I tore my engine a part and recently reassembled everything. Three problems have come up:

1) After reassembly, I found a small oil leak down the front of the oil pan. I knew right away it was the crank seal. When I was inserting the seal, one source said to oil the inner seal, while ebahns says not to oil any seal surface. I follwed ebahns on it and didn't oil it. Now it leaks. What's the consensus: oil or don't oil the inner surface of the crank seal? (also related: I had the car re-assembled for less than three hours, and I used a new crank bolt b/c I know the crank bolt is only supposed to be used once. But since it was on for such a short time do you think the crank bolt will be okay to reuse?)

2) white smoke from the passenger bank. I just tore it down once again to re-torque everything, I'm hoping that'll fix it. I think the problem was that I used these whacky lock-nuts... they were labeled "flanged," but when I got them in the mail it wasn't a 'normal' flanged nut. These lock-nuts had a sliver of metal cut out at the base, which I guess is supposed to make it deform when it's tightened. If you're putting your exhaust manifold back on, don't use these! I used normal flanged lock-nuts on the other bank, and that side is fine... anyone else have problems with these weird lock-nuts?

3) Lastly, I still have no clue what this mysterious green connector goes to (pic- fat green one, not the slender one). So I put the car back together with it unconnected, and everything ran fine... so far. I'm sure something will come up later... It should be so simple to find, but it's nowhere in plain sight. I feel like an idiot. If there are any 2.8 12v owners, could I ask you to take a quick look and tell me what it connects to? I can't find anything in ebahns or autozone repair manual.

Thanks ahead, guys. This car's really kicking my ***...

 

I think that might be an 02 sensor connection.

Don't quote me on this, I'll have a look at mine in a minute.

Question for you: when you rebuilt your engine, did you order any kind of gasket kits (head gasket kit for example) if so, what kind did you use and do you have any advice as far as where to find it for cheap and what other extra gaskets/O-rings I might want to pick up?

thx in advance

 

ECS sells a headgasket set at $160, but I found the same one at Partsgeek.com for $135, BUT then I looked on ebay and found one for $85- so obviously I went with ebay. MISTAKE. Valve cover gaskets didn't fit, and coolant pipe gaskets/o-rings didn't fit (pipe to back of the heads).

Also, i didn't see the EGR gasket in the ECS kit or Partsgeek kit (the one I bought didn't have it either). I think you'll have to go to Audi for the EGR gasket b/c the parts specialist at ECS sent me the wrong one, it looks similar but it's for the 1.8. When I let them know the error, they said they couldn't find a correct match for the 2.8.

Something you'll need that doesn't come in the kits is an O-ring for the coolant return pipe that goes from the heater core to the block just behind the water pump. ECS did have that one. The ECS part number is ES-469710.

And if the metal dowel/pin that aligns the cylinder heads to the block is rusted and broken like mine were, it's a special order part. the number is ES-205146. Drilling it out of the block was PITA... I drilled out so many rusted studs... sick of it.

Lastly, make sure you got your fluids covered. I bought a timing belt kit from ECS that came with 3 liters of undiluted coolant. But the capacity is like 8.5 liters or something close to it. So if you're going to do a 1:1 dilution, you'll need three 1.5 liter bottles of coolant. And if you need it, don't forget power steering fluid... they really rob you at audi. Funny thing about the ps fluid: there's a VW dealer near my local audi dealer; and the ps fluid at audi is $23, and the one at VW is $19... that made me laugh.

 

bump.

 

WOW! I didn't expect such a detailed response lol! Thank you very much man. I went ahead and ordered the kit from partsgeek. I also ordered some exhaust manifold gaskets as well, looks like I'll be ordering a few more things as well.

That sucks about the ebay kit, lesson learned I guess?