hubturn

'95 Cab, 2.8L. Just had to remove the timing belt to get at the thermostat, even though Bentley's says you don't have to. Many thanks to 12V.org and Catamount for the procedures for my first attempt at this. A couple of things not in the manuals or not obvious that may help others. The serpentine belt tensioner is spring loaded. You have a allen wrench slot in the casting that you put a allen socket in and push down on to align two holes that a phillips screwdriver fits through to hold the tensioner in place. Belt comes off easy now. Nobody mentioned that when you are at TDC and the crank holding tool is in place, the passenger side cam is at the peak of one cam lobe. After taking off the cam holding tool and while breaking free the cam sprocket, the camshaft can easily slip off the lobe and turn, which is scary when it happens, but fixable. Also, the reason WHY you break the sprocket off the cam shaft isn't explained. Here's why. You just about can't get the timing belt on unless the sprockets are free. Very important is that you follow Bentley's instruction and put the belt on the tensioner last. The sprockets have to rotate to prevent slop in the belt between them that would not be able to be adjusted out by the tensioner. Also, you will most likely need 8 new bolts for the vibration damper because whoever was in there before you overtorqued them. I'll get off my soap box now.

Lago Blue

Hi sir.

Thanks for that explanation about the camshafts and sprockets.

I've done the T-stat a couple of times w/o disturbing the T-belt. It wasn't completely easy, but do-able. What was your obstacle?

90/90Qs

Say, do you think that it's possible to do it on a 2.7t as well?
- I did my timing belt 2 years ago and forgot the @$%^ thermostat. These past winters have been coooold! , not to mention the abuse to my poor engine .
I didn't get around to it during the summer because the size of the timing belt job, and the lack of the locking tools.

If it could be done without removing the timing cover that would just make my day! Always read it couldn't be done.

hubturn

The problem for me on replacing the thermostat was that I could not get the cover off the thermostat without moving the timing belt. I believe that now that I know more about the job, I could possibly loosen the timing belt tensioner, creating some slack in the bottom side of the t-belt, and get the cover over and off the t-stat. Not sure about that, but might be possible. Now that I have done the job of removing the T-belt, it's not so scary. Must have the tools though, $100, cheap on ebay. For anybody doing this type of job, get a new o-ring for the block water plug, 8 new allen bolts for the vibration damper, maybe a new o-ring for the crankshaft sensor(mine was OK), maybe new allen bolts for the power steering pump pulley. When using a allen socket, tap it in to the bolt with a hammer, give it a bit ot torque to tighten, then snap it firmly to counter-clockwise to break it free. Otherwise, you'll round them out and then you are really screwed!

Lago Blue

see also:

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...ght=thermostat

Lago Blue

On one occasion I almost ran out of patience trying to wrestle the aluminum casting back on to a new, slightly taller T-stat ("Gates" brand) but it did finally go on again without disturbing the T-belt.

Thanks for the T-belt tips.

Wahobbert

VW 2.8L ATQ V6 30V
I just had this happen, when the camshaft pops from balancing on a cam lobe on the right (passenger) cylinder bank while messing with a sticky bolt on the camshaft sprocket. I had the cam position lock tool moved of because it was in the way. Everywhere I looked, it was stated just to move the oval or diamond shaped washer that key into the camshaft locking tool back and to proceed as normal, which I did. The entire job went without a hitch aside from rust making it a real problem to remove the harmonic balancer and power steering pump pulleys because space is so tight, and hardware trying to strip for the same reason...But I went and timed everything and tensioned everything the way the bentley manual and youtube videos and such said to because they all correlated and said pretty much the same thing.
Now I was going to turn my crank two revs counter clockwise to check the timing before I fired the whole mess up, and got a couple of loud clicks out of the bank that slipped, and it bound up about halfway through. I turned it a tiny bit counterclockwise to maybe get past the bind, and it worked. I kept turning and all the marks ended up spot on along with the camshaft locking tool popping right on.
WHAT THE FK IS WRONG?. I'M AFRAID TO START THE THING.

Wahobbert

I'm new here so I don't know how to edit, and obviously not how to proof read either, but I meant I was turning my crank clockwise, not counterclockwise.

desertsage

You should stop right here, have a cold drink and check everything again. You are also using the crankshaft locking tool, right? You want to make sure that you're not 180 degrees off. You have to have the crankshaft locking tool securely in place or things are going to move on you. If you are at TDC, can install the crankshaft locking tool and confirm that you can no longer turn the crankshaft afterward, both diamond shaped camshaft plates have the two larger holes facing inward (toward each other) and can install the cam locking tool, all should be ok. You might need to remove the belt and break free the cam sprockets again to do this, but it's worth the trouble. The second time you pop the cams free will be easier.

I have the 12V engine, so there could be a variable. When I remove the cam holding tool, the passenger side cam usually flips back a few degrees counter clockwise (facing the engine). I will just gently turn it back to the right (clockwise) later to get all lined up again. That is not a problem.

Wahobbert

I did stop right there and get the mess around the car and under the hood cleaned up. Then I began getting things cleared away to remove the passenger side cam cover to maybe be able to see what was going on under there. I had the passenger side camshaft sprocket snap counter clockwise about 30 degrees or so when I bumped it when I was wrestling with the water pump or thermostat or something, Probably was perched on the high part of a cam lobe somewhere and slipped when I bumped it.
I got the cover off without much issues, and found a piece of one of the cct tensioner shoes way in the back against what would have been the inside of the cover and the cam chain. I think that was what caused it to bind up while I was hand turning the crank. It was the bottom shoe, because the one on top was intact. no idea how it ended up in the top. I'll have to at least put some new shoes on the cct.
The intake cam sprocket was not in correct alignment when the marks on the harmonic balancer lined up and the cam lock bar was installed, but I don't think any valves were bent because I never turned against the crank very hard at all, as I was turning it by hand. I'm going to put the crankshaft lock back in, and break loose the pulleys again , and realign things with the cam lock bar after I replace the cct or the blocks, but I know the intake cam is going to have to come almost completely out in order to get the chain, cam and cam mounting marks to line up correctly. I'll also need to take a look see if the tops of all the valves are the same height in order to ease my own mind as far as the possibility of bent valves, along with shoving a handy dandy borescope down the spark plug hole to take a look.
Is it normal for the cct to buck up and down when there is no oil pressure moderating the movement against the spring on the bottom of the cct?, or is this because the intake cam is out of whack?. I was going to upload an mp4, but they aren't a file type that can be downloaded to the site, but there is a clip on YouTube>> <<where it's doing pretty much the same thing mine is doing.