My very own update thread - AZ edition (picture heavy)

[BaseDrifter]

I finished editing together the time-lapse of my recent service the other night. 13 hours condensed down to 16 minutes at 400x acceleration. Check it out!

Work completed:

- New timing belt kit installed
- New front crankshaft case seal and crankshaft seal
- New VC gasket, spark plugs, oil change
- Replaced turbo oil feed line crush washer
- Serviced DV and cleaned intercooler
- Replaced ripped turbo inlet pipe
- Replaced vacuum hoses
- Bead blasted and clear coated VC

yea i wish she could be counted on to clean parts into the late of the night but, can guess how that ends up, so i usually do most of the parts haha but use her whenever i can via bribes or something. Siblings are fun... hahah

as for WD-40 for degreaser it WORKS but not even close to as good as the CRC engine degreaser works. Seriously this stuff cuts through decades old 3" thick grease like its warm butter, I am a mechanic and have tested all kinds of different brands but hands down CRC is where its at. Walmart usually has it for -4$ a can. Thick tar grease just literally wipes off its nuts. One can cleaned my entire bay on my 98 pearl avant VRT project i had to scrap *tears up a little* (empty bay i mean)

I might have to check out the CRC stuff, but trusty old regular WD40 has never done me wrong.

Very clean!!

Thank you!

[BaseDrifter]

Today I received an AWE boost gauge that I bought off Audifurdasleben. He said it was making a rattling noise and that AWE said it couldn't be fixed.

Also talked to AWE some more and their gauges are sealed so the vibrating that its making under boost can't be fixed, sad but oh well.

Can't be fixed…can't be fixed?? Well, I had to give it a shot, and I was successful. Took about an hour, but it works beautifully now.

The gauge arrived with the needle pointing at 10inHg. After doing some extensive high quality testing (shaking it) I determined that the needle had come loose from the gauge's shaft.



So now the question was how to take it apart. After some more testing (trying to pull it apart) I figured out that the front cover bezel was crimped on over the metal housing of the gauge body. I was able to use a small flat blade screwdriver to carefully pry up the edge of the crimped bezel to free it. Thankfully it's made out of aluminum so this was not hard.



Here you can see the raised lip on the gauge housing. The bezel has to slip over this rim.



And success! After popping the front cover off the needle immediately fell off to the side.



The needle is a simple press fit and lacks any locating tabs, so I just put it at 0 and pushed it on. I then pulled the gauge from my car and tested it and it worked but the needle was very jumpy, not smooth. I pulled the needle off and pressed it back on but not quite as hard. Tested it again and it works beautifully.



I used the flat blade screwdriver to press the bezel's edge back into place. It's not nearly as tight as it came from the factory, but it will do just fine.



Reassembled.





What makes it even better is that the lower edge of the bezel sits inside the gauge housing, so you'll never see the marks from removing and installing it.



I'll write up a DIY article for this later for anyone else who runs into this problem. I searched and wasn't able to find anyone else who had disassembled an AWE gauge before.

[BaseDrifter]

Time for another update. A couple months ago my air compressor blew its head gasket. I could get the tank up to 100psi, but no more. I finally got around to rebuilding it and it runs better than ever now. Doing this very simple rebuild makes me want to build my actual motor even more.

What I found when I pulled the head off.



All clean!









Rebuilding the air compressor was necessary before I started work on replacing the clutch in my brother's 2000 1.8T. More info about that job in his build thread here.



In news more relevant to my own car, I'm very close to saying that "stage 1" of my engine bay is complete. One of the last pieces of the puzzle was getting a euro Passat driver side engine cover (part number 3B0 119 487C.)



The cover is not a drop in piece though. It took a bit of fitting and problem solving to get it to sit in place properly. I'm still fussing with it, but it's very close.

The first thing that needs to be trimmed is where the cover contacts the throttle body.



I cut out the corner with a jig saw, hand filed it smooth, and rounded the corner off.



A notch has to be cut near the upper radiator hose, and I was also getting some contact near the windshield washer tank. I cut a 2nd half moon near the windshield washer tank as well as shaved the lower circle of the washer cap down flat on the side. With the cover sitting properly at the bottom, it leaves a 3/4" gap near the firewall. This is not the end of the world, it's not very noticeable unless you're looking for it, but I'll probably try to fit a piece of weather stripping at the upper edge to seal it off.



The last problem was finding a way to make it sit flat. The middle of the cover hits the lower right corner of the ABS pump and acts as a pivot point. I didn't want to drill into the cover if I could avoid it, nor did I want to modify my car in some way that was not reversible. I wanted to be able to remove the cover easily as well. What I came up with was using two bar magnets wrapped in electrical tape and topped with a piece of velcro. The magnets are placed next to the hood shock and hold the top right corner of the cover down to the proper height so it's flush with the hood's weather stripping.



The end result.

[BaseDrifter]

Got a set of Apikol street rear differential carrier bushings. I was very surprised at how soft they are, without the metal insert in place they can be squished pretty easily. I expected them to be much stiffer but them being soft is not necessarily a bad thing since I'm a bit worried about excessive noise with these, but we'll find out when I get them installed. If they're too noisy I'll step down to 034 SD carrier bushings.

[MetalMan]

Got a set of Apikol street rear differential carrier bushings. I was very surprised at how soft they are, without the metal insert in place they can be squished pretty easily. I expected them to be much stiffer but them being soft is not necessarily a bad thing since I'm a bit worried about excessive noise with these, but we'll find out when I get them installed. If they're too noisy I'll step down to 034 SD carrier bushings.

I'm curious to read about how these work out for you. My car came with the Apikol Street (I think) rear diff mount, but as far as I know the carrier bushings are stock.

[adam044]

Time for another update. A couple months ago my air compressor blew its head gasket. I could get the tank up to 100psi, but no more. I finally got around to rebuilding it and it runs better than ever now. Doing this very simple rebuild makes me want to build my actual motor even more.

What I found when I pulled the head off.



All clean!









Rebuilding the air compressor was necessary before I started work on replacing the clutch in my brother's 2000 1.8T. More info about that job in his build thread here.



In news more relevant to my own car, I'm very close to saying that "stage 1" of my engine bay is complete. One of the last pieces of the puzzle was getting a euro Passat driver side engine cover (part number 3B0 119 487C.)



The cover is not a drop in piece though. It took a bit of fitting and problem solving to get it to sit in place properly. I'm still fussing with it, but it's very close.

The first thing that needs to be trimmed is where the cover contacts the throttle body.



I cut out the corner with a jig saw, hand filed it smooth, and rounded the corner off.



A notch has to be cut near the upper radiator hose, and I was also getting some contact near the windshield washer tank. I cut a 2nd half moon near the windshield washer tank as well as shaved the lower circle of the washer cap down flat on the side. With the cover sitting properly at the bottom, it leaves a 3/4" gap near the firewall. This is not the end of the world, it's not very noticeable unless you're looking for it, but I'll probably try to fit a piece of weather stripping at the upper edge to seal it off.



The last problem was finding a way to make it sit flat. The middle of the cover hits the lower right corner of the ABS pump and acts as a pivot point. I didn't want to drill into the cover if I could avoid it, nor did I want to modify my car in some way that was not reversible. I wanted to be able to remove the cover easily as well. What I came up with was using two bar magnets wrapped in electrical tape and topped with a piece of velcro. The magnets are placed next to the hood shock and hold the top right corner of the cover down to the proper height so it's flush with the hood's weather stripping.



The end result.

Now I know how to make my cover fit once I get it. Can't find it for less than $85 shipped. You?

[BaseDrifter]

BaseDrifter updates

Haven't checked your thread in ages, but you've done some pretty awesome and neat jobs on the b5's! Before and after pics of greasy / clean parts are always awesome to look at

Haven't seen you update your thread in awhile either buddy!

I'm running out of things to clean on the car, so I'll be working on the garage soon instead. Doing a big reorganization, getting rid of some things, cleaning out new space, moving some tools into another corner of the shop, etc.

I'm curious to read about how these work out for you. My car came with the Apikol Street (I think) rear diff mount, but as far as I know the carrier bushings are stock.

I'll definitely be posting my thoughts on them. I decided to upgrade the carrier bushings before the front mount simply because of cost. I was planning on putting a Stern PowerRing on the front mount, but I've heard it adds a lot of noise. I'd love to go with the matching Apikol front mount, but the $240 is a bit out of the question right now. Depending on the NVH with these carrier bushings I may still try out the PowerRing for the time being. I know ECS also makes a front mount thats more reasonable in price.

Really like all the work you've done. Everything is so clean.

Checking your build thread always makes me think twice about parting with my car.

Thanks, it's hard to even consider getting a different car with the amount of work I've put into this one.

Now I know how to make my cover fit once I get it. Can't find it for less than $85 shipped. You?

$85 shipped is about the going price. I got mine for $70 though since my buddy has a hookup at a dealership. Also, try to avoid quoting all the pictures when you reply to the thread, there's so many pictures it takes quite awhile to load as is. :)

[MetalMan]

I'll definitely be posting my thoughts on them. I decided to upgrade the carrier bushings before the front mount simply because of cost. I was planning on putting a Stern PowerRing on the front mount, but I've heard it adds a lot of noise. I'd love to go with the matching Apikol front mount, but the $240 is a bit out of the question right now. Depending on the NVH with these carrier bushings I may still try out the PowerRing for the time being. I know ECS also makes a front mount thats more reasonable in price.

Makes me curious if replacing the carrier bushings will be noticeable with the upgraded diff mount, and vice versa.
If I were to buy a new diff mount it would probably be ECS's offering... great price. I've read plenty of stories about harsh NVH with the Power Ring, so IMO your best bet would be to wait for a used billet diff mount or just keep saving for the ECS/Apikol.
Now I'm also thinking about transmission mounts, in 034 Street Density flavor (already have their motor mounts).

[JJ.]

Haven't seen you update your thread in awhile either buddy!

I'm running out of things to clean on the car, so I'll be working on the garage soon instead. Doing a big reorganization, getting rid of some things, cleaning out new space, moving some tools into another corner of the shop, etc.

Yeah, not much has happened since, not with the A4 at least.
I bought an S4, so I've been quite busy with getting that driving like it should since it's my daily from now.
Sold the A4 to a mate

S4 topic!
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...een-Audi-S4-B5