The Project Pad

I think....... There might be something wrong with you.

Incredible work! Awesome attention to detail and SOOO CLEAN!! This hard work will pay off!

Take good care of the A/C compressor since new ones are not cheap! The crowd over on Audizine think they fail on a fairly consistent mileage basis. Some new PAG oil will go a long way, though.

chaloux wrote:I think....... There might be something wrong with you.

Tell me something I don't know

WOMBAT wrote:Incredible work! Awesome attention to detail and SOOO CLEAN!! This hard work will pay off!

I find myself sitting back and just staring at that engine from time to time... nothing like clean/fresh Aluminum!

viridia wrote:Take good care of the A/C compressor since new ones are not cheap! The crowd over on Audizine think they fail on a fairly consistent mileage basis. Some new PAG oil will go a long way, though.

You know what that mileage interval is? Not that a reman'd one has any more of a guarantee of surviving - but worth asking! This would be an absolute pain in the ass to change while in the car!

Well… I was hoping by this point that I’d have videos of the car’s first fire, bottles of champagne being popped, and general giddiness and excitement, but alas – life has its own ways of occupying time with other priorities.

At the end of the last edition, I had the motor assembled and ready to receive its flywheel, clutch, trans, etc. and get into the car… so in April, before the big kitchen renovation started on 6 May (full gut to studs, new electrical, new lighting, new floor/tile, new walls, new cabinets/countertops… did I mention I was doing this on my own w/ the help of some very good friends and father throughout the adventure?), I charged ahead in an attempt to get the motor into the car so it was at least out of the way for the kitchen cabinet work in the garage. Alas, I failed that… but not without a fight!

With the motor assembled and ready to go, I started the work to get it ready to receive the transmission… so step one, flywheel!

Before getting too crazy, I had to get a new pilot bearing installed. With the older 5cyl cars I’ve worked on, the bearing was open on the back and you could pack it w/ grease and pop it out w/ a dowel. There were two issues with this on the RS flywheel… a) the pilot bearing was closed and b) the flywheel wasn’t installed on the motor! So the other trick of drilling a hole in the back and threading a tap into it and pushing/pulling it out w/ leverage against the crank was also not an option! So it was time to get creative.

First off, I needed to be able to press the bearing out into something, while still supporting the surrounding area on the flywheel, so I took the new pilot bearing and found which socket it fit nicely within…



Once I found that socket, I had to make sure it stayed centered in the area where I needed to support, which was why you saw painters tape on the previous pic!



With that figured out, I flipped the flywheel over onto the centered socket and grabbed another socket to pound out the pilot bearing…



And after a little bit of hammering… whalah!



Install was the reverse of removal, so nothing crazy there. One thing to take note of was to measure (before removing) how inset the original pilot bearing was in the flywheel, so that you can set the new one at the same setting.

Next step was to get the flywheel onto the motor - So it was time get the motor off the stand and ready to receive!



And then get the flywheel loosely installed with its new hardware:



The next was torqueing everything down with only one person… and missing the proper tool to lock the flywheel down. On the old 5 cyl motors, I was able to weld up my own crank holding tool which locked the front pulley down and allowed you to torque everything down. On the newer cars, they now have a funky tool that locks into the teeth of the flywheel instead. In lieu of that tool, I set up my own “tool” to hold the crank in place. This is the trick that friends (previous mechanic, etc.) have used on the 2.7T motors instead of the tool as well.



Now, in reality, there’s nothing too crazy about this… the issue that came about though was that, as you torqued down on the flywheel bolts, the motor started to twist/rotate! So, again, without a second pair of hands – we improvise!



Little shade tree, but it worked. I was able to get everything torqued down and marked. Next up was a brand new LUK clutch kit



And after torqueing down all the pressure plate bolts, we were ready to rock!



After about 40ish minutes of finagling, swearing, more finagling, and a little more tweaking, I was finally able to get everything lined up so that the trans input shaft would slide into the clutch plate. This of course happened b/c my 3 yr old son decided to come over and “help” daddy by pulling on the jack handle… and suddenly, everything lined up and slide together like it was supposed to. Ain’t it a b!tch when that happens?



And here’s where she sat… as this was as far as I was able to make it before the kitchen work hit full tilt.



So b/n May and now, I’ve been able to do a few odds and ends.

On the transmission side - I decided that while everything was apart (doom of “while you’re in there”), I’d “upgrade” the plastic slave cylinder to a metal one. A local RS member was liquidating his upgrade list that didn’t make it onto his car before he sold it, so I picked up a USP slave cylinder kit for a decent deal. When I went to line everything up, I really didn’t like what USP was trying to do.

