IanH's 955hp V10 Audi RS6 - Another Car Diary!
Discussion
James 33 said:
Sorry to hear this. Any updates yet? Any chance it could be something simple?
Nope, turns out no-one in the whole world* has a 16mm spark plug socket for sale in an actual shop that you can just walk in and buy. There's billions* online to buy with a 2-3 day wait for the postie but all 7 shops I went in today/yesterday sell 15 & 17mm but not 16mm! So I've bought a pair from eBay for a couple of quid (Laser and Sealey).However I did manage to pick up a flexible "magnet/grabber on a stick" from tool station, to get the dropped spring out of the turbo compressor housing.
*no exaggeration!
Justin S said:
Fingers crossed its just a failed coilpack ...........
Sadly that doesn't explain the burnt oil pouring out. It could be a valve stem oil seal (oil coating the plug stopping it firing) , failed plug damaged the bore, a blown piston, all of the above or more. Until I get the plug out I won't know how much lube I'll need before Audi/Bank Manager want a chat! 
cossy400 said:
But have you got the spring out with the magnet?
Tomorrows job! It should be fairly simple once I smash the crap out of the engine with a fire axe whilst foaming at the mouth and speaking in tongues after the simple job becomes nothing simple at all Spring removed for the Compressor Housing which was a suspiciously easy job
Next up is the plug removal which should be Friday depending on the Royal Fail delivering my socket in time
so hopefully the next update will be filled with pics of a pristine bore, clean spark plug and just a simple oil leak from the valve seal (pretty pretty please!)
Next up is the plug removal which should be Friday depending on the Royal Fail delivering my socket in time
so hopefully the next update will be filled with pics of a pristine bore, clean spark plug and just a simple oil leak from the valve seal (pretty pretty please!)So got the spring out yesterday
and got my 16mm spark plug socket today and whipped the plug out.It looks OK with no damage, it's just coated in oil stopping it firing -
And the boroscope, despite being producing an absolutely awful pic, doesn't show any obvious signs of damage, just more oil burning, so the oil doesn't look to be coming past the rings so it must be coming coming down through the heads which makes me think Valve Stem Oil Seal but the boroscope pics aren't clear enough to be absolutely sure -
and got my 16mm spark plug socket today and whipped the plug out.It looks OK with no damage, it's just coated in oil stopping it firing -
And the boroscope, despite being producing an absolutely awful pic, doesn't show any obvious signs of damage, just more oil burning, so the oil doesn't look to be coming past the rings so it must be coming coming down through the heads which makes me think Valve Stem Oil Seal but the boroscope pics aren't clear enough to be absolutely sure -
larrylamb11 said:
That's a heck of a lot of oil on the plug, would be a huge amount to be getting past a valve stem oil seal, down the valve guide and into the cylinder. One would have expected more gradual oil consumption if wear related, which you probably would have noticed as it would have blue smoked from the exhaust more and more.
To suddenly lose one cylinder suggests some sort of catastrophic failure.
As already suggested above, a check of the crankcase breather is a good first step. Was there any oil in the inlet manifold at all? That boroscope picture is hard to tell, but is that a slight scoop out of the edge of the crown at the bottom of pictures 1 and 3? Seems a compression check is a logical next step.
Intake - No oil in the intake pipes, 1-2 drops in the turbo intake, Oil separator could do with being taken off and checking as there is a little oil in the pipes from it but need a thinner torq bit holder (mine are 3/8, needs 1/4) to do it due to a lack of space.To suddenly lose one cylinder suggests some sort of catastrophic failure.
As already suggested above, a check of the crankcase breather is a good first step. Was there any oil in the inlet manifold at all? That boroscope picture is hard to tell, but is that a slight scoop out of the edge of the crown at the bottom of pictures 1 and 3? Seems a compression check is a logical next step.
Bore Pics - These are taken at 90' steps around the cylinder so the "missing bit" in pic 1 and 3 is actually two bits "missing" from two different places 180' apart.
The reason for losing a cylinder was the oil on the plug. I just need to find out how the oil is getting there. It looks pretty burnt on so I'm wondering how long the oil has been there as the car has always used oil (1L per 1500 miles). Next step would be taking another few plugs out to check their condition and bore inspection followed by a compression test (if I had one handy which I don't) so instead I'm going to clean up the plug, refit it and start the engine then recheck the plug for fresh oil.
Burwood said:
Would you mind explaining what that means to this engine. I assume it's just a new piston and bits not a completely destroyed engine? What is the worst case here.
It means a destroyed engine block on the V10 RS6 as you can't hone or bore out the cylinder due to the liner fitted, so any cylinder damage means a new block if it's lost compression. I've got a spare block lined up just incase 
So I took the plugs out of the other 3 easily accessible cylinders and checked both the plugs and the bores.
