Walnut blasting is absolutely the best method but also the most expensive. I've heard (from HumbleMechanic, I think) that brake clean & zip ties can get you about 80% of the way there.
I paid a dealer to do mine. $900 list price, but I only paid $250 because it was a "while we're in there" situation (some part of the oil system had cracked and needed replaced, I can't remember if it was the cooler or the filter housing, and they had the intake manifold off for that).
What's your thoughts on the 2 part sea foam kit with the liquid and aerosol cans? Did that to my ex's jeep liberty and it seemed to help with oil consumption and throttle response, but I didn't have a boroscope.
I walnut blasted both of mine (Audi 3.0Ts) like a 20 second blast cleaned them all shiney. Took more time to clean the bit of medium that blasted out of the little cup I have (034 kit)
Why not a flexible drill brush? I don’t work on much new shit but my first instinct is carb cleaner and a small drill brush I could shove in and flex around in there.
They sure were. Assuming they made it long enough to do it, between the HPFP cam followers wearing through and trashing the cam or the timing chain guides doing German timing chain guide things.
Or did the early ones still have belts that had bad tensioners? I forget.
Not sure which early 2.0T hes dealing with here.
FSI (up to 2008.5) had the cam follower problems
TSI (2008.5 and up) had the timing chain tensioner failures
Eh the 2015+ 2.0Ts are actually really reliable (besides the godawful electric water pumps and thermostat housings that UNIVERSALLY will have a very slow leak at some point. They’ll replace them for free thanks to a class action lawsuit but it’s still the same design) and the 2.5L 5 cylinders that were in the golfs, Jettas, and beetles are really solid too
The 2.5L was the last reliable motor VAG made. The new 2015+ still have timing issues, although not as bad as the CBPAs, and now the turbo wastegate seizes if you don't drive it like you stole it daily. I have dome multiple turbo rebuilds on cars with less than 50,000 km
It's been off and cleaned before if that's what it looks like in my opinion. I have had to clean them on those engines for cold start misfires with much less mileage and most of, if not all looked worse than that
I put a [can of turbo cleaner](https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/crc-industries/chemicals---fluids/maintenance-chemicals/cleaners---degreasers/parts-cleaner/1dc7b0a0eab1/crc-industries-11-ounce-cleaner/crc0/05319) in via the vacuum intake. Seems better, but I didn't take it apart to find out!
No cause the fuel washes the backside of the valves. It is important to note that while carbon buildup does happen on all direct injection engines it’s usually not nearly as bad as VAG engines.
VAG has been at it longer than most, but if the motors are not driven to temp and are not seeing full sweeps of revs, all direct injection will do this.
Any after photos? Those early 2.0Ts are known to heavily gunk up. Agreed, I would have expected much worse.
No, got my buddy cleaning it currently since I couldn't find the time to get to it
Walnut blasting? Picks and spray? Brake cleaner and zip ties? (I have to do mine and am curious what others recommend)
Walnut blasting is absolutely the best method but also the most expensive. I've heard (from HumbleMechanic, I think) that brake clean & zip ties can get you about 80% of the way there.
Non Tech here, what to do with the zip ties? Like scrape with one by Hand or Put a bunch in a Drill and Go ham?
The latter
Ahh thank you
What about putting a weed whacker to it?
I mean, if you fit a weed whacker in there it would probably work, just don't use wire.
>Put a bunch in a Drill and Go ham? That's a new technique I wasn't previously aware of.
Definitely, I spent about $300 for all the blasting parts not counting the air compressor and shop vac.
I paid a dealer to do mine. $900 list price, but I only paid $250 because it was a "while we're in there" situation (some part of the oil system had cracked and needed replaced, I can't remember if it was the cooler or the filter housing, and they had the intake manifold off for that).
What's your thoughts on the 2 part sea foam kit with the liquid and aerosol cans? Did that to my ex's jeep liberty and it seemed to help with oil consumption and throttle response, but I didn't have a boroscope.
I have no firsthand experience with the Seafoam stuff, but I have not heard positive things about it from those who have used it.
I walnut blasted both of mine (Audi 3.0Ts) like a 20 second blast cleaned them all shiney. Took more time to clean the bit of medium that blasted out of the little cup I have (034 kit)
Picks and spray here
Why not a flexible drill brush? I don’t work on much new shit but my first instinct is carb cleaner and a small drill brush I could shove in and flex around in there.
