A4 3.0 refresh build

[will.bates94]

Some things I recently have been working on for my winter beater 3.0:
Intake manifold cleaning
Intake valve and port cleaning
Repair intake manifold runners
Misfires
Valve cover gaskets
PCV system refresh
Low oil pressure light
Leaky power steering reservoir

Recently pulled off my intake manifold to fix the intake runners and actuator. Decided to go the whole 9 yards and clean it completely out of carbon, oil, etc. Had lots of build up inside it and it seems to be the cause of the intake runner and actuator failure.

After pulling the manifold I pulled out the runner assembly and sank both in 4 gallons of purple power degreaser for a whole 24 hours. It took most of it out but the chemical was shot and saturated. Ran and grabbed a few more gallons of the stuff and repeated the process. This completely pulled everything out, and it looked brand new inside the manifold.

With the injectors out I threw them I to a box and shipped then to cleavland injector hospital to ensure they were within tolerance and spec of each other to eliminate it from my misfire chart. Should have them back soon with the results.

Once that was done I decided to work on the manifold runners and actuator. My actuator had both arms broken and the runner had broken off from the actuator itself and was just free floating in the manifold. Lots of dremel time later and some JB cold weld and a trip to 4 different junk yards it was back to new.

Cleaned up the manifold and prepped it for paint since the purple power stuff really killed it. Used some dark grey metallic and clear and it has really turned out, looks 100% brand new now. I'll post pictures once the clear has cured in the morning.

New manifold gaskets arrived in the mail today and this puppy will be on first thing in the morning. Will continue to update as my parts come back.






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[will.bates94]

So my hope is that my PCV refresh (new hoses and valve) will prevent the carbon buildup in my manifold and ports from happening again. Also hoping that it will prevent my valve cover gaskets from going south so quickly like they did the first time they were done. They lasted about 15k miles after they were done and were leaking again, and they were installed at a dealership (never again).

For the misfires I think it was due to the oil that would leak into the spark plug galleys, but I'm still checking harnesses and ive replaced the bad coil packs and the clean injectors will certainly help. May be replacing the battery as well since its gone dead so many times and it's one more thing to eliminate from my list.

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[A4alaska]

the arms on my manifold actuators are broken as well. Seems most peoples are.

Any idea what causes this? Ide like to fix the problem vs just replace the $500 part and have it break again.

[will.bates94]

the arms on my manifold actuators are broken as well. Seems most peoples are.

Any idea what causes this? Ide like to fix the problem vs just replace the $500 part and have it break again.

Usually caused by buildup in the manifold. The buildup makes the cylinder harder to rotate within the manifold and puts lots of stress on the arms.

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[will.bates94]

Put on my painted timing belt covers today. Manifold is getting a second coat of clear. Gaskets also showed up today for the manifold.


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[19jdog]

Any pics of clean out intake???? I wanna see

[will.bates94]

Any pics of clean out intake???? I wanna see

I'll take some tomorrow of the inside of it.

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[Rigaud]

http://www.gruvenparts.com/billet-au...ake-link-arms/

[will.bates94]

http://www.gruvenparts.com/billet-au...ake-link-arms/

Thanks for the link! Although these would be great peace of mind, I'd rather have an entire billet rotating assembly inside the manifold than the plastic arms. Its unfortunate how weak the OEM piece is.

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