New-to-me AR 6sp; undetermined fate.

[Jesse_Boyer]

I recently picked up an '01 AR 6sp manual as a project. Price was reasonable given the 160k miles and few major mechanical issues. Exterior is reasonable, air suspension removed and coils already installed.

What I know:
**Massive oil consumption. The previous owner knew the motor was hurt and assumed head gasket issues. When I arrived, the car had no oil on the dipstick whatsoever and would smoke a 'little' out of the exhaust after it had been idling for a bit (oil added, then started.) However, after topping off the oil (again, none on the dipstick) the smoke cloud behind me at 40mph would make every James Bond fan very jealous. After this extremely short trip, no oil on the dipstick again. Yes, massive oil consumption confirmed.

**Ticking noise when idling. I assume a stuck lifter or spun bearing, but no one knows how long this car was run without oil. Other than the ticking noise, the motor idles and sounds fine.

**Lack of power, potentially low or no boost (as far as my ears and butt can determine.) It certainly doesn't feel like or sound like any boost is being made. This is my first 2.7t powered car, but far from my first turbo car. Even the smallest, variable-vane equipped turbo cars take a short time to spool and I experience none of this on this car on the very short test drive.

The car had quite a few codes I pulled via VCDS and while I saved them at home, I don't have them at the office. However, none of them have returned at this point (with approximately 20 minutes of idling and 5 minutes of actual driving.)

The head gasket issues I'm familiar with would cause a pressurized coolant system, loss of coolant, milky oil (again, no oil,) etc. I haven't driven this enough to determine if the motor is bad or not. (can't keep oil in it long enough.) Coolant bottle looks pink as G12 should.

I'm of the opinion one of the K03's let go, the previous owner saw the cloud of smoke, knew something was wrong, etc. Whether they drove it home like that OR hauled it, it still didn't have any oil on the dipstick. So, who knows how bad bearings are at this point.

How would you proceed at this point? I want to build a cheap AWD toy to play with in the Winter. While this won't be my daily-driver (ALH TDI Wagon gets the nod,) this could be a comfortable car to visit the inlaws, drive across the country, etc. Alternatively, the swap kit would be extremely useful for an RS6 manual conversion OR a 4.2 AR with a 6sp manual (love this idea as a wagon fan as 4.2 sounds amazing, etc)

[Racin2redline]

I'd do a compression test and see what your working with. The ticking could be a bad can chain tensioner. The fast oil consumption could very well just be the bad turbo dumping it straight into the exhaust.

If the body of the car is clean and your looking for a project a 6 speed allroad is an awesome starting point. Motors are cheap and so are used ko3s or even ko4s can be had for a reasonable price.

[AudiA4_20T]

sounds like you lucked out and just got one with a bad turbo. Fix turbo and enjoy

[Jesse_Boyer]

I'll do a compression test before pulling the motor to get a baseline of the numbers.

I'll pull the valve cover to inspect the lobes and verify there isn't any scoring there, but is there anything I can see/feel to indicate the ticking might be coming from the cam chain tensioner?

After that, I'll disassemble the turbos to see which one, if either, are shot. Hopefully they are and that's the quickest way to get it back on the road. Whether I buy a set of K04's or not is up in the air.