i purchased a 1998 a4 2.8 with 160,000 miles on it and it was in pretty rough shape. it does have a vibrant muffler and new looking bilstein struts with some kind of lowering springs. also feels like it has a short shifter of some kind in it.

what i have done so far:
water pump
timing belt
associated belts and rollers
valve cover gaskets
oil pan gasket
rear cam plugs
welded in new exhaust flex pipes
g12 coolant

questions: i don't know which model engine it is, i know its a 30v 2.8 but cant find any of the engine code markings. the oil pan gasket is the one with the gasket in the center as well, for some kind of oil sump. in one of the pics i tried to show the part where the engine code is supposed to be, and theres nothing. i also tried to mark some tube connections with a blue paper towel, i havnt seen any other valve covers with tubes here.

the big issue, it blows plumes of exhaust out the muffler. looks to be oil. i did a compression check, all cylinders were ~200psi. i messed with it today, it plumed exhaust. i came in and did some research, went out and started it, no plumes. drove it down the street, all was good. came in did some more research, went out and did the same thing and i left a nice thick fog behind me. what could this be?!

i pulled the codes and one of the O2 sensors was low voltage, i just cleared the code to see if it would come back.

 

Looks like the tube connections are for a breather hose.

My 1998.5 2.8 30v AHA motor has the breather connection on the front of the passenger side valve cover and the rear of the driver side cover, close to the firewall.

 

Saw your thread on the zine, I think you have one of those bastard A4's that has a mish mash of pre-facelift and post-facelift parts. I've heard stories of mis-matched head/block combinations around 98.5 where it was like zee Germans were just using whatever parts happened to be laying around lol.

 

I have one of these bastard cars.

 

If it's a 30v in a 98 it's an AHA motor. That's the only 30v offered until the 99.5 model which uses the ATQ e-throttle engine.

 

my bastard car is a 99.5 with an AHA

 

Devil I was going to post the same thing 2 days ago. By the book it's an AHA. But look at those valve covers and that goofy hose running between them. My AHA doesn't have anything like that, and why isn't there an engine code stamped where it should be?

I like CCA4's theory. That car was made during Octoberfest and that motor was their little joke on a drunken Friday afternoon.

 

Here's a photo (scroll down) of the same valve cover configuration on a car being worked on by one of our Canadian brethren:

http://www.audiforum.ca/a4-b5-typ-8d...d-65805/page2/

Could this be a -Canadian- 2.8 AHA??

Can't help the Canadian Bacon movie reference:

 

Could be Redmond. Nice catch.