The OEM setup has a hardline that goes from the clutch master cylinder through the firewall, and then just above the transmission it transitions to a flex hose that goes down to the slave cylinder. The flexible hose that Audi uses is a bit excessive/complex (90 degree angles, joints, etc.). This kit replaces everything from the clutch master ALL the way to the slave with one single hose. I know many people claim that this will make the clutch feel so much better, etc. In reality, I saw this as marketing ability to hit multiple platforms (RS, S, A) with a single kit.

Here’s the OEM slave plus flex line w/ the USP line next to it:



From what I could tell, the flex section b/n the RS, the S and the A are all different… so instead of 3 hose kits, they can knock them all off with one. Now, there’s nothing WRONG with this – but I didn’t like it. The factory hard line is tucked in tightly against the firewall, and would have been a ROYAL PITA to remove, even with the motor removed. So instead of using the supplied hose, I decided to have my own stainless line made and sold off the hose supplied with the kit.

So what I came up with was to adapt the metal bracket that was used on the OEM plastic slave and attach it to the metal slave.



This allows me to secure the new flex line to reduce stress on the joint, plus ensure that it stayed away from the linkage and various other things going on at the back of the RS motor:



The other thing I tackled was to rebuild the inner joints on the front axles. Both boots were torn when I picked up the car, so this was one of the maintenance items that I needed to tackle outside of the motor. I had never tackled the tripod type inner joints before, so this was new. The fact that you just hammer the cup off seemed really strange to me, but all research and DIYs that I found said “this was the way.” So with my deadblow hammer in hand, I pulled off the cup, used my pulley puller to pop off the bearing piece, and off we went!



Once everything was leaned up, I then popped on the new retainer clip… ahhh the many ways to use your sockets





And whalah!



Rinse and repeat for the other side and we were ready.

And this brings you up to this week. I have finally finished the last few niggling things I needed to get done on the kitchen, so I could start redirecting my attention BACK to the car. So over our long weekend, I went into the garage and started to button up the last few things onto the motor/trans assembly.

So w/ the downpipes now installed… it’s time to go back to her home… almost a year to the day of me pulling the motor the motor initially (2 Sept 2016)



Hopefully the next update will have vroom vroom noises and giggles from yours truly!

Hope you enjoyed the show! Until next time...

jretal wrote: The fact that you just hammer the cup off seemed really strange to me, but all research and DIYs that I found said “this was the way.” So with my deadblow hammer in hand, I pulled off the cup, used my pulley puller to pop off the bearing piece, and off we went!

Yup. When I did one of my Allroad axles and didn't have the internet at the shop, I stood and stared at that thing for a while before I just said, "well... here goes nothing" and whacked it with a rubber mallet until it came off. Cleaned and packed with new grease it was buttery smooth after. I have to do the other side now, but I was really surprised how tough these CV joints are. Nice work on all the other stuff as well BTW, and no shame on not having it done yet. Keep it up!

chaloux wrote:Nice work on all the other stuff as well BTW, and no shame on not having it done yet. Keep it up!

Wholeheartedly agree with Matt.

I'd rather see it done right, than done poorly. Your car deserves it.

Life has a way of interfering at times, glad you've mustered the energy and gumption to push through and post some solutions and motivations for the rest of us. Really like what you've figured out with the slave line.

Thanks, fellas... def no shame in the time table, but there is slight frustration. I've owned the car for 2 years at this point, and I'm growing weary of DD'ing my mountaineer... lol. I know I'm getting desperate when I'm thinking of rowing through gears in my RS as I'm cruising down the highway on in the 'ol SUV! The real kick in the pants is, if I had a solid 2 days to work on this (16hrs), I can promise it'd be down on the ground and running again... but w/ work, 2 kids, etc. it's not that easy anymore.

Really like what you've figured out with the slave line.

Thanks! People on AZ were slightly shocked that I didn't like what USP did with the line, and many said how it improved pedal feel, etc. Peoples' feet/legs must be more sensitive than mine, as I have a hard time seeing how a braided steel line will perform better than a hard metal line! That whole conversion had mixed reviews when I searched for it (i.e. was it really worth it or not, hard to tell), but for what I paid, it'll be fine. I was able to sell the USP line and cover the new line +$20 or something around there to pay down the "upgrade." Helluva lot better to tackle it now vs. once everything is back in the car!

