Quote Originally Posted by Charles.waite View Post
You don’t have to remove the crank to do pistons, at least not on older 1.8t/2.0t engines. You remove the head, drop the pan, then unbolt the rod caps and pull the piston and rod out the top. I’m re-ringing my pistons and that’s what I plan on doing. I have a spare engine on a stand so I’ll have it out to rebuild it then just swap with my existing engine when it’s ready to go.
This doesn't apply to the CDN/CDNC EA888 motors like what I have. There's an upper oil pan in the way and the only way to remove it is to pull the engine and transmission apart to get the two lower bolts off the rear main seal plate. The point is I want to minimize work and avoid pulling the head. It's a low-mileage engine. I'm sure the procedure is outlined in Bentley, but we don't have them here. We just have elementary books similar to Chiltons. The DIY culture here is very limited.

This is a well-known procedure, Audi has already confirmed the engine needs to be pulled and there are actually timelapse videos of such on Youtube, but no close-up specifics. If I pull the transmission, sure, it can be done in-car, but it's considered something that adds quite a bit of labor, plus it's much easier to seal the oil pan when the engine is out and change the timing set and the cam bridge, which I was planning on doing this weekend anyhow.