Under Valve Cover Pics - 2003 Audi A6 2.7t

[mcrn]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
The question is: does the engine perform as it should? If the answer is yes, then who cares about a little bit of varnish. Yes, we know, you do.


Like I said, I'm the odd man out; but if I didn't speak up and say something, the OP would've gone on thinking his engine looks perfectly fine. I don't believe varnish is healthy for an engine; it impedes the flow of oil. With that said, I should lay part of the blame on the dealership for telling the OP that 10K oil changes are fine when it's obvious they're not.



Hopefully the OP still thinks it looks good.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: mcrn
Hopefully the OP still thinks it looks good.


And if he does, that's on him. I got the word out; that's all I can do.

 

[CarbonSteel]

Use a can of Berryman B-12 Chemtool on the underside of the valve cover and it will be as clean as new.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: mcrn
Hopefully the OP still thinks it looks good.


And if he does, that's on him. I got the word out; that's all I can do.


Yes we all know that... in EVERY thred where there is even a hint of varnish. Fortunately your word has no more or less weight here than anyone else', so ultimately it is up to OP to form his/her own opinion.

But your "crusade" against varnish brings up one good point; you're persistent

.

 

[virginoil]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: wemay
Looks fantastic. Congrats!


That makes me the odd man out. No offense to the OP, but I think it looks terrible.


Hey Merk. Surely you are not serious ?

You are playing a game with the OP. For the mileage and age of the vehicle it looks fine IMO.

Yes I agree with your conclusion you are the odd man out.

OP you can relax in this instance.

 

[afoulk]

Originally Posted By: G-MAN
Originally Posted By: dparm
For 170k I'd say that looks good, especially with a 10k interval for part of its life.


I agree. I wonder how well a 15 minute flush with 16 oz of LC20 would clean that out?


I don't think LC20 works that fast, I think it would take a few ocis with that stuff, if it would even work. LC20 doesn't seem to get the love on here that it used to years ago.

 

[threeputtpar]

Wow, quite a little ruckus I stirred up with these pics.

Merkava, I take no offence to you voicing your opinion. While there was nothing I could have done about the first owner of the car following the dealer's recomended 10k mile OCIs, I don't feel that it did any real harm to the engine. For all of the 2.7t engines that I've seen the inside of through online forums, the light bronze color on all of the non-contact parts of the head is the norm. I've only ever seen one 2.8 engine (essentially the same heads as a 2.7t) that looked more silver than bronze.

I once tried a 100 mile run of MMO at the end of an change interval for grins, and it essentially did nothing. I also tried once to manually clean up the insides of the vavle covers while replacting gaskets but quickly gave up when it wasn't going easy enough. If I had a parts washer available, I would have done a thourough job of cleaning them.

At this point, it's just a commuter car and I've resigned myself to only doing the necessary maintenance and driving it until whenever I feel I need to upgrade. The problem is I love driving this car so much that may be never. I'd at least like to get to 250k miles and as long as it isn't showing any rust I'll keep on keeping on.

Great discussion, let's keep it going.

 

[nolesfan]

As a former 1.8T owner that has replaced VCG before, this actually looks good. I know it's a relative term, but it really doesn't look much worse than my 1.8T did at 90k miles. While my varnish may not have been as dark, for 170k miles, this looks absolutely fine. This is pretty much how all these VW/Audi engines look, especially at this age.

 

[Hootbro]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
...

Like I said, I'm the odd man out...........


In most threads you are, it should tell you something.

It's like you have no filter to gauge anything. Either it is surgically clean in an engine and it is a good oil or any hint of varnish and it is your snarky comments in other threads of "Weld the hood shut and sell it". It shows you have no experience in engines or what a serviceable engine would look like unless it was sparkly clean on the inside.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
That makes me the odd man out. No offense to the OP, but I think it looks terrible.


Once again as usual, you have no idea what you are talking about. This engine is terrible:

 

[threeputtpar]

Oh, that poor VR6!

 

[Jiblet]

Originally Posted By: kschachn
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
That makes me the odd man out. No offense to the OP, but I think it looks terrible.


Once again as usual, you have no idea what you are talking about. This engine is terrible:

What's the horror story behind that disaster?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Jiblet
What's the horror story behind that disaster?

If memory serves me right, the owner kept driving on factory fill for 60k miles.

 

[fdcg27]

Other than the underside of the valve cover, this engine looks really good.
Nice and clean with very light varnish and no sludge.
Apparently, turbo VAGs really are just fine if the correct oil is used on reasonable drain intervals.
This Audi should be getting you to work on time for a number of additional years and miles.