Well got a tiny bit more done tonight. Nothing major, but every little helps I guess!
Firstly, I got an envelope in the post.. and it happened to be the remainder of the white vinyl I needed to finish the shark mouth.. so thats finally all done! looks okay, but it should look a lot better once the rest of the bumper is sprayed. To show the contrast between the black car, white teeth, and grey mouth. I was thinking of putting a shark sticker on my coolant bottle..?
I also got the waterpump off, to find to my surprise, that its a metal impellar. Which is good! I suppose its best to change it whilst I do the belt anyway. Doesn't appear to be anything wrong with it, no cracks etc, but it is a bit stiff when turning.
I put more back on the head as well, just a couple of brackets that I cleaned before hand.
The big task is trying to get a load of people together tomorrow, to get my car in the garage! I would love to get that done, it means I could do a lot more! but I just cant see it happening anytime soon :(

I liked the idea of using the Evo intercooler, something different.. something that probably isn't a common mod to do. But I just dont think its working, I'm thinking of getting a smaller, wider intercooler, the typical 'small universal ebay special intercooler'.
The reasons are... Its new - I dont think the Evo one is holding pressure anymore, and its all bent and twisted.
It has good mounting points - so I can mount it to the crash bar, and it will be further away from the radiator.
I think it makes sense to do this..
Also managed to lock myself out of the car completely tonight! Not cool :( battery went dead and key wouldn't work in the driverside door! Managed to sort it though, so its all good!
Need to really get some bits bought at the end of the month to continue with the engine, Maybe a set of the valves bought, so I can start grinding them in

Well I've cleaned the cylinder head now, but now out of things to do until I get new parts :( The shims are back in, with the spacers for the head bolts, but thats it.. I've painted the alternator black, which looks pretty nice now! fitted back on the car, but haven't got a picture.
Just trying to work out which bits are best to buy next month, obviously the cambelt will be last, and no doubt that wont be bought until mid next year at this rate! I really do dislike this car, but love it at the same time. Everytime I sit in side her, I get that childish smile back on my face! knowing that I'm doing the right thing by getting her back to her former glory. She will stand out again .. I miss her

Well just spend the night taking the alternator off the car, cleaning it and painting it. Followed by stripping everything else off the cylinder head. This included the cambelt shims and the valve stem oil seals.
 I've covered the cylinder head with Gunk cleaner, and washed it all off. Currently airing out. its a lot cleaner then before. I'm really hoping that the engine will performed better once the new valves are grinded in. I know the old ones weren't, they are simply machined in at the factory. Which doesn't allow for a perfect seal on them. Everything inside the block is getting replaced, unless it really is good enough for another 100k. I want the engine as strong as I can get it. After cancelling the car insurance, it has freed up another £70 a month, which will help towards getting parts. so think I'll make a start at the end of the month. I want this to be something special. so Its going to get what it needs..

Well, I didn't have any idea how expensive this would get to be. I've priced most parts up, apart from the injector bolts, rocker shaft bolts, and tandem fuel pump gasket. I'll have to get these from the dealer I think.
The rest came to quite a hefty price. Similar to the price of a second hand head, with everything fitted.. 
Maybe its not even worth the time getting all the individual bits together? Maybe its just worth getting a complete cylinder head, and buy a headgasket for it? 
I will still need sealant and some other gaskets, but I just dont know what is more cost effective? 
I would love to put everything back together, but I'm probably looking ar around £600 for this.. And it may not even work at the end of it! knowing my luck that is.. So I check prices for second hand heads with all the internals in place. So a quick breakdown of the prices.. These are rough estimates from various websites I've been on, including Euro Car Parts, TPS, the Skoda and Audi dealers, and eBay. 

1 x tandem fuel pump gasket
1 x water pump - £40
1 x headgasket - £25
1 x cambelt kit with pulleys and tensioners - £100
8 x injector bolts - £?
8 x exhaust valves - £50
8 x inlet valves - £50
5 x rocker shaft bolts - £?
10 x head bolts - £30 delivered (ebay)
5 litres of oil - £40
1 x oil filter - £5
coolant g12++ - 40

Head set - £95 - 362441380
1 x inlet manifold gasket
1 x exhaust gasket
1 x rocker gasket
11 x rocker bolts
16 x valve stem oil seals
1 x inlet camshaft oil seal
1 x exhaust camshaft oil seal

£475


Maybe I should get advise from others who have done this type of job? See if they can get me parts cheaper or not.. 

Well obviously the car is in bits, like a massive, complicated jigsaw puzzle. A puzzle I really dont want to do by mself. As a kid, I was the one the forced the peices together.. and 'made sure' they fitted! 
I cant really do that with an engine.. as much as I would like too! 
Whilst it is in a million pieces, I may as well take the opportunity to clean it all, and make the engine look nice and new. So I have my big bottle of gung cleaner, and the cylinder head is going to get a good clean! 
I need to also lightly stand the bottom of it, to make sure that all the crap is taken off before fitting the headgasket. So I have my 2500 grit sandpaper at the ready! Also need to do this to the bottom end too.. 
I'll also going to clean out the EGR valve, and make sure its all ready to put back on the inlet manifold (which is freshly painted!) I'll need to get some high temp paint to do the rest though. 
I need to be careful to take the camshaft shims out and put them back the right way.. otherwise it could cause uneven wear on the camshafts. I dont want that happening! 
I dont know why I like working on cars so much, it always tends to backfire, and continously break on me! Must buy a reliable car next time, but then.. wheres the fun in that? 