Looking good Justin! Love the attention to detail and amount of "while I'm in there." Going to feel good going down the road after all this!

Nice thread, I like how you've been detailing what you are doing as you progress.

Is the car dolphin gray or something like daytona gray?

pete82 wrote:Nice thread, I like how you've been detailing what you are doing as you progress.

Is the car dolphin gray or something like daytona gray?

It's Daytona Gray - which I believe is an RS only color, but could be mistaken.

It really pops in the sun when clean. Right now, it's a dull brown/gray from saw dust/dirt from sitting in the garage. Even the cobwebs are dusty at this point!

RS4 Update Part 4: She's Alllliiiiiveeee....
Champagne is flowing, angels have come from the heavens above, stars have aligned, and I'm still smiling just thinking about it....

So it’s been a bit since the last update, but when I left you off last I had the motor assembled and it was waiting to go to its new home. Alas, life has its ways of throwing curve balls along the way (as has been the typical theme with this undertaking), but over the course of a day off from work, and a few weekend days left to my own devices (and the helping hands of a few friends), progress was made!.

So back up to late September, I had taken a little over a half a day of work off to drive down to ATL to pick up another 4000. Due to timing, and realizing I needed a driving buddy for the trip (23hr round trip), I postponed the trip and used the free time to my advantage… time to toss in the motor!!

The fun part of this task was… I was alone. Granted, pulling a 600ish lb lump of a motor OUT of the car is a lot easier than caressing said lump INTO the car, but that being said… slow and steady were the words of the day!

To get the engine prepped and ready for install, I got it out of the garage and “in position”





With the engine out, I also figured I’d try to tackle the OEM trans mount and swap in the 034 mount (or at least, I attempted to). Naturally, this was a lot easier said than done… and I probably should have attempted to do this BEFORE putting the downpipes on, but such is life.

So in order to get the trans mount out, you have to drop the plate down that’s mounted directly to the trans to access the non-captive nut on top (gee, thanks, Audi!):





Nut removed, and mount exposed:



And this is where I ran into the snag… when comparing the 034 mount that I picked up new-used (bought it from a local RS4 owner who never installed it), it struck me as being a good ½” shorter than the OEM mount. Given that I wasn’t sure how this would line up in the car (since engine was out) I decided to abort the install and start contacting 034.



Upon further discussion, there was confusion on whether or not I needed a spacer, but after confirming P/Ns and MY car, they tell me it should be a bolt in swap. Given my hesitation, I wasn’t willing to deal with it then/there. I will maybe try later on down the road, but the OEM mount was in fairly decent shape regardless, so not the end of the world.

Next up was engine mounts! The car had thrown a code about the OEM mount being potentially bad, so I decided that, given what a pain in the arse it is to access these puppies, I’d toss in a set of 034 street density mounts…



And given that said mounts and sway bar brackets hold up the subframe… out came the scrub brush, degreaser, and soap to clean everything up!



And then the fun came in of getting the motor mounts positioned and then the necessary subframe and brackets installed… needless to say, this is tight, and I’m happy to be doing this out of the car and not fighting w/ the frame rail!



And through the liberal use of tie straps, clamps, and strategically positioned jack… I was able to get the subframe bracket positioned and mounted to the motor mounts.





And with everything mounted up to the motor… it was time to start sliding it into its new “forever home.”





Slowly slowly… inch by inch… did I mention I was pushing this up an incline alone??? And the stupid little wheels on the hoist kept getting stuck in every crack/void in my garage floor???



And after a little finagling, tiny bit of swearing, some prying/pushing… she’s home!!!



Now begins the process of fastening and installing of new mounts, screws, etc…

As has been seen by many others, the OEM snub mount was separated/toasted, so more 034 toys go in:



And then begins the “while you’re in there….” Starting with the 614 relays under the ECU – I had read about a few folks running into issues w/ their RS’ b/c of these things, and I know the PO had told me he had a funky starting issue at one point in time that the dealer ended up just throwing parts at until it went away… so figured they’re cheap enough, and everything is accessible – time to toss ‘em in!

Out with the old



And in with the updated 644 relays (thanks Europa Parts!)



And getting the rats nest/fuses/relays tucked away under the ECU:





This, along with various other electrical plugs, harnesses, etc. were tucked away/back to where they belonged. I will admit, I did minimal labelling when I took this puppy apart – which caused a bit of head scratching from time to time as to “where exactly did THAT go again??” That being said, slow and steady we went – and everything found a home where it needed to be.

Next on the list were the coolant hoses. I replaced every.single.one. This was not a cheap endeavor (some of these hoses are downright highway robbery), but at the same time – I didn’t want to deal with replacing these things down the road given how tight everything is in the engine bay… after comparing parts from old to new, I was def happy that I made this decision!



Here’s the hose from the alternator to the pass side radiator (old on bottom new on top – notice the bulge in the old one???:



One thing I noticed (and was worth mentioning) as I was putting the lines together was cleaver little things that Audi DID do – which was alignment lines! All the hoses had lines, so that you would properly orient them when installing.



So I curse Audi a lot, but I’ll give them kudos here

One of the next issues I had to tackle was buttoning up the A/C lines. When I had originally pulled the motor, I couldn’t get the line that goes from the A/C Compressor (under the motor) and into the air drier separated. The locator pin on the drier corroded to the line. I ended up torching it to get everything wiggled free (I bought a new drier)… but in the process, I ended up cooking the little yellow tip that goes on this fitting:



From researching/asking around, I learned that this little yellow tip wasn’t really responsible for any of the sealing, but it DID protect the o-ring when assembling things. Probably not an issue when I was doing it myself vs. an assembly line, but I still rather have it present if feasible. Unfortunately, this little tip isn’t available separate from the line (which is ~$90 used or $3xx new). After some scouring of the ETKA, I found that the sealing o-rings were essentially the same on all the B6/B7 chassis cars – and I was able to find an AZ’er how was parting out their S4. So $10 later, I have some fittings to test my luck with removing little plastic rings w/o destroying them:



But with a little patience, and equal luck… success!!



With the A/C buttoned up… it was time to start closing things up… so plugs and coil packs later!





And then came the real fun… oil cooler time! The lines on this car were original, and I’ve read plenty of war stories of these lines breaking and dumping the contents of the engine in quick order. I’ve also read many a war story of the steel fittings corroding to the AL oil cooler and taking the threads with it when dismantling. With this in mind, I was able to pick up a used oil cooler w/ JHM lines from another local RS4 owner… with the hope of keeping my original cooler, but using his as a backup if I f’d anything up!

So out came the oxy/acetylene setup once again!



And torch and torch and torch away (smoke, but no fire – thankfully):



And I had success. The one fitting got *slightly* boogered up on the threads at the very end, but the JHM fittings threaded right on and held torque just fine – so we’re in business!



Only thing left was to pop off the hefty plugs off the motor:





And pop in the JHM fittings:



And she’s ready for her nose to go back on!!





Buddy helping dump in some life blood:



And she’s looking like a car again for the first time in a year and a half+!!!!



On the interior… it was the same story… button up the shifter assembly:



And put everything back where it belonged!!



Excitement was starting to rise at this point… it was REALLY starting to look like a car again!

But like everything, one step forward and another back… When I first got the car, I noticed that the horn didn’t work. Fuse was good, but there was no power to the plugs at the horns when pressing down on the wheel. Some research said this could point to the clock spring going bad. I picked up a used one (again, thanks AZ!) and went to working towards tearing down.

Haven’t seen a process on this here, so figured I’d toss up pics:

Removing airbag – remove plastic plugs that cover torx screws that hold on the airbag:





And off w/ the wheel!



And then what stopped me in my tracks for a couple days! Every other (older) Audi I worked on uses normal #2 phillips screws!!!! Apparently Audi changed that! This tiny little screw SURE looked like a allen key when standing on my head and peering up the tiny little hole. This screw was slightly loose, so I was able to finagle it out w/ a 2.5mm allen. Upon holding it in my hand, low and behold – it’s a T8 torx!!!



So this is where I was stuck for 3 days while trying to source the correct driver:



Why did it sit for several days? Well, not only do you need a T8 torx… but you need a LONG T8 torx! I picked up a kit from Sears the next day after finding this, but the T8 driver that was with that kit was ~1/4-1/2” too short! The T9 was long enough, but obviously too big. So onto the interwebs I went and was able to find this via amazon:



FINALLY!



And clock spring exposed:



Plug you need to remember to snap off before trying to pull out!



Then assemble as you took apart… only to find it wasn’t the clock spring that was bad, but the relay (doh). Oh well… I have a spare clock spring now!

With the interior buttoned up, it was time to tackle the only mod I will probably do to the car… ECS H-Pipe! I picked this up for a deal, and I couldn’t say no. Not that the stock exhaust was lacking to me… but hey, I wanna augment the V8 experience w/o making it too loud (again, daily driver – the 4000 is my loud/obnoxious car).

With the car already partially in the air, I decided to just jack up the rear and see what I could do to get it out…



Unfortunately – the back of the car was too close to the wall behind it (or the exhaust assembly was too long – take your pick)… so I ended up taking off the rear wheels, putting my creeper under the assembly and pulling it out the front!



Lining up the H-pipe over the existing exhaust:



Marking and checking twice:



And hacking apart my perfectly good exhaust in the name of a little bit more noise!



Here is the h-pipe next to the cut out resonator section:



And clamped together, ready to go back home!



With the exhaust all done, there was ONE last thing I needed to do before the car hit the ground again: belly pan repair!

While 99% whole, there were a few cracks on my belly pan, along with a quarter size hole as well. Since these things are obscenely expensive, I figured I’d take a stab at keeping it together a little bit longer.

Since the pass side valve cover had been leaking for a bit, the belly pan was a little greasy to say the least… so in prep for the plastic repair… we spray and scrub once again!



Prep:









And glue!



The stuff I used was a 3M plastic repair adhesive I had used for many a bumper repair on various cars (UrQ bumpers for the 4000, B5 RS4 bumper repairs, UrS bumper reconstructions, etc.). It holds up great as long as you do the prep work right!

With this done… the engine was buttoned up! The belly pan was on! And it was time….



The moment of truth was upon us! Since oil has never touched this motor, I had the fuel pump fuse pulled so that I could crank the car over and prime the oil system before firing it up for the first time. With the first turn of the key - no issues to be found… except that I forgot to tighten the hose fitting to the AN fitting on the oil cooler.



Oops. That left a decent mess! So after cleaning that up, R&R’ing the bumper again (I’m good at it now), tightening fitting and rechecking for leaks… we were back in action!

Vids of first start w/o fuel: https://vimeo.com/243407492

Vid of First OFFICIAL start!!!: https://vimeo.com/243407527

Once the car was started, and I rinsed off the 1.5+ yrs worth of dust/dirt/cob webs off the car…




Yeah, it was nasty needless to say…..

A friend and I were able to take it out to get the rings seated. The method I used is the same I’ve used on the 4000, and recommended elsewhere on the interwebs. It’s worked well for me, so figured I’d keep with it. This entailed getting the engine up to temp and doing 4-6 hard pulls in 3rd gear from ~2000rpm to ~6000 rpm, then snap off the throttle and let it coast down to ~2k rpm range again (the pressure and vacuum help seat the rings and mate them w/ the cylinder walls). Mind you, to this point, I have never driven a properly running RS4. I’ve ridden in one, but never behind the wheel.

The giggles are real… haha

https://vimeo.com/243407571

I did this on various on/off ramps around my house… successfully managing not to get pulled over by the police (a step up over when I first did this w/ the 4000), or rear ended when coasting down. Sure, a few folks blew their horn at me… but I could have cared less! Nothing was knocking me off this cloud!

So it’s official! She’s up and running! I have the car registered and insured, and have about 60 miles on the new motor. In another 40 miles or so I’ll change the oil and put in a new filter/fresh fluid.

The traffic in DC doesn’t really allow me to stretch its legs really well during the day, and family life is pretty busy (plus kids seats haven’t been installed yet) – so haven’t had a chance to drive it too much. Each time I take it out though, it feels better… and I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I haven’t taken it over 5500rpm yet (other than ring seating), and probably won’t until I get 500-1000 miles on it… but I can feel it just chomping at the bit when I get near that magical 5500 rpm level. Can’t wait to get this motor broken in!

The things left that I need to do are to get it inspected/emissions tested, recharge the HVAC system, and get it aligned. I’m hoping to get that done in the next few weeks, give the car a solid detail inside and out, and officially put her into DD status! JUST in time for winter… but hey, I got snows w/ the car as well… so time to have some fun!!!!

Nice man, these are classic cars, you did a great job.

Impressive amount of work and attention to detail on this job, well done.

Which break in oil did you decide to use?

^ agreed. Very well done. I would love to have one of these as a daily

Thanks, guys!

I ended up going with the AMSOIL Break-in oil. I need to go buy more for the second oil change, so need to get my act together and order - as I can blow through 50ish miles real quick if I get a moment

So happy for you Justin, this is awesome! Love the attention to detail, looking forward to daily-status updates.

Awesome thread.

Part of me hopes I can find one locally at some point with a toast motor.

I've been waiting for this update. Your laugh after it starts is spot on

Nice work. Maybe see this at Carlisle 2018?

WANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!