Audi S3 Cracked Head - Help Needed!!

karbonk

karbonk

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Vehicle Spec: Audi 02 S3 210 AMK

Location: Ireland

Hi all I am posting on behalf of a friend, hoping to gather some useful info & contacts, and try to resolve the matter to get him back on the road to enjoy for the summer.

He has been told that the head is cracked and its to be replaced.

Now my question is: Is he to go for a reconditioned head or buy all new?

He found a brand new head with valves but without camshafts/hydros/springs in germany for around €900 and he got a quote from backdraftmotorsports who can supply a new head with valves and camshafts for £1900+vat or reconditioned for £950+vat.

He has been in two minds weather to upgrade the BHP, (350/400BHP) if this is worthwhile doing whilst having such work done. However he is slightly concerned about daily drivability?

Recommendation of whats the best route to go and experience anyone may have had in this area, along with any useful contacts for parts cheap parts new/ used?


All comment are welcome. Thanks in advance. :icon_thumright:
 
Last edited:
Second hand heads are fine if you are on a budget. Pretty much any small port 20v head will do (doesn't need to be an AMK head and doesn't need to be from an Audi)

As for upgrading... that really depends on what you want to do and how much money you have to spend.... unless you go big turbo (GT3071 or similar) then there is not much point in doing anything to the head IMO...

<tuffty/>
 
tufftybloke said:
Second hand heads are fine if you are on a budget. Pretty much any small port 20v head will do (doesn't need to be an AMK head and doesn't need to be from an Audi)

As for upgrading... that really depends on what you want to do and how much money you have to spend.... unless you go big turbo (GT3071 or similar) then there is not much point in doing anything to the head IMO...

<tuffty/>
Click to expand...

Im sure if a second hand one is more than suitable he will go this route as long as its still a safe option. Would you recommend Cams, Valves? New bolts are a Must, but are Audi ones more than adequate?
 
Thanks karbonk, just got through the registration!

Just a quick hello to everyone, I'm the troubled owner of the car in subject. As my friend mentioned earlier on I'm having a hard time in terms of decision-making. I'm being told by my mechanic that we could possibly do a swap of valves and camshafts from my old head which seems to be the cheapest option so far, I'm just worried of a long term effect of that, don't want to be facing the same problem in couple of months. I found a brand new head (no valves, no camshafts, no hydros/valve_springs/etc) in germany for roughly &#8364;500 including shipping + the options listed previously by my friend.

Andrew - I'm not sure if my AMK has the VVT, is it essential in picking the right head and how do I determine this? Will any head fit?
 
Felixo said:
Thanks karbonk, just got through the registration!

Just a quick hello to everyone, I'm the troubled owner of the car in subject. As my friend mentioned earlier on I'm having a hard time in terms of decision-making. I'm being told by my mechanic that we could possibly do a swap of valves and camshafts from my old head which seems to be the cheapest option so far, I'm just worried of a long term effect of that, don't want to be facing the same problem in couple of months. I found a brand new head (no valves, no camshafts, no hydros/valve_springs/etc) in germany for roughly &#8364;500 including shipping + the options listed previously by my friend.

Andrew - I'm not sure if my AMK has the VVT, is it essential in picking the right head and how do I determine this? Will any head fit?
Click to expand...

Second hand head will be fine but if you are worried then buy new valves as they are the weakest part... take the head to someone that knows the 20v heads as they are tricky beggers to rebuild and it only takes a slightly misalligned valve spring and the valve will snap...

Other heads have SAI ports which can be blanked off so no drama other than that everything will swap from your AMK head to the new one including VVT (which AMK has) so no need to source one that has it.

<tuffty/>
 
tufftybloke said:
Second hand head will be fine but if you are worried then buy new valves as they are the weakest part... take the head to someone that knows the 20v heads as they are tricky beggers to rebuild and it only takes a slightly misalligned valve spring and the valve will snap...

Other heads have SAI ports which can be blanked off so no drama other than that everything will swap from your AMK head to the new one including VVT (which AMK has) so no need to source one that has it.

<tuffty/>
Click to expand...

Thanks for info, any recommendation on where would I get the best deal on head? Eurocarparts.com is £621, Germany around &#8364;500 including shipping.
 
I have just had a cracked head on my s3 amk.
I have had the work done by a vag tuners in the southwest.
They have replaced the head with a fully reconed 'off the shelf' head.
They stripped the pistons out aswell because some were furred up with deposists, which was due to the burnt coolant, however they wanted to check it out thoroughly.

the price if it helps is as follows;
£400 based on the initial head gasget investigation and replacement.
£600 off the shelf reconed head
£130 piston investigation and parts
£70 bolts gasgets etc

I dont know if they supply heads or whether they would ship to ireland?
They are called tsr performance, can be found on google.
 
I just came across CylinderHeadMasters.co.uk on eBay, bare heads for VAG for < £350. Any of you have any previous experience or info on them?
 
barters3 said:
I have just had a cracked head on my s3 amk.
I have had the work done by a vag tuners in the southwest.
They have replaced the head with a fully reconed 'off the shelf' head.
They stripped the pistons out aswell because some were furred up with deposists, which was due to the burnt coolant, however they wanted to check it out thoroughly.

the price if it helps is as follows;
£400 based on the initial head gasget investigation and replacement.
£600 off the shelf reconed head
£130 piston investigation and parts
£70 bolts gasgets etc

I dont know if they supply heads or whether they would ship to ireland?
They are called tsr performance, can be found on google.
Click to expand...

I shall find out, cheers! Did your work stop on the head itself? I had this issue checked with the dealership first and they wanted to fit me with a new turbo, my mechanic said apart from it being full of water it still spools like Henry Hoover.
 
I didn't need to have any additional work done. To be honest the car drove lovely. All I noticed was the usual head or gasget failure symptoms.
 
A bit of update from this morning. Got a reply both from TSR performance and cylinderheadmaster.co.uk - TSR offers to rebuild my head with old valves and cams for £550, the other crowd quoted me £490 for a brand new complete head ready to be fit plus they will pick up the old unit and discount me £30 which pretty much covers shippings costs (£29.95). There's one other place I found on eBay that offered me brand new head (bare) for £250 but I'm still waiting to hear back from them regarding complete head.

Any fresh ideas on top of that?
 
karbonk said:
Bump!? Guys?

Any updates Felixo?
Click to expand...

Was ready to order Monday but had to add my new bank account to paypal first, than wait few days to verify it, than I realized there's no such thing as instant top up so I had to run to the bank myself to make a money transfer which will take another few days before the funds come through... I'm thinking of burning at least one of local churches and maybe having a go at the local water supply with something supporting hair growth in random places.
 
Felixo said:
Was ready to order Monday but had to add my new bank account to paypal first, than wait few days to verify it, than I realized there's no such thing as instant top up so I had to run to the bank myself to make a money transfer which will take another few days before the funds come through... I'm thinking of burning at least one of local churches and maybe having a go at the local water supply with something supporting hair growth in random places.
Click to expand...

:laugh:
 
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