Last week I enjoyed the company of Airtec Servicios, Dansar Industries, and Global Automation (EXAIR’s distributors in Mexico and parts of South America). We met in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, for an EXAIR training event that covered all topics of EXAIR products.
Following my return to the States, I dug into a project at home that I’ve been working on here-and-there; my 98 Audi A4. In an earlier blog post I showed the damage done to the cylinder head when a valve-train component failed and a few valves were bent. After rebuilding the cylinder heads on a bench here at EXAIR, I finally got the engine back together and hit the key for the first time since I bought the car.
Fortunately, the valve timing was perfect and the engine fired right up. Unfortunately, however, was the terrible knock from the bottom half of the engine – the half I left untouched during the initial repair. (See image below for my feeling on the issue)
Now I’m faced with a dilemma of the best course to take, and after chewing it over, I’ve decided to open up the bottom half of the engine and make the repair. The most likely cause for the noise is a defective wrist pin or connecting rod. When I open it up, I’ll be sure to take pics and share for those interested. I had thought repairing the top half of the engine would make the fix because most of the time that is the case. Similarly, we occasionally experience reduced performance in our Reversible Drum Vac. Most of the time (I’d speculate 95%-99%) a simple cleaning is all that is needed (see video demonstration here) because this product has no moving parts there is little to go wrong. Occasionally it is another issue that is causing reduced performance; for these times we have the Reversible Drum Vac troubleshooting guide:
So, sometime soon I’ll run through the next troubleshooting steps for the engine in the A4. If you need help troubleshooting an EXAIR product or a compressed air application, please contact EXAIR.
In the meantime, the A4 is relaxing, hanging loose at home – and I am too. Mexico was wonderful, and the people were more than kind. But, it feels good to be home.
Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE