Taddraughn's C5 S6: Progress Thread

[taddraughn]

No they're smooth. I didn't mean I used wrinkle red. Just red valve covers. It's high temp 1500° engine enamel.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

Lol you had me zooming in over here looking for wrinkles.

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[taddraughn]

Painted the valve covers today with wrinkle red paint and actually really hate how they turned out. Would need to just blast them again and start over but I'm not sure if I'm up to it... Might just stick with the magnesium covers for now and get them cerakoted. Pretty bummed but the wrinkle red just didn't turn out the way I wanted; wrinkles way too big (too much paint) and ripples/wrinkles on the vertical surfaces (also too much paint).. :/

But it's not all bad.. spent my afternoon making chili relleno and those turned out fucking awesome

[JMURiz]

DIYs big car projects, cooks, and drinks good bourbon...you win...even if the paint didn’t turn out perfect.

[2.ohhh]

DIYs big car projects, cooks, and drinks good bourbon...you win...even if the paint didn’t turn out perfect.

Don't worry, I'm sure that he has high cholesterol or some other skeleton in the closet!

Seriously though, excellent progress and keep up the good work...you'll love that car once it's back together and on the road! There were many bumps in the road and a few "re-do's" for my RS6 project, but they all pale in comparison now that I can drive it again and it's sooo much more than I remembered and could have even expected!

[AudiAR01]

Don't worry, I'm sure that he has high cholesterol or some other skeleton in the closet!

Seriously though, excellent progress and keep up the good work...you'll love that car once it's back together and on the road! There were many bumps in the road and a few "re-do's" for my RS6 project, but they all pale in comparison now that I can drive it again and it's sooo much more than I remembered and could have even expected!

Lol high cholesterol... That funny.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

[taddraughn]

DIYs big car projects, cooks, and drinks good bourbon...you win...even if the paint didn’t turn out perfect.

I do really love to cook! Sort of gave up on most of the nice bourbon because it's too difficult to find now.

Don't worry, I'm sure that he has high cholesterol or some other skeleton in the closet!

Seriously though, excellent progress and keep up the good work...you'll love that car once it's back together and on the road! There were many bumps in the road and a few "re-do's" for my RS6 project, but they all pale in comparison now that I can drive it again and it's sooo much more than I remembered and could have even expected!

Lol the chili relleno may have caused me some transiently high cholesterol; it is fried after all. Totally worth it though

Always gonna be some re-dos and mess ups, that's just how these things go. Awesome that yours is on the road again!

[taddraughn]

Cams and adjusters back in!



Unfortunately I managed to misplace my cam seals so I'm having to order some (local audi doensn't have any).

[taddraughn]

Missing some hardware and needed to paint the timing covers, so didn't do much on the engine today, but I did manage to get all the rear suspension components assembled with their new bushings. Also went ahead and pressed all the hubs onto their wheel bearings as well.

[taddraughn]

Managed to find my cam seals yesterday so now the engine is timed! (pic below is after 2 crank rotations and putting the TDC pin back in before fitting the lock bar)



Took me two tries to get the timing just right and since I had previously borrowed a forum member's cam puller I had to get a little creative to pop the cams back off to try again








Also did a few other things like paint the front ARB, spot treat some surface rust I found under the car, and make a list of hardware I need to order for the suspension.

[wwb3431]

This is a great build and write up. I just bought my first German car, a 2003 S6 with 284k miles. I plan on doing all the same stuff to mine as you are doing to yours. Are you going with an 01E trans?

[taddraughn]

This is a great build and write up. I just bought my first German car, a 2003 S6 with 284k miles. I plan on doing all the same stuff to mine as you are doing to yours. Are you going with an 01E trans?

Thanks; This is my first German car as well. I decided to go with the 0A3 transmission out of an S4. There was one here in town at a scrap yard out of a 80k mile car so I went with it. I initially was going to crack it open and throw new synchros at it, but I think I'm just gonna run it and see what kind of shape it's in first. If it gives me issues I can always pull just the trans for a rebuild later on.

[wwb3431]

Oh that's awesome. I actually plan on doing an 0A3 in mine as well because i found someone local parting out an S4. I will be keeping up with your thread to get info and inspiration. I will probably eventually start my own thread on here too.

[taddraughn]

Oh that's awesome. I actually plan on doing an 0A3 in mine as well because i found someone local parting out an S4. I will be keeping up with your thread to get info and inspiration. I will probably eventually start my own thread on here too.

Nice! So much easier if you can just get all the linkage, shifter, etc. at the same time. I had to hunt down a lot of the parts individually as my trans didn't come with anything except a slave cylinder. Looking forward to seeing your thread.

[wwb3431]

Nice! So much easier if you can just get all the linkage, shifter, etc. at the same time. I had to hunt down a lot of the parts individually as my trans didn't come with anything except a slave cylinder. Looking forward to seeing your thread.

Ya, I was able to get the linkage and the shifter with the trans. I still need the engine spacer, pedal assembly, clutch setup, and a bunch of other little things. I look forward to seeing your build all complete, it seems to be going great so far.

[2.ohhh]

Managed to find my cam seals yesterday so now the engine is timed! (pic below is after 2 crank rotations and putting the TDC pin back in before fitting the lock bar)



Took me two tries to get the timing just right and since I had previously borrowed a forum member's cam puller I had to get a little creative to pop the cams back off to try again








Also did a few other things like paint the front ARB, spot treat some surface rust I found under the car, and make a list of hardware I need to order for the suspension.

Looking great! And good call to get that timing spot on while it's accessible...most people don't realize that you still need to dial it in after replacing the belt...some say that it's not that important, but I wanted mine just right as well.

[taddraughn]

MIL was in town this weekend so not the most productive weekend on record but I did manage to complete a few things on my list.

Put timing covers on the car along with the snub mount bracket, etc. Still need to clean up the PS pump and get that back on. Waiting on pulley hardware and some other things from FCP euro before the accessory belt can go on. Also planning to get most of the rest of the parts I need on order this week since the engine is almost completely reassembled.



Since I abandoned the D3 valve covers I needed to clean up the magnesium ones. Started by hand and then quickly realized it would take ages, so I went to HF and bought glass bead, a spot blaster, and a big tarp.



It wasn't super fast, but worked very well! After blasting I used PreKote, which is made for the aviation industry as an alternative to chromate conversion process. (http://pantheonchemical.com/prekote-...-pretreatment/) Hopefully this will keep the paint sticking to the magnesium!

After that, 2K in a can epoxy



Then a GM duplicolor I liked from oreillys and clear over the top of that.





Pretty pleased with the result.

Other than that I just accomplished a few small tasks and gave the transmission a little clean. Not tooo concerned about it since no one will ever see it, but thought it deserved a quick scrub.

[Quattro 4 Life]

Since I abandoned the D3 valve covers I needed to clean up the magnesium ones.

For the uninitiated (me) is there something tricky about painting magnesium or is it just the quality of the castings themselves?

[taddraughn]

For the uninitiated (me) is there something tricky about painting magnesium or is it just the quality of the castings themselves?

It could be that im just making this more difficult than it really needs to be. I've never painted magnesium and everything ive read online mentions it being very reactive. I was worried i would prep the surface and paint like normal, but that oxides forming between prepping and painting may cause the coating to fail down the road. The Prekote seemed like a good option for attenpting to mitigate that.

I may have been fine without that step but just wanted to be cautious. Also it works on aluminum and other metals too so maybe itll be useful just to have around.

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[Quattro 4 Life]

It could be that im just making this more difficult than it really needs to be. I've never painted magnesium and everything ive read online mentions it being very reactive. I was worried i would prep the surface and paint like normal, but that oxides forming between prepping and painting may cause the coating to fail down the road. The Prekote seemed like a good option for attenpting to mitigate that.

I may have been fine without that step but just wanted to be cautious. Also it works on aluminum and other metals too so maybe itll be useful just to have around.

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Got it, good to know!