Why cant anyone get it right these days? I ordered some new rockers from eBay, from a company in Cambridge who specialise in cylinder head repairs. 
I wrote down exactly which ones I wanted, and proceeded with buying them. Its annoying that I spent close to £50 and recieved the wrong ones! I only ordered 3. How wrong could they get it!? It makes me think, the world really is going down hill.. We really are slowly turning back into cave men, and soon wont be able to wipe our own bums without needing help. Its ridiculous.
So now I've had to buy another one, then return my current one, and hope that I get a refund from the seller. 
Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I have reread what I said to the seller when purchasing the rockers. I can clearly make out exactly which ones I need. 2 x short wide rockers (A) and 1 x short thin rocker (D) . I got the opposite. Retards.
I guess now; after taking the valves out, that I wont be able to do anything with the rockers for a while anyway. Got a lot more things to buy, and hopefully I dont have anymore problems! 

So, even with a broken car, I still wanted to show off the amount of effort I have put into it recently. Considering all the work was done with in 2 months, I feel that I have achieved a lot. A lot more has been done then is shown in the picture. The picture really doesn't do it justice. I have done a wire tuck, hiding it below the chassis leg, to try and solve the ugliness that tends to plague the TDI engine bays. They tend to be very cluttered from the factory. I have moved the top of the washer bottle, and allowed it to tuck under the headlight. This is still practical, and easy to use, but hidden away so no one can see it. The battery has been relocated into the boot, out of the way, allowing more room for me to paint and show off other parts of the bay. The big ugly air box has been replaced with a Pipercross foam filter. Nothing chavvy, but just a filter that sits there, and follows the flow of the engine bay. With the purple, I had to replace the standard black vacuum piping with purple. Something different and isn't over the top. To be honest, not many people have even noticed it! Little subtle changes Go along way in my opinion. I have changed the angle of the diesel filter housing, to make it slope backwards slightly. Only people who have this engine will even notice this. The header tank has been moved and replaced with one from a Corsa C. This is smaller, and can be hidden away. Plus its different from the norm, and I'm sure most people will notice that. The boost controller is hidden underneath the scuttle panel, and the only clue is the four cables going through the panel behind the engine cover.
The engine mounts have been painted black to follow the purple/black theme.
Its just a shame that during the engine rebuild, this is likely to get damaged from generally working in the bay. Hopefully it will still clean up well.

Well.. Stripped the head even more, so now I'm just left with a garage full of random engine parts, and one porous head!
Firstly, I want to explain that I was actually feeling quite confident when we were taking the valves out, thinking that maybe I've managed to get away without replacing a single one! One by one we pulled them out, and they all did seem to be fine. We then did the drill test. One by one, we put each valve in the end of the drill and turned it slowly. We realised at that point, things were looking bad! 13 of the 16 valves were ever so slightly damaged. Warped and weren't sitting flush. So it looks like I'll need to purchase 16 new valves, and grind them into the cylinder. But whats the point? the cylinder is definitely porous, so I may aswell replace that too! The picture shows the list of new parts that I've been told to buy.
1 x tandem fuel pump gasket
1 x water pump
1 x headgasket
1 x cambelt kit with pulleys and tensioners
8 x injector bolts
8 x exhaust valves
8 x inlet valves
1 x inlet camshaft oil seal
1 x exhaust camshaft oil seal
16 x valve stem oil seals
1 x inlet manifold gasket
1 x exhaust gasket
5 x rocker shaft bolts
10 x head bolts
5 litres of oil
oil filter
coolant g12

yeah.. small list of stuff to buy. knowing that by the end of this, my car wont perform any better, then it was before the cambelt snapped. I dislike cars. Especially mine!

I look back and try to work out how much money I have put into my car.. not into modifications, the bits I enjoy doing.. but into fixing it everytime it breaks. With the car being lowered, I do understand that I bring on a lot of problems myself. A lot of time the time though, it comes down to Audis inability to get it right, first time. For example.. the power steering rack that I had to replace late last year after hitting a cat eye. Yes, I hit a cat eye, on my engine subframe, but for this to break my power steering is just stupid. I then found out that the full rack has been superseded at least 4 other times. The original part (the one fitted to mine) doesnt like major shocks/vibrations, and tends to fail. Its a moving part, fitted to something that is moving and vibrating alot.. Come on Audi.
I have suffered with a porous cylinder head for over a year. To fix would cost in excess of £1000, supplied and fitted. Or £15 for some K-Seal? K-Seal it is! I cant justify spending that much on a car, for a fault that was caused by Audi making the heads to a poor standard. Its not right! and its not fair on the consumer. There is also a known fault with the early starter motors. They dont spin fast enough when the engine is warm to start up first time. This is something I have experienced, but hasn't been a massive problem yet.
I dont know whether I've had enough now. Maybe its a sign to get rid of the car? I'm getting the valves checked tonight, and I know it will probably need 4.. and you can only buy the kits in packs of 8 or 16. So thats another £50 gone. The belt had at least 20k left, but gave up well before. Maybe I should buy the bits, get the engine back together, run it in, and sell it? I just dont know yet.