The Aftermath

[Davdraco1]

So a little background on the car. It's an 01 1.8t 5 speed quattro. I purchased it back in 2013 right after I turned 18. I did the usual maintenance and a new set of tires since it came with snow tires on it. First mod was a gutted cat and the CX Racing 3in cat back. The car was still on stock tune but you could feel the difference in power. It held longer in the rpm's and the tiny ko3 didn't fall on its face so early. Here's a video of the new exhaust: https://youtu.be/hbQnN1ysZMg The summer after this went on i went to Waterfest and got myself a boost gauge just to make sure everything was okay and I didn't have any leaks. Next came the tune from Kompresd. We emailed back and forth for a while and i decided on a "stage 2" tune. I know, no one likes "stages." It was set for 22 psi with launch control and no lift shift. It also had the usual deletes. I loved the tune. Ran better then stock and the power was awesome. I played with the anti-lag and had my fun with that but mainly got it because I was going to bring the car to the drag strip and I did. But before i did and as soon as i installed the tune the clutch started slipping in 4th and 5th gear on the highway. Passing people was impossible, it just slipped instantly. So, i got on the interwebs and found a lightly used ECS RA4 stage 2 clutch kit and light weight flywheel. Since the trans was coming out, i picked up an eBay short shifter, which iI love, and 034 Street Density motor and trans mounts. Both of which changed the feel of the car in a good way considering the stock mounts had 150k on them.
The clutch install took me 2 days with a lift, I was in no rush. So now that the clutch was in and would hold the power, it was time for the drag strip. Which I went to 5 days after installing the clutch. This is where the story turns bad. I was launching the car with the Anti-lag set at 3500 rpm. It bogged but held and I had no issues. i ran 4 runs and had shitty times, the bogging slowed me down so much. The last run of the night I slipped the clutch launching and got a much better launch, went through the gears the gears with the no lift shift and it was fine. All night i was crossing the quarter in the very top of 3rd gear. This time I got a better launch so i needed 4th. This is when the Audi died.
When i shifted, the clutch pedal never came back up. I heard a loud bang and the motor revved to the moon, well past 8k rpm. The tach was buried. The car then stalled and i'm doing almost 100 mph with no power brakes or steering. I also didn't have and gears and I freaked out. I did get the car stopped and pulled over. Anyways, it turns out I sheared the timing gear off the crank and completely loosened the crank bolt. I look the front of the car off today and the only think holding the timing gear and damper on was the timing belt, which only had 15k miles on it, and the fans. The big bang was something in the clutch assembly letting go and blew a few holes in the bell-housing. I still have to pull the motor and trans to find out what happened. This explosion cut a hole in one of the coolant lines and dumped fluid everywhere. The explosion also blew the crank position sensor out of the block, part of the bellhousing hit it I think.
After I got the head of the car off i got to see the real damage. Every valve hit the pistons, you can see marks on the pistons from all of them. All exhaust valves are perfectly flat with the head, all belt beyond belief. The two outside intake valves don't look bent but i'm sure they are a little and the middle intake valves look like the exhaust valves, completely flat with the head. I was amazed at how bad it actually was. Next step is to find a motor and get the car back together. I bought another transmission already and that is getting serviced before the reinstall. Hopefully the flywheel survived the explosion and i can just get another RS4 clutch kit. I'll be working on the car this weekend and will hopefully have the motor and trans out and see whats up with the clutch. I'll update when I can.

[a4kamila6]

At least you can say you were hauling ass.

Now back to the drawing board. Aint no shame in making her faster!


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[SN95Audi87]

anti-lag always wrecks havoc on the valve train and timing components. I seen it on alot of different makes...

[Davdraco1]

The more I think about it, I think I went back to second gear from the very top of third. I don't know what the math is but what would 80mph in second gear put the engine rpms at?

[rockbeau25]

The more I think about it, I think I went back to second gear from the very top of third. I don't know what the math is but what would 80mph in second gear put the engine rpms at?

Well above 8000k aka kabloowy RPMs.

You really did a number on this one!

Can't wait to see it back together though!


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[Davdraco1]

Kabloowy RPM's......I've never heard that before. Your right though.

[rockbeau25]

It's a formula 1 reference. I reach redline in 2nd around 55-60mph so I can't even imagine how high your RPMs went if you were going 80mph back into 2nd.


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[griffdra]

Those "tunes" remove any rev limiter. I thought about this happening when I let anyone else drive my car. Interesting to see a worst case scenario.

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[Davdraco1]

I thought they just increase it. If there was one there, what would have happened?

[bmos]

I thought they just increase it. If there was one there, what would have happened?

As I understand it, the same thing.
Overrevving from an improper downshift can still happen.

Rev limiters just cut air and/or fuel above a certain limit to keep you from increasing revs with the throttle.

[Davdraco1]

I remember when the car was stock I did a top speed run and I think it just cuts fuel at that RPM. on a brighter note, I may have found a motor. It's an AWP out of an 04 GLI. It's auto but from what I read any transverse motor will work.

[walky_talky20]

I want to know how you got your 01A to downshift into 2nd above 7k RPMs, lol. Our 2nd gear synchros suck.

[Davdraco1]

I don't know if that's what happened, but that makes the most sense to me on why it revels and exploded and put a few holes in the bellhousing, unless I blew apart the input shaft and the internals are just mush. I do smell gear oil when I'm tearing the motor apart. Hmm.... Now I wonder....

[melomandn]

Dude. Commas, or paragraphs or something! I got a headache reading that haha.

That sucks though, sorry to see. Like Walky said, getting into second at that RPM would have been a hell of a feat. Thats a ton of carnage, were you in the process of no-lift-shifting when the clutch pedal got stuck?