The plugs all looked fine (all the same as this)
I did a quick boroscope of the 3 cylinders and found a "little" amount of shallow scoring on all but nowhere near as much as on the No 1 Cylinder and I also found that all the pistons had that same "missing" section in the piston crown so thats the design of the piston and not an issue in the No1. Here's a few random pics of the other cylinders showing the same "missing bit in the No2 an No4 and showing some of the bore marks and the No 2-3-4 cylinders.
So I cleaned up fouled plug, rebuilt the engine putting the No1 cylinder plug/coilpack into cylinder 3 to see if they were fine and put the working No3 plug/coil into cylinder 1. Started the engine and there is still a misfire on Cylinder 1 (No3 runs fine so plug/coil OK) and, now I've got bore pics from 4 cylinders to compare, it's pretty obvious that the No1 has 1 if not 2 deep scores about 180' apart so I'm fairly sure it's lost compression
It gets taken up to Unit20 next week so I'll let Grizz take it apart and see how bad the damage is, cry a little and then prepare my anus for the bank manager/Audi!
The plugs all looked fine (all the same as this)
I did a quick boroscope of the 3 cylinders and found a "little" amount of shallow scoring on all but nowhere near as much as on the No 1 Cylinder and I also found that all the pistons had that same "missing" section in the piston crown so thats the design of the piston and not an issue in the No1. Here's a few random pics of the other cylinders showing the same "missing bit in the No2 an No4 and showing some of the bore marks and the No 2-3-4 cylinders.
So I cleaned up fouled plug, rebuilt the engine putting the No1 cylinder plug/coilpack into cylinder 3 to see if they were fine and put the working No3 plug/coil into cylinder 1. Started the engine and there is still a misfire on Cylinder 1 (No3 runs fine so plug/coil OK) and, now I've got bore pics from 4 cylinders to compare, it's pretty obvious that the No1 has 1 if not 2 deep scores about 180' apart so I'm fairly sure it's lost compression
It gets taken up to Unit20 next week so I'll let Grizz take it apart and see how bad the damage is, cry a little and then prepare my anus for the bank manager/Audi!
Edited by IanH755 on Saturday 31st December 15:04
foxsasha said:
Any chance of rough pricing up the stage by stage power steps? Just the engine work, not chassis etc. Thanks.
580hp to 650hp - Stage 1 (ECU map and Air Filter only) - £1000 minimum depending any "extras" you want to add.- skips off looking for C6 RS6 Avants*
580hp to 740hp - Stage 2 (ECU/TCU map, Air Filter & main CAT bypass) - £2000 minimum depending any "extras" you want to add.
740hp to 900+hp - Stage 3 - £16k minimum. There's a full breakdown of the costs earlier in this thread, mine was £18k+ IIRC but they go upto £30k depending, again, on any extras added.
Stage 2 is the sweet-spot for these, 0-200mph in 36 seconds, very reliable and still feels like a "normal" car until you floor it and everyone else goes backwards very quickly
Just a quick update after dropping the car off at Unit20 last night and having a good old chat with Grizz.
They're going to strip, investigate and rebuild the engine in slow time over the next few months and, depending on the engine cost, I'll get some additional maintenance bits done. I'll post the cause of the failure as soon as I find out but until then thread will probably be pretty quiet.
PS Hi to Steve H! Once it's all fixed I'll be back visiting Belf if you're interested in a passenger ride!
J4CKO - I'll be popping down to MRC for a map check once the new engine is built and I may get the torque increased to its proper level (originally mapped a bit lower than it should be) but it'll probably be the same power as before.
gooly - I would have hoped MRC would have done it as part of a health check before starting the build, just to make sure the engine was safe before starting work, but I didn't ask them specifically to do it.
They're going to strip, investigate and rebuild the engine in slow time over the next few months and, depending on the engine cost, I'll get some additional maintenance bits done. I'll post the cause of the failure as soon as I find out but until then thread will probably be pretty quiet.
PS Hi to Steve H! Once it's all fixed I'll be back visiting Belf if you're interested in a passenger ride!
J4CKO - I'll be popping down to MRC for a map check once the new engine is built and I may get the torque increased to its proper level (originally mapped a bit lower than it should be) but it'll probably be the same power as before.
gooly - I would have hoped MRC would have done it as part of a health check before starting the build, just to make sure the engine was safe before starting work, but I didn't ask them specifically to do it.
Edited by IanH755 on Saturday 7th January 15:24
Sorry about the lack of replying folks but I didn't want to say anything until work had actually started. Unit20 started work on this a few weeks ago (I think there's a pic of the engine out on their FB page) but my initial plan obviously didn't go how I'd thought so it's taken much longer than I'd hoped to get started.