[AudiAR01]

Lookn good man. I dropped my engine block and heads off at the race shop this Monday. So I'm at a standstill other than cleaning the engine bay and deleting stuff not needed till I get the heads and engine back but everything you're doing is turned out super nice man great thread.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

[taddraughn]

Lookn good man. I dropped my engine block and heads off at the race shop this Monday. So I'm at a standstill other than cleaning the engine bay and deleting stuff not needed till I get the heads and engine back but everything you're doing is turned out super nice man great thread.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

Thanks! I just placed a big order with JHM for a lot of the stuff I need to finish this project up. Unfortunately trans mounting brackets are out of stock and I haven't heard yet what the lead time is.

Nice! You letting the machine shop assemble or just having them do the machine work and then reassembling yourself?

[taddraughn]

Question for those who have done a manual swap... Is there an easy way to remove the cable that prevents the key from coming out of the ignition when the car isn't in park? Or is it better just to secure it somewhere and forget about it?

[C5S6]

Question for those who have done a manual swap... Is there an easy way to remove the cable that prevents the key from coming out of the ignition when the car isn't in park? Or is it better just to secure it somewhere and forget about it?

I just left it in there. I think I had some foam or something to keep it from making any noise and tucked it out of the way.

[2.ohhh]

I just left it in there. I think I had some foam or something to keep it from making any noise and tucked it out of the way.

Agreed...just left mine in there and pushed up out of the way under the foam block as well.

Keep up the solid work, looking great so far!

[taddraughn]

I just left it in there. I think I had some foam or something to keep it from making any noise and tucked it out of the way.

Agreed...just left mine in there and pushed up out of the way under the foam block as well.

Keep up the solid work, looking great so far!

Thanks guys. Was thinking to just add some foam and secure it out of the way, but didn't want to be lazy if there was a way to remove it without much effort.

[2.ohhh]

Thanks guys. Was thinking to just add some foam and secure it out of the way, but didn't want to be lazy if there was a way to remove it without much effort.

My shifter assembly that came with my swap kit had a heavy duty foam wedge that fits under the boot/cover and on top of the shifter base (on top of the cover that sits on the pivot assembly). I was doing some test adjusting today with that out, and it's really noisy, so you'll want a pretty heavy duty chunk in there to soak up the road noise. let me know if you want a pic of mine for reference.

[taddraughn]

My shifter assembly that came with my swap kit had a heavy duty foam wedge that fits under the boot/cover and on top of the shifter base (on top of the cover that sits on the pivot assembly). I was doing some test adjusting today with that out, and it's really noisy, so you'll want a pretty heavy duty chunk in there to soak up the road noise. let me know if you want a pic of mine for reference.

Yeah a pic or two would be great. I think i may be missing both the foam and the cover youre talking about

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[2.ohhh]

No problem, here you go! One note, the plate that goes on top of the shifter base had a 1/4" thick piece of foam attached, but it was dry rotted, so I got rid of that (would face towards shifter base, you can see glue residue on one pic).















Let me know if you want me to delete some of these pics off of the post once you see the details...

And as I mentioned, this takes out a LOT of road noise, so you'll want it or something similar in there for sure!

[taddraughn]

Thanks! You can leave the pics up; might be a good reference for someone in the future missing the same parts as I am lol. Now to go dig around on the internet to see if I can find a cover and foam piece...

of course the plate is NLA.... story of this project

[taddraughn]

Made a little progress this weekend but really running out of things to do until some more parts come in. I did manage to get the new rear diff cleaned up and installed in the vehicle and filled with new oil.

Also started to rebuild the b7 shifter and get it into the c5 shift box. Managed to find the shift box cover plate on ebay, but still haven't found the foam that goes on top. ECS had it on their website but they informed me today it is NLA.

[taddraughn]

Still waiting on JHM stuff and a USP metal slave kit, but lots of other parts are rolling in! With hardware and stuff on hand now I made some decent progress this Saturday.

Started by taking all the injectors off the rail, removing the caps, o rings, and filters. The filters can be really hard to get out, so I just welded a #10 machine screw to my welding table and used that to screw the injector filter onto and then just pull the injector away.





