstick but not enough to worry about. Found no water even when I cracked that small valve on the lower radiator hose so without taking the hose off I'd have to say there is no water in the radiator.

Going to assess each spark plug next for signs of water/oil. I'm wondering if a head gasket failed, I've always assumed that was the problem. Garage where it was towed to after it stalled on the highway brought up the jumped timing belt idea.

I'm baby stepping on this.

 

When you opened the small valve on the bottom radiator hose, was the expansion tank cap off? If not, you will get next to no coolant/water to come out. Assuming there are no other large leaks within the system.

 

Blown head gaskets aren't very common failures on C5's. If there was a failure, I'd be surprised if it failed before the motor overheated.

Definitely let us know what you find.

 

Hi all. Thanks again and again for all the pictures and advice.

The cap on the resevoir was off when I opened the small valve. I'm going to pull the hose off one of these days only because I don't trust the quarter turn set up on that small valve, seems to me it would be way too easy for something to block that.

The ex-wife showed up with her maintenance records on this car and it had a timing belt replacement 15,000 miles ago that included a new water pump.

Anyway since I have three other cars either for sale or in the midst of being prepped for sale I'm a little busy. But the hunt for the cause of this Audi's failure will go on.