One more thing. The exhaust valves that I could find here in the states were reasonably priced and not the horrendous dealer price. Same for the intake valves from England where I was able to find the best reasonable price!

Get back to me if you need any help. I also have some special tools that actually I have rented out from Blau Parts and at the end I purchased from them as it was taking too long to get the intake valves and would have payed too much on the rent. During the whole process I also have noticed that an important part for a roller broke off the front crank case flange that also holds some of the rollers for the timing belt. So I had to replace the front crank case flange as well with a used one that came from New York if I remember correctly. Dealer price was $500 I paid about $60 for a used part.

Best of luck to you!

Tipomac

But anyways, if I had to do the exact same job I did and without the special tools …etc. I would probably try not to do it, but instead just replace the heads with used but good heads from another 1999 A8 4.2. At the time I leaned towards the job I eventually did with the valve replacement I did it because I could not find a pair of used heads and since the heads were already off the engine block and also out of curiosity I did the job myself. I was able to get the exhaust valves from here in the US but the intake valve came from England with the exact proper sizes. If you read trough my previous posts you can see what are those exact sizes and part number for the valve. The intake valves were the hardest to get, by the way.

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Anyways I still have the car and maybe in the future when I have more time I will look at the engine and see if it is repairable or not. Should I replace the heads or what exactly went wrong with it, but in the meantime I am also selling the car as it is otherwise very nice still. Transmission is perfect as I have heard many of these cars have issues with the over engineered tranny, but mine did not even have any metal dust or small wear and tear metal particles on the special magnets in its oil pan at the time I replaced the tranny oil and filter. I am trying to sell it to somebody who wants to repair it and who will also take good care of it as I do not want it to be parted out or worse destroyed at a junk yard. It is too beautiful of a car still. :-) But eventually and if I will have no time to deal with it later and if nobody would buy it I may have to part it out. :-(

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When I had the fuel rail problem it was a bummer as there was no problem there at all, but after I could not find any problem there I figured that there was maybe not enough gasoline in the gas tank and I was right. Lol :-) Replaced the oil and the coolant as well. The car started beautifully and the engine was running smooth as a butter. I went for a test run and everything was fine. Then something unfortunately went wrong and the engine stopped and it is now seized (locked up). Before that I could smell that something was too hot like something was burning in the engine block. After this whole ordeal I basically gave up and purchased another A8. What I am guessing is that something went wrong with the lubrication? Oil pump issue?

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It was an interesting job but it was a huge effort especially because I did it alone in a small garage. I had to order special tools to measure everything properly. Replaced the timing belt and some rollers that came with the timing belt package.
It was a huge job and I would have needed an extra helping hand or a little hoist or crane for the heads at putting them back on the engine block.
For the whole process if i remember correctly I only gathered the most important info specifically the torque informations for all the crucial nuts and bolts. If you need them I can search for them and email the info to you I just hope I can still find them.

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Oh, I am so sorry that I have just noticed your message today! Yes I did replace almost all the valves and that involved removing the heads, completely disassembling them, washing them, cleaning the remaining usable valves, replacing all the valve seals at the time of putting the valves back into the heads with their corresponding springs. When I took the valves out I did put every valve springs and valve holding bits into separate numbered plastic bags! Taking out the valves was easy, but aligning them and putting them back into the head was tedious and I was sweating and swearing occasionally. hahaha During assembly I greased some parts that needed greasing including the 4 cam shafts at their holding positions, replaced the cam chains as well, the head gaskets for both heads and all the head bolts.

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Hi Tipomac I saw that you had a problem a couple of years ago with an Audi a8. Well, when I went to start my car the other night--first cold super cold night of the winter--it started and immediately died. Mechanic said that the timing belt is still intact but that there is no compression in the cylinders and thinks that the timing belt slipped on the crank because of an oil length at the front.

Can you let me know how much of an ordeal that it was for you to replace valves? Where you got the valves? Part numbers? And did you finally get your car running again. I saw on the thread where you had fuel priming problems afterward.

What guide did you use to help you know how to disassemble the engine.

Thanks much in advance.

Richard Jones, Moscow, ID. 1997 Audi A8 D2 4.2 32V
richardbjones@gmail.com
773-336-2547