While waiting for other bits'n'bobs I got to disassembling the front of the motor in prep for a full timing belt change - cleaned her up a bit too...
And, also the valve covers in prep for changing all gaskets and seals - and also the tensioner pads.
Look what I found though...
Notice anything? Yeah, the 'L' and 'R' painted references (AFIK it is not factory procedure to label them in this fashion). And clean! There is barely any varnishing on the hardware (I recently had the valve covers off the Allroad with similar mileage (100k-ish) and the difference between that and this is night-vs-day). These heads have been either reconditioned or replaced entirely - and I'd guess, sometime in the last 20-25k miles.
The valve covers are original though...
The valve covers show the varnishing you'd expect from a car with 100-ish thousand miles under its belt - and that's after a degreasing and washing down.
I wonder what happened?
The previous owner kept a very good record of maintenance - although he was the second owner and acquired the car at around 85k miles. Records from the previous owner clearly have a few gaps because there is nothing to suggest this level of work (and expense). But it does explain the utterly ruined manifold bolts.
I don't think I'll be changing the tensioner pads. The tensioners look like they were replaced at the same time - and the pads still look new. That makes things easier. I will still do the half moons, caps and cam seals since I'm in here though.
It kinda suggests a snapped belt (or broken belt roller) that, in turn, led to catastrophic valve damage - necessitating head replacement. That can't have a been a cheap repair.
Couple of questions to the grouo:
I noticed no sign of RTV sealant on the gasket or head surface. On the 2.7T's it is considered a good procedure to use RTV sealant at the lower corners of the cover and in the valleys between the tensioner actuator and the end-cam-cap. Is this not the case for the RS6 4.2? (there was no sign of leaking anywhere - not at the half moons, the cam seals, the tensioner gasket, or the valve cover gasket).
Also, what are the correct bolts for the crank pulley? (mine had a mix of 6mm m8 hex that were all stripped and triple square m8's of different lengths) (it took me over an hour to get the hex bolts out - all stripped and no room for EZ outs. bah.
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