installs — No comments
23
Dec 09

The S4 goes under the knife…

Monday the S4 went under the knife to receive the first round of performance modifications. Take a look at the OEM exhaust manifolds. Proceed to cringe.

To gain access the exhaust manifolds we had to lower the motor. Pictured below, the transmission has already been removed.

The motor is supported so it can be lowered down enough to gain access to the exhaust manifolds.

Here you can see the JHM longtube headers installed.

This version of the headers uses v-band clamps.

We found a leaking slave cylinder, so we replaced it. While we had the motor down, we replaced the squishy OEM motor mounts with a set of JHM modified Stern mounts.

Time to bolt up the JHM stage 4 clutch and lightweight flywheel!

With the bell housing out, we can install the JHM solid shifter linkage and delrin shifter bushings.

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18
Dec 09

JHM/Stern Motor Mounts

Thanks to JHM for hooking me up with a set of their modified Stern motor mounts. B6/B7 S4 motor mounts are 110mm shorter than the aftermarket mounts that are currently available; these mounts have been modified so they will fit.


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Uncategorized — 2 comments
03
Dec 09

VF Engineering supercharger

After almost a year of testing, VF’s production forced induction system for the B6/B7 S4 is in my hands. What a work of art!

VF has reported 496 HP and /434 ft/lbs.

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02
Dec 09

GMG 2.5" RS4 exhaust with Labree mufflers

The last piece of my exhaust puzzle was the cat-back exhaust; having previously run a 2.25″ APR downpipe and exhaust I needed something a little larger to mate up to the 2.5″ JHM longtube headers.

After poking around I found S-Fore, a local forum member, parting out his S4. He had originally purchased a GMG RS4 exhaust, but found that the internal drone was too much. To rectify this little problem he replaced the GMG mufflers with Labree mufflers and hasn’t looked back since. When I asked S-Fore to describe the sound, he said hands down it was the best sounding S4 exhaust. Ever.

Once the headers and exhaust are on I’ll see how the quad tips fill the RS4 bumper; if it doesn’t look right I’ll have weld on the OEM RS4 tips. If the exhaust isn’t loud enough, we’ll cut out the resonators!

The tips measure 3.0″ tall and 3.5″ wide.

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01
Dec 09

Ceramic coated longtube headers

My JHM longtube headers have made it back from Performance Coatings! They’ve recieved a satin black ceramic coating to dramatically reduce radient heat.

We’re looking at a 110-120 degree temperature reduction in the engine bay; this should be good for a 11-12% increase in engine efficiency. Gotta love free horsepower!

For a 450-500HP motor we can expect a gain of 50-55HP. Show me a better mod for the money!

Thanks to Performance Coatings and JHM!

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30
Nov 09

JHM stage 4 clutch and lightweight flywheel

Thanks to the guys at JHM! My stage 4 clutch and lightweight flywheel combo have made it safely to the shop. One of  my concerns when I was planning out my motor mods was the ability of the OEM clutch to handle the additonal power of the supercharger; after speaking with JHM we found a perfect soultion.

Using a ceramic/kevlar clutch we’ve gained an extra 400 ft/lbs of clamping pressure over OEM. This clutch should have no problem handling the added power. The 13lb lightened flywheel should help with some of the parasitic loss caused by the 26lb OEM flywheel.

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19
Nov 09

18×10 Volk TE37s and some Star Specs

My tires finally came in from TireRack and Steve at Hartmann Wheels was gracious enough to help me get everything mounted. All I can say is, “WOW…my stars have somehow aligned!” because everything has worked out perfectly.

The setup is a set of Volk’s 18×10 TE37 with 265/35/18 Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Specs. This is the literally the absolute widest tire I could fit on this rim. That being said, this tire fills the wheel PERFECTLY.

The fronts have approximately 2mm of clearance on the inside and fill the front fenders perfectly; the rears have approximately 10mm of clearance on the outside to play with, and quite a bit on the inside (though the tire makes contact with the inner fender when the rear end is in the air. I might space the rear out a little more when H&R gets their 35mm adapter.

An interesting tidbit of info: Dunlop lists the Star Specs with a sectional width of 10.7″; a 275/35/18 Michelin PS2 has a sectional width of 10.9″. After the tires came in and we took some measurements, the sectional width on the Dunlops are over 11″ wide!

Want to read more about the Volks and see some more photos?

Pictured below is a 275/35/18 Star Spec next to the 255/30/20 Falken 512.

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Uncategorized — 4 comments
14
Nov 09

JHM longtube headers have shipped!

I received word from JHM that my longtube headers have shipped. The JHM longtube headers replace the OEM headers and downpipes; other cars have been seeing both 20-50 ft/lbs and 20-50 AWHP gains throughout the powerband. JHM reccomends wrapping the headers with an exhaust wrap, I choose another route.

Performance Coating in Auburn, WA will be coating the headers with their satin black ceramic coating; we expect to see a temperature drop of 110-120ºF.

Read more about the headers on JHM’s site.

Stock B6/B7 headers:

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JHM prototype headers:

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034 Motorsport dyno of stock headers and JHM headers; note the vehicle dynoed was an auto. Click image for fullsize.

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tutorials — No comments
03
Nov 09

Re-pinning OEM Audi plugs

The taillights on the B7 have different plugs than the B6; the B7plug is a tad deeper than the B6 plug. The new B7 plug utilizes five of the six available pins, while the B6 uses all six. The extra pin on the B6 connector is for the rear fog light; I’m still trying to figure out how to make it work on the B7.

You will save yourself a lot of trouble if you just pick up a de-pinning kit; I was using two flat head screwdrivers and cussing up a storm. After I found the tool kit, everything was a breeze.

New pin layout for driver side connector. Keep in mind, your wires will be flipped on the passenger side connector (e.g. pin #1 should be in pin #5).

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The de-pinning toolkit is a lifesaver. An aftermarket kit is approximately $30-40 compared to $400 for an “OEM” kit.

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By inserting the de-pinning tool you apply pressure on two little tabs that hold the pins in place. Once you’ve done this, a little tug will remove the pin from the connector.

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videos — No comments
02
Nov 09

Video of completed exterior

After picking up the car from JMI Motoring I stopped by Achtuning to use their VAG tool to clear some codes and decipher some of my fault codes. Here’s another quick clip from my iPhone, apologies for the crappy quality.

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