Just got the head off, and, no surprise, it appears all 8 exhaust valves are bent. Every piston has marks from both exh. valves, however, not marks from the intake valves. Is it possible that the intakes survived this? Anyway, will know soon once I have the head looked at. Good news is that no valves broke, so the cylinder walls should be ok.

Now, if I can impose on the members with another set of questions:

I think I will go with the Integrated Engineering manual tensioner suggest by CincyTT. Thanks!

But I need help with the rest of my shopping list:

Gaskets : VR, complete upper set ~$75. Good/bad deal?

Water pump : Need input on this. Looking for high reliability.

Head Bolts : found many sources but I want to know I've got bolts I can trust. Suggestions?. Also, related, used 8mm hex to remove. My long t50 Torx slipped. But it looks like a Torx - special tool possibly?

Exhaust valves: good source at fair price needed.

I want to keep and drive this car. Other than common sense reliability mods, I have no plans to modify it for more HP or RPM.

I understand I will have to check my timing belt tension. Not a problem.

Thanks, again

 

Exhaust valves are the cheapest at rockauto.com or o'relly have them too.
Water pump should be with metal impeller, not plastic. As far brand, I honestly can't suggest you due to my ignorance in this.
What brand are the gaskets? I recommend "Elring". I've read somewhere that "Victor reins" leaked on someones passat, but it posibly could be due to someones crucket hands.
Victor reins bolts worked fine for me on one of my cars. They use a special tool called polydrive. About 30 bucks from Snapon or cheAper at eBay. It has a bit diffent shape than torx, so don't use torx.

 

A top end gasket kit is pretty cheap, $75 sounds about right
Water pump, get a metal one so it cant break and harm the motor. Also wont ever need changed.
OEM head bolts are what you want. Spend the extra $ a bolt for OEM and not OEM replacements
Exhaust valves, the stainless Supertech valves will work and be far cheaper than oem replacements.

All this can be found on www.ecstuning.com, most under engine then mechanical.

 

Thanks, again. Got most everything on order. Used ecstuning.com for valves, bolts, etc. and autohausaz.com for the gaskets and water pump. I've has good luck with Autohausaz before on Audi and Fiat (don't laugh) items.
Another question : motor mount bolts - haven't seen them listed in any catalog. Dealer item only?
Wondering why Audi didn't put valve reliefs in the pistons.....

 

Mount bolts (they are stretch) http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-TT_MKI...t_Bolt/ES2201/

The pistons do have valve relief for the center intake valve. It is an interference motor so if the timing is off by to much, this happens. Many cars are the same way. The only way for it to become a noninterference motor would be to lower the compress way to low.

 

Thanks again for the help finding parts.

Here's the status :

-Machine shop sez 8 bent exh valves, all intake OK. As expected
-Water pump appears to be OE. Has Audi logo, plastic impeller. Turns kind of hard.
-Tensioner is OE, NTN, Audi logo. I can depress plunger easily with my thumb
-The belt has a bunch of sheared teeth, of course, but what's interesting is that about 180 degrees away from this are about 25 consecutive teeth that are half gone.
-Roller on SERPENTINE belt tensioner sounds like bearing is about shot. Probably will just replace the entire unit.

Anyway, this has made me a believer - check that timing belt often!!

 

if it makes you happy or feel not as lonely.

 

Look on the bright side - the timing belt is a lot easier to access with the cylinder head out of the way. Hah!

Replacing clutch, too? How difficult is that task? How many miles did it last?

Good luck

 

it lasted 106k miles. Old lady owned it before me so probably burned it, but at least she took care of it cosmetically.

 

Replacing a clutch is not as hard on TT's than other quatros. Id say it's easy. Just gotta gather all the tools at first. Then during assembly you want to get a list of all torque specks, and all parts as well. The hardest part is to place the trany in place. But it's probably easier if you have a transmission jack. Everything else is cake. Not only the clutch, I am also doing my boots.