My main concern now is that I'll shortly be leaving the UK for a few years to work abroad and I'm not sure if the car will be ready before I leave, which adds an interesting element to my thought process
Anyway, my initial plan was just a rebuild of the engine to get it running again but, as time went on and my finances improved, I decided that it'd be a shame to have a "new" engine and 10k GB yet have everything else be 105k+ miles old, so I've decided to replace all the DRC suspension and pipework, replace some of the ancillary engine parts, check the injectors & sort a few minor niggles out etc so when I do get it back it should feel like new and I'm hoping to get the full torque map added by MRC rather than the limited torque one I've currently got (as discussed in the build section of this thread) so it should be 1200-1250nm (900-920ft/lbs) rather than the current 1130nm (830ft/lbs).
I'll be popping up to visit the car on Friday so I'll ask Unit20 if I can get a few snaps of the work done so far but after that I'll not see the car again until I collect it, hopefully before Christmas but if not then sometime next year when I get pop back to the UK on holiday.
As such I'll very probably stop looking at this thread again after Friday until I finally collect the car.
My main concern now is that I'll shortly be leaving the UK for a few years to work abroad and I'm not sure if the car will be ready before I leave, which adds an interesting element to my thought process
Anyway, my initial plan was just a rebuild of the engine to get it running again but, as time went on and my finances improved, I decided that it'd be a shame to have a "new" engine and 10k GB yet have everything else be 105k+ miles old, so I've decided to replace all the DRC suspension and pipework, replace some of the ancillary engine parts, check the injectors & sort a few minor niggles out etc so when I do get it back it should feel like new and I'm hoping to get the full torque map added by MRC rather than the limited torque one I've currently got (as discussed in the build section of this thread) so it should be 1200-1250nm (900-920ft/lbs) rather than the current 1130nm (830ft/lbs).
I'll be popping up to visit the car on Friday so I'll ask Unit20 if I can get a few snaps of the work done so far but after that I'll not see the car again until I collect it, hopefully before Christmas but if not then sometime next year when I get pop back to the UK on holiday.
As such I'll very probably stop looking at this thread again after Friday until I finally collect the car.
Edited by IanH755 on Wednesday 22 November 00:46
IanH755 said:
My main concern now is that I'll shortly be leaving the UK for a few years to work abroad and I'm not sure if the car will be ready before I leave, which adds an interesting element to my thought process
Well I didn't manage to get it back before I left the UK so the next time I'll see it will be in 3-6 months when I'm next back in the UK. I stopped in to Unit20 a few days before I left and the engine block swap was taking place with only a few weeks work left but, as the engine was out, I could actually get hands on with the No1 cylinder and there was a single score down the bore which was around 1mm deep! I'll update the thread again once I get back and pick it up.
IT'S BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Picked it up earlier today and, after a few nervous moments trying to remember how my car actually worked (it's been 19 Months since I last drove it) and making sure it was all taxed, had AA cover etc I finally took it out for a quick 50 mile spin. However with the Methanol/Water mix being 19 months old and having none at Unit20 I took it easy until I could get back home and replace the old meth mix with new but even at 1/2 throttle it's still surprisingly quick.
So next up is a trip back to Unit20 for a "post 500 mile" check next week just to make sure everything is spot on after such a massive rebuild, plus it'll be back at Unit20 in the Autumn (while I'm back in Saudi) to finish off the suspension refresh as the metal DRC pipework is corroded to buggery and needs replacing yet there's none available at the moment. Currently the struts are still unchanged until the pipes are ready.
I've also booked a trip to MRC next week for a map tweak for more torque but I'll ask them to look at the top end as there was evidence of the cylinders running just too hot even with Water injection etc after 10k miles of 900+hp so I'll get the top end dropped a little (around 870-880ish) just to be safe.
Edited by IanH755 on Wednesday 11th July 16:30
RelentlessForwardProgress said:
IanH755 said:
At some point I also need to book a trip to MRC for a map tweak for more torque
I'm glad you are thinking about this, it must be really needed. I can live in hope of someday getting used to tidal waves of torque and needing more!Well to be fair it's more a "post rebuild with new rings making a better vacuum, cooler plugs, a check of the water injection system, pull back the top end a little and just generally have a look at the health" tweak but more torque is always nice!
Originally mine was already mapped with much lower torque than the other 900hp RS6's around as another owner had just popped their gearbox as mine was being mapped and I wasn't sure if the full 1200nm+ of torque was the issue. However since the mapping we've found out the cause of the failed GB (driver related) so mine was always going to get the correct torque mapped back in at some point.
xjay1337 said:
Pics?
It's kind of just sat there outside my sisters terrace house for now so kind of pointless but I'll get a few nice ones at some point over the next 10 days, although I've no longer got a DSLR which is a shame.Edited by IanH755 on Wednesday 11th July 16:32
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff