Huskerbob

Thanks dub, I'm soaking that crank bolt with rust blaster now. I have a 24" breaker bar that I will apply in the morning. Hopefully I can get it loose. So far my leaking thermostat has set me back about a grand! HAH but I love my A6 Avant.

ezveedub

I know the bolt is tight, but they're not that tight, even with rust. The bolt is sealed pretty well on the outside, so the outside rust is superficial. The threading inside should be clean and not corroded at all, so you should have no issues unscrewing it. I'll have to look up the tightening torque for the bolt later. It's tightened to a certain torque, then another 180 turn added on top, but that's with a new bolt.

Huskerbob

Thanks again ez. My issue will be with Blau and the failed tensioner. I put it in about 1500 miles ago along with a new t-stat, water pump etc. etc. All new rotating parts on the front of the motor. No problems until a week ago and them bam! it stopped. Tensioner failed and rotating parts chowed. Ain't life grand!

Huskerbob

got the bolt out. Man that was tough. Thank you rust blaster.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

There are six or so bolts on the crank pulley to remove the crank pulley? Center bolt pulls the whole shebang.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

Blau may give you another tensioner but it's still a poor one compared to OEM as you've apparently found out. This is one reason to have the TB job done at an independent or dealer because there is a warranty on the work as well as the parts.

ezveedub

The NTN Japanese tensioner is OEM and that's what he has.

Huskerbob

I wondered about that. Anyway, got everything all ready for new parts. Still need the little tensioner lever gizzo that got sawed in half by the flopping belt and I still need the new crank pulley. Once I get those I will be able to put it all back together and see how much damage I did.

I have both valve covers off and did all the cam seals as long as I was in there. The position of the left side cams was perfect, arrows lining up with cam notches while the cam tool was on the front of both cams. The right side cams seem to be the same except that I can and did turn the intake cam a bit counter clockwise to align the arrow with the notch. Maybe one tooth total. At the same time the tensioner lifts to it's full height so I think I'm good there as well.

At first the cams were off by about 5 degrees so that my previous marks on the cam tabs were at the eleven o'clock position. I got them square and then pinned the crank. I think that puts me in a good position. I'll know for sure once I get it all back together and fire it up. Thanks for all the help ez.

Huskerbob

plus I have 16 rollers between the marks on the rigt side so that's good as well.

Huskerbob

Okay, got the new crank pulley installed. 200 nm or 180 lb. ft. plus another 180 degrees. Get a long cheater bar! Installed the new tensioner and pulley and the new timing belt. Got everything set cam and crank wise and then rotated the engine at least 5 full revolutions by hand and no clicking or interference that I can fell or hear. I think I'm gold but will know more later when I do the compression test.