So i've decided my motor is wanting a rebuild. Rather than go out and blow lots of money on a new car. I'm going to just drop some cash into The car that's already paid for. So this is the plan, And i'd like to ask For ur opinions. I'm looking to do a decent rebuild. Not looking to have a full blown bad *** motor. As I dont wana update my tranny and blah blah blah. But I wouldn't mind a lil extra power. But this is the plan as for now. I'm going to pick up a rebuild kit off the net for my car, Which is the 1.8T by the way. I'm waiting on a buddy to get back to me on the site he's dealt with. But While I was looking for myself, I came across an SMS Performance... Have you heard anything about these guys? good buys or no? But basically i'm just looking to rebuild the motor so it runs nice again. And if it's going to be pulled all apart, might as well but the better stuff back in I would like to just stick to stock turbo and all that mess. Mind you I just have the FWD a4 yeah I know. Also just for ***** and giggles, what kinda prices would I be looking at to Do a Fwd to AWD conversion?... Well thanks in advance for your opinions

 

awd drive conversion almost impossible. Get a stock rebuild kit nothing fancy. I'd send the head and the block off and have them do the valves and rings if you've never done them before or don't have the valve tools. You can bolt the head back on no problem and slap everything else back together. Do you have access to a lift to drop the powertrain or are you going to try to do this with a engine hoist?

 

yeah the shop i'm taking it to has a lift... I'm not going to try and hop on this myself. So you think just rebuild it back to where it was?

 

Only place you need to know is www.qedpower.com. They have every engine part you will need. If you want the motor to be brand new, get piston rings, new rod and main bearings, gaskets, cam tensioner and new lifters.

Crazy question, have you atleast did a compression test on the motor to see if it actually needs a rebuild?

 

Well when I had it towed to the shop last week, the guy told me that cylinders 3 and 4 had real low compression. He said he thought it was probably bad rings.

 

Ok I will quick give you a rundown of what happened. I was coming back from up north, and it out of no where started to run a lil rough. So then I pulled over checked everything out, and everything seemed to be fine. Would idle fine, would throttle nicely. Then I was driving around the block and it started to run even more rough. So I started to drive towards the nearest Gas station to pull it over. And it backfired one good time. and then started knocking. Had a broken lifter noise to it. But then I just threw it in neutral killed the car and coasted into the parking lot. It would start up just fine, so the ruled out the timing belt snapping. So then I had it towed to a shop which told me he thinks it's a bad ring. eh... But funny thing is right before it backfired, the Turbo sounded like it was spooling a lot louder. And seemed to have a little more power to it. Not that I was testing it. But hmm.... what do you think it could have been? Could be....

 

thats a weird one I would ask to see the compression test in person, hard to say what it is could be your timing belt slipping even. I'd tear down the front of your engine and see if the belt's slipped. If it has jumped a tooth or two put another belt on it and see if it'll run right or if you've touched valves and do infact need a engine job.

 

how low was it?

Max 180psi
Lowest acceptable 140psi

If you have more than 10% diff between the highest and lowest cyl, you need a rebuild. So you could have 170, 169, 161 and 160 and still be fine

 

Was the T-Belt checked? Not just looked at, but were the timing marks checked? It's a LOT cheaper than a rebuild!

You can't determine a bad engine from a compression test alone. Do a leak-down test to see WHERE the compression is being lost. Chances are if more than one cylinder is unacceptably low, it's likely not rings, but instead something more common amongst the two cylinders... such as head gasket (rare), cracked head, valvetrain issues due to oil starvation, or T-Belt (common!).

 

ok.. I'm going to get it towed to another shop tomorrow. And i'm going to have him do another compression check, and see what he thinks we could do. Now here's the main Question. If I do end up having to dig into the motor. Which route would be better to go? Just pick up the rebuild kit, off the site above, Or just purchase the shortblock off the same site. I mean i'm looking to not spend a grip. But if it would be better to just go the shortblock route, I wouldnt' mind spending a lil more. I'm just wondering what would cost more in labor.... the rebuild or the swap