Hello everyone. I have been a lurker here for quite a while but have not posted. I am humbled by all the awesome projects and builds. Yesterday, I was checking the local CL and a 2002 Audi A4 was posted for sale (only online for 19 minutes). It looked clean, but the ad said it had a blown head gasket. I texted the guy to ask some questions and jumped in my car to go look at the car.

The owner of the car could not get it to start and had it towed to the shop. The shop did some work and determined that it needed a new head gasket and possibly a new head. They quoted him too much to fix it, so he left the title and walked. The shop just wanted to get rid of the car.

I checked the oil, very little water in it. I also cranked the engine for a second to ensure it was not locked up. After 10 minutes of negotiation, I purchased the 2002 Audi A4, 1.8T for $400.

I had it towed to the house and it is sitting in my driveway. I ordered a new gasket set, timing belt, water pump, tensioners, pulleys, head bolts, and spark plugs. Let's hope this is an easy fix and not a bigger project.

That's a nice looking car for $400! Is your plan to drive it or fix and flip?

In reply to dculberson:

I will fix it and drive it for a while to make sure all the bugs are worked out. Then it will be the first car for my nephew.

I was going to suggest turning up the boost but maybe not if your nephew is younger.

tedroach wrote: In reply to dculberson: I will fix it and drive it for a while to make sure all the bugs are worked out. Then it will be the first car for my nephew.

Is your nephew in a financial position to take care of a car like this? VW/Audi products are NOT appliances and need to be cared for properly or they become flaming money pits. (P.S. I like VW/Audi and am not a hater - well except for B5's)

The B6 platform that you have is definitely better than the older B5/B5.5, but proceed with caution.

Might be better to sell it and use the funds to buy something more suited for a younger person.

I appreciate the feedback. I will be driving the car for a while and making sure everything is maintained. I don't plan to turn up the boost on this one. My nephew can take care of the car and I will be there beside him every step of the way since he lives with me full time.

Just got the title notarized. Now I have to stand at the DMV to get the title switched to my name. Ugh.

In my experience these cars are very nice drivers. They are particularly good at eating up highway miles (be careful they make 75 mph feel quite slow). My 99 Passat also got very good mileage for it's size (around 6.5L/100 km).

Parts can be pricey but shop around. I used to order stuff from FCPGroton, now FCPEuro. DIY will save a lot of $$$$'s

A lot of the issues I had with my Passat were electrical. I am not sure of the routing of stuff in the B6's but in the B5's almost all the BCM stuff came down the A pillar and went under the driver's feet where the BCM was. Right where they came down by the driver's feet was where the wires failed. Putting something there to protect them maybe worthwhile.

In reply to tedroach:

Excellent tips. I will make note of those sites and take a look at the kick plate on the drivers side. I ordered my parts from Rock Auto and it wasn't too expensive. I guess that I should have mentioned that I am not new to working on, repairing, or rebuilding cars. I am also restoring a 1965 Chevelle Malibu SS Convertible.

I have owned foreign and domestic cars (even in Europe), but this is the first Audi that I have owned so it should be interesting.

Worked on the Audi this weekend. Removed the front bumper, pulled the radiator support out, got the timing belt and water pump off. Then moved on the removing vacuum lines, spark plugs, valve cover, and the head. Had one bolt break on the exhaust manifold, but nothing too bad.

Found that the head is not warped (good news). There are three bent intake valves and two bent exhaust valves. That is not terrible. Then I looked at the pistons. The #3 piston is broken. It did not put a groove in the wall, but it has a knick near the top. Would that prevent me from just replacing the bad piston?

Time for a new plan.

Looks like it's time for another engine. Make sure to get one from a 2000+ car. Up through 99 they used a different engine in the 1.8t(AEB code) where as 2000+ used what I believe was the AWM code.

The AEB engine is technically stronger with it's all forged internals, but the AWM used a different block, so the mount arms will not be the same.

Is there a reason that I should get another engine instead of fixing this one? I know that a new engine would last longer, but I would rather rebuild than to scrap it.

Are the bent valves from the timing belt jumping or breaking? How are the valve guides? They sometimes get damaged when the valves get bent. From what I can see in the picture it looks like the piston damage is from pre-ignition in which case it's entirely possible that the cylinder bore is fine.

You'll have to pull it apart a little further to be sure but it looks like you might be able to get away with some new valves and a new piston and rings.

Valve guides are fine and the valves were only slightly bent. I will have to drop the oil pan to look at the bottom end. I was thinking of just pulling out that piston to see what I am working with. The crank still moves normally when turned.

I just don't want to go all the way through it if there is a good reason not to. $200-$300 is a lot less than a new engine.

The reason I said about looking for a new engine is because of it being a turbo engine. If you can't be sure that the rings have a very good seal, you will end up with even more headaches down the road. It was tough to tell from the pic if there was any real damage to the cylinder wall. In my experience, 1.8T engines are pretty cheap to pick up. Grant it, I'm normally looking for the AEB variety.

If you can hone the cylinder, and there are no visible marks left over, you should be OK to reuse the block. As for the head, I would have it checked by a shop. The guides on these engines are normally pretty tight tolerance to the valve stems.

Thank you for the advice, de80q. I appreciate the insight.