After that I gave them a good clean one at a time, assembled the new filters and set up a little cleaning/test rig on the bench.





All seemed to work well, so I threw the orings and caps on and got the rail back on the engine.




After that I reassembled the shifter that I bought (b7) into the b5 shift box with new grease after cleaning everything up. After that I went ahead and slapped some of the rear suspension together to see what I forgot to order.





Turns out I ordered the wrong eccentric bolt for the rear suspension link and forgot to order the bolts that hold the shock onto the unibody. Also ordered replacement nylock nuts but ordered the wrong thread pitch lol...

Anyway, pretty happy with progress for the day. Still waiting on new valve cover bolts to come in, but after that and the JHM package comes in, I should be ready to get the wiring harness back on the engine and get the engine off the stand and back on the hoist so the flywheel and clutch can go on!

[ShelbyM3]

Genius on the injector filter removal. I’m gonna try that!


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[taddraughn]

Genius on the injector filter removal. I’m gonna try that!


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Definitely would reccomend. I don't have the special tool to remove them but welding a #10 to the table was really effective. Some of them took quite a bit of wiggling and pulling to get them to let go.

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[taddraughn]

Woohoo! Parts from JHM have arrived.

[JMURiz]

[taddraughn]

Lol! Haven't seen that GIF in ages

Last night I got around to installing my new clutch master cylinder. Started by installing the return spring and have a question for you guys... Is this thing actually a clutch assist spring?? because it does keep the pedal up until you press it far enough and then it pulls it towards the firewall... Or did I somehow get this thing installed incorrectly?

At this point I'm assuming it's a clutch assist spring and that all will be okay when I get everything hooked up and bled correctly. But it would be good to know now if I got something wrong and need to take it back apart vs later when everything is full of brake fluid.

[2.ohhh]

Lol! Haven't seen that GIF in ages

Last night I got around to installing my new clutch master cylinder. Started by installing the return spring and have a question for you guys... Is this thing actually a clutch assist spring?? because it does keep the pedal up until you press it far enough and then it pulls it towards the firewall... Or did I somehow get this thing installed incorrectly?

At this point I'm assuming it's a clutch assist spring and that all will be okay when I get everything hooked up and bled correctly. But it would be good to know now if I got something wrong and need to take it back apart vs later when everything is full of brake fluid.

You are good...it will stay under spring pressure when up and then snap to the floor with some pressure before you get the master installed, filled, and bled after connecting to the slave/trans.

[taddraughn]

You are good...it will stay under spring pressure when up and then snap to the floor with some pressure before you get the master installed, filled, and bled after connecting to the slave/trans.

Thanks! Just needed a sanity check before proceeding.

[taddraughn]

So hardware and stuff came in so I was finally able to get the valve covers on for good. Pretty much have everything buttoned up on this engine and ready to get it off the stand and back in the car soon I think. Still need to clean the wiring harness and put it back on the engine, but really not much else to do to it at this point while it's still on the stand.

Replacing all the VC bolts wasn't cheap, but it sure does look good...





Also managed to get more of the rear suspension assembled. So now the ARB and CVs are in in addition to the control arms and rear link. Only thing keeping me from having the rear of the car 100% complete is I still have some rust to remove from the rear brake dust shields before I can paint them. I think I'm just going to go buy some muriatic acid and make quick work of them so I can finish up assembling the rear of the car.

Edit: forgot to mention I also took care of several small things that I had been putting off for a while, like using Window Weld to fortify my driveshaft bushing and replacing the connectors that I broke when taking the harness off. Feels really good to have some of the parts shelves clearing out and things actually going back on the car!

[S/RConcepts]

Man, that engine looks perfect! My 4.2's may look that nice at some point when I restore both of them, but for now I'll enjoy looking at yours.

Also, nice thinking on the injector filters, my trick was roughly the same- but I ran the screw through a small 2x4, stood on both ends and yanked... when I did the ones on my S6 I spent the <$10 for the 'tool', which is essentially the same screw inside a plastic twist-style puller.

Awesome job on your S6, I can't wait until you get to drive her once again!