whilst out for a blast in the s3 that has just done its 400 running in miles as advised by u peeps, i was climbing up a hill dropped from 4th to 3rd and put my foot down, after about 20 yards of acclerating there was a loud bang and then followed a nasty lour rattle everytime i 1) put load on the engine or 2) went above 2000 rpm. took the cylinder head off and all is o.k there, limped home and only just made it on the drive befor i could no longer engage gears. any ideas on what broke?

:(

If its only when in gear it sounds like the mainshaft bearing has given up the ghost in he gearbox.

Remember that the mainshaft goes round with the engine all the time until the clutch is depressed - only with the clutch depressed is the gearbox isolated.

So if with clutch depressed there is no nasty noises its the box - if noises with the clutch depressed its an engine or cltch problem - however you would know if it was the clutch as you have a direct connection to it via your foot and would feel problems.

So from what little info there is here start looking for a new box and getting the WD on those chassis bolt cos the body is coming off :P

Andrew

ha ha, problem found, took engine out the other day, removed the clutch and to my suprise the 6 bolts holding the flywheel on and come loose, two of them must have hit the clutch plate and started to make that nasty noise, they had thread lock on them and done up to the required torque, and ideas to tighten these up more but trying to stopthe engine from turningover?