All of the cylinders are pretty smooth. I was thinking about replacing all the rings and the one piston. If that doesn't seal correctly to give me the compression, then I will have to look for a new engine. Of course, this all assumes that I do not find anything worse on the bottom end.

I will definitely have a shop work on the head.

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ON ALL V/6-V/8 CYLINDER HEAD PRICE IS FOR SETS UNLESS LISTED AS EA. IMAGE INFO PART PART# MANUF C.I.D LTR VIN# YEAR DESCRTIPTION PRICE CORE AUDI MUST HAVE CASTING # Photo ? AUD-131H AUDI 131 2.1 78-83 SOHC 5-CYL 10V EFI CAST3035-103-373c $435.00 $150.00 CLICK ON IMAGE TO EXPAND ? CI-1300B AUDI 109 1.8 A,E,B 96-02 DOHC TURBO 5-VALVE PER CYL NEW CYLINDER HEAD CASTING $495.00 $0.00 CLICK ON IMAGE TO EXPAND ? AUD-109H AUDI 109 1.8 A,E,B 96-02 DOHC TURBO 5-VALVE PER CYL CUSTOM BUILD W/O CAM CHAIN TENSIONER $695.00 $250.00 ? CI-1300L AUDI 109 1.8 A,E,B 96-02 DOHC TURBO 5-VALVE PER CYL W/O CAM CHAIN TENSIONER NEW CYLINDER HEAD LOADED GUARANTEED CORE RETURN $750.00 $100.00 ? AUD-169H AUDI 169 2.8 90-95 AUDI 100 92-94 6 cyl AUDI 90 93-94 AUDI 90 95 exc. Quattro AUDI 90 95 Quattro, thru VIN 025820 AUDI A6 95 AUDI CABRIOLET 94-95 REBUILT CYLINDER HEAD CORE VALUE 400.00 CAST#078103373S $495.00 $400.00 ? AUD-169H AUDI 169 2.8 A,H 98-01 DOHC QUATTRO V-6 CUSTOM BUILD 5-VALVES PER CYLINDER $955.00 $400.00 Check these guys out. Good deal as most rebuilders will cost almost double for rebuilding your head. You can get a brand new casting with all new parts for $850 if you don't want to send your head back. Best just to get a running motor and swap it out as they are a dime a dozen like mentioned before.

I disassembled the engine and took apart the head. Sent it to the machine shop to have it worked on. Luckily, there were no bent valves. After a quick seal replacement, cleaning, lapping, and machining it came back nice and shiny. Now it is all pressure tested, reassembled and ready to go back on the car.

Before:

After:

Today, I spent four hours working on the car. I was able to get the oil pan off (pain in the ....). Pulled out the pistons. I will clean, ball hone, and reassemble with new rings. I knew that one piston was bad, but I did not know it was this bad until I pulled it.

It is amazing that it did not destroy the cylinder wall. I will ball hone it and check it again for tolerance.

It has been 8 months since I started this project and I did not update this thread. Since the last time, I have done a lot of work to this car. I have ball honed the cylinders, changed the oil pickup tube, installed pistons and rings, reassembled the head, new water pump, new timing belt, new tensioners, new fuel pump and filter, new coil packs, new plugs, and a bunch of other little parts. 

I finally got the engine reassembled and got it to start. But the car was running very poorly. At first, I feared it would be the pistons again. However, after six weeks of research and trial and error, it turned out to be a bad camshaft position sensor (even though that was a new part). Once that was changed, it ran great.

I have driven it for 500 miles, then changed the front cv axle, welded an exhaust leak, and installed a bunch of replacement interior parts with new-looking ones from a junkyard.

I have to install an antenna adapter for the radio and I am done! It has been a long 8 months, but the car now has 1,000 miles on the motor and gets 32.6 mpg. 

Now, for the pictures:

And here I am willing to junk an engine after I snap a few exhaust manifold bolts!...

In reply to ebonyandivory :

I am stubborn. I try to fix what I have instead of pulling it out and putting in a new engine. I am very happy with the end result. Unfortunately, my nephew is not getting this car due to things changing. Looks like I have to clean it up and put it up for sale. This project was not meant to be one for me to keep when I was finished.

In reply to tedroach :

Well, I hope the change in plans isn’t for unfortunate circumstances for you guys.

Good luck!

ebonyandivory said:

In reply to tedroach :

 

Well, I hope the change in plans isn’t for unfortunate circumstances for you guys.

Good luck!

Everyone is good. Just the normal teenager rebellion and drama. I appreciate the support!

Last night on my way home from work, I was driving the Audi at 75 miles an hour consistently. When I got off the highway, the car started to hesitate a little. By the time I was 1 mile from the house, I started to lose power and throttle response. I limped home at 15 mph (making the people behind me very angry). Pulled in my neighborhood and it started to sputter. Got it to the top of the hill, turned on my street and the engine stalled.

Luckily, I was able to coast down the hill into my driveway. I tried to restart the car a couple times. It will start up for about 2 seconds before shutting off again.

Tomorrow night, I will hook up the VAG-COM and read the codes to see what is going on. I think it is fuel related, but I am not sure. Either the fuel filter just clocked, the new fuel pump went bad, or a bad injector.

I was very upset and frustrated last night. Time to cool off and come back to troubleshoot with a clear head.

When you get old like me you find it's best to do as you did and step back for a bit. Hope it's an easy fix.