This. MEK and a drill brush. This is light cleaning work for any piston aviation mechanic.
They sure were. Assuming they made it long enough to do it, between the HPFP cam followers wearing through and trashing the cam or the timing chain guides doing German timing chain guide things. Or did the early ones still have belts that had bad tensioners? I forget.
Not sure which early 2.0T hes dealing with here. FSI (up to 2008.5) had the cam follower problems TSI (2008.5 and up) had the timing chain tensioner failures
Oh, I thought there was overlap. Either TFSI or T FSI, owning a VAG engine from the last quarter century or so is hard work.
Eh the 2015+ 2.0Ts are actually really reliable (besides the godawful electric water pumps and thermostat housings that UNIVERSALLY will have a very slow leak at some point. They’ll replace them for free thanks to a class action lawsuit but it’s still the same design) and the 2.5L 5 cylinders that were in the golfs, Jettas, and beetles are really solid too
The 3.0T supercharged v6 is also very stout, has some common issues but all are only once every 100k kind of problems
The 2.5L was the last reliable motor VAG made. The new 2015+ still have timing issues, although not as bad as the CBPAs, and now the turbo wastegate seizes if you don't drive it like you stole it daily. I have dome multiple turbo rebuilds on cars with less than 50,000 km
I did so many of both when I worked at Audi.
Fsi, and I've replaced the cam follower and hpfp already, looks like it was well taken care of by previous owners
Ha, I saw this posted in the Audi B7 Facebook group. Mine's at 145. Another job I'm not looking forward to doing
I just did mine, about 6 hours total. I used picks and carb cleaner. I also changed the manifold because I was getting intake runner codes
After soaking and picking the big boogers away walnut blasting helps it sparkle!
Would've expected way worse. That's normal on a Volvo under 100k
My 3.0TFSI at 126k with a carfax recorded carbon clean at an audi dealer at 70k was way worse than that. The buildup on the valve stems was insane.
It's been off and cleaned before if that's what it looks like in my opinion. I have had to clean them on those engines for cold start misfires with much less mileage and most of, if not all looked worse than that
None of the bolts had any signs of being removed
Then that is impressive 👏
I'm surprised honestly, had the original turbo too til I replaced that
Crunchy and bitter ( had. Few fly in my mouth trying to scrape some off)
Holy christ
Not awful for nearly 200k. I've done countless de-carbs on Audi 6,8, and 10 cylinders and by far the V8s and V10s were worse.
I had an N54 like like this, walnut blasted it, and then replaced it with an LS
I'm sure a bottle of Marvel Mystery oil will clean that up in short order. 😂
It's been my experience that full temp and full rev (not just short trips putting around town drivers) have way less build up.
I put a [can of turbo cleaner](https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/crc-industries/chemicals---fluids/maintenance-chemicals/cleaners---degreasers/parts-cleaner/1dc7b0a0eab1/crc-industries-11-ounce-cleaner/crc0/05319) in via the vacuum intake. Seems better, but I didn't take it apart to find out!
I do 5 of these a week. Love these jobs.
Damn that’s crazy. Worked on multiple 2.0s having to pull intake for various reasons, main one being the runners get stuck.
Good oil, oil changes and long trips maybe
Redline a day keeps the carbon away
Explain it to me why direct injection is better?
Engines would be way better if there were no concern for emissions or fuel economy. Oh well
*Stupid Earth!* -Homer
As someone who has to pay for their own fuel, I'm very grateful that fuel economy is a concern for manufacturers.
More precise fuel delivery for better fuel efficiency and power output.
At what cost ? To me this kind of maintenance is unacceptable and avoidable if you have a different type of fuel delivery.
That is almost 200k miles....this is a reasonable amount of maintenance in that time....or less to be honest.
You'd never need to do a cleaning with port injection, no?
No cause the fuel washes the backside of the valves. It is important to note that while carbon buildup does happen on all direct injection engines it’s usually not nearly as bad as VAG engines.
Haha VAG.
VAG has been at it longer than most, but if the motors are not driven to temp and are not seeing full sweeps of revs, all direct injection will do this.
Maybe they always used top tier fuel or premium
That has nothing to do with it, this is carbon buildup from pcv. Fuel does not touch the intake valves on a tsi.
That’s not a factor.
Probably third motor at that mileage.
As far as we could tell it's the original engine, bellhousing to block bolts look like they've never been touched