[Davdraco1]

Sorry man. Didn't realize it was that long. Didn't seem that bad when typing. I'll edit. But to answer your question, I was in the no lift shift, which should have held the RPM's at 5k to keep the boost up.

[Davdraco1]

Going to look at the motor today. What should I look for on the motor. Things to check. The motor is out of the car. I know the basics but just wondering is there's anything most people look over.

[Davdraco1]

Update: motor is bought. It's an auto AWP out of an 04 GLI. I should start tearing it spart tomorrow.

[Davdraco1]

So i got the old motor and transmission out of the car. Took longer then i wanted but its done.



The flywheel fell off the motor because i apparently sheered all 6 bolts that were brand new.
I didn't take pics of the pressure plate but the 3 rivets that hold it all together blew apart so once i unbolted it from the flywheel I could pic each piece of the pressure plate up individually. I guess im going to learn how they work now that i can see inside it. I just ordered some parts from JHM and put them on the new trans:


Next is a huge order from ECS and the car should be back on the road soon.

[nemick]

Where did you obtain the flywheel bolts that sheared?

[ricekikr]

Those flywheel bolts could've loosened just a tiny bit then even ARP will shear. Right after the fw goes every other bolt on the engine loosens mysteriously. Usually crank gear first (sometimes even the crank timing gear inside engine).

Flywheel bolt loosens due to rpm/balance above 8k or just improper torque/bolts. Read on torqueing fw bolts way above spec to remedy this from happening.

[Davdraco1]

The flywheel bolts were bought from my local euro parts store. and now that you mention about the crank bolt loosening, the timing gear and dampener did fall off the engine when i removed the front end. the crank bolt isn't stripped or anything. And i torqued them to spec with thread locker. Obviously that worked, bolt end are still in the crank. So is they loosened up at all it couldn't have been much.

[ricekikr]

and now that you mention about the crank bolt loosening, the timing gear and dampener did fall off the engine when i removed the front end. the crank bolt isn't stripped or anything.

Might want to check the other bolts as well. Basically all bolts on the engine. There was one 1.8t that lost its internal crank gear (the one that's used by the crank sensor timing) when it lost its fw.

Crank gear bolt loosening had little to do with torque (unless it was grossly mis-torqued). It loosened due to vibration caused by the fw letting go.

Fw and crank can be reused but you'd need to have the mating surface resurfaced. Also make sure the flywheel and flywheel washer (if it has one) bolt holes aren't catching on the bolts.

Arp fw bolts and torqued high would prevent loosening at high rpm. No specific torque but people have been torquing them from 85-120ftlbs.

[redline380]

Did you loctite the bolts? I always do on those, even though they come with the green shit on them

[Davdraco1]

Yes, I used locktite on the bolts. And the crank position sensor was either blown out of the case by God knows what or when the bellhousing on the trans exploded shard blew it out. But if you look at the sensor it looks like the end of it was hit by something.

[redline380]

And the crank position sensor was either blown out of the case by God knows what or when the bellhousing on the trans exploded shard blew it out. But if you look at the sensor it looks like the end of it was hit by something.

Looks like the cause was already mentioned.

Usually crank gear first (sometimes even the crank timing gear inside engine).

[Davdraco1]

I guess I'll find out when I drop the pan and look.

[andyrew]

Wow,

I am super happy I had my machine shop balance my rotating assembly now... What do you guys torque your flywheel bolts to?

[Davdraco1]

My flywheel got chipped on the edges in a few spots so I'm going to bring it to a machine shops and have them balance it just to make sure and to have them check it for other cracks

[andyrew]

If your doing a whole rebuild have them balance the rotating assembly, not just the flywheel. My machine shop only charged me 165 for that and its well worth the piece of mind especially when reving high.

[Davdraco1]

I bought another motor and am just going to freshen it up. I would have to tear apart the bottom end to get it balanced right?

[nemick]

Honestly, if you're planning on continuing your drag racing activities, you might want to consider going a bit deeper into the new engine to make sure it's up to snuff and able to handle it.

[Davdraco1]

No more drag racing for this one. I think I've realized that that's not in the best interest of my wallet....for now. I think this one is going to get all chassis upgrades and be a drivers car. I ordered all the parts needed to finish this rebuild up. I got an S4 clutch kit to go on the RA4 flywheel. It was cheaper then the RS4 clutch kit by about 75$ and I figured I wasn't going to be launching the car anymore, no need for the extra holding capacity.

[nemick]

Great plan. These cars truly shine on the twists and turns.

[Davdraco1]

I already have street density motor and trans mounts. Next couple on the list are rear diff mounts. I have the carrier mounts, just have to install them. After that it's a DTS with poly mount. I haven't decided what suspension set up I want. Wether it be a coilovers or a spring/shock combo. Brakes with be S4 tears with the A8/TT front set up. Idk after that. Maybe wheels and a good set of rubber to compliment everything.

[tHatOne guY]

Outstanding!! Good job. Good work on this on lol lol.

I have seen good and bad with regards to anti lag. Mostly damage to turbo exhaust housings and the manifolds more than anything else.

[Davdraco1]

the car is getting a frankenturbo exhaust manifold, not that that will matter. and it will have anti lag again, i wont be using it to launch tho, just to make some noise.

[Davdraco1]

So a little update. I have all the accessories from the old motor on the new one. I swapped the oil pans and found that the crank trigger wheel on the old motor sheared the bolts holding it on and then spun around the crank. Thank must be what blew the crank position sensor out of the block. The only thing left to do on the new motor is install the frankenturbo manifold and the turbo its left. Then plum up all the vacuum lines and a few other things. I'm doing a fluid change on the new trans and the install the clutch kit/flywheel to the new motor. Then the motor and trans are going back in the car.