Should I go Stage 2 dual pulleys? A6 C7 135k miles

[Daytonview]

2013 A6 3.0T, 135k miles, in good condition, EPL stage 2 single pulley and TCU tune, per Dragy 0-60 is 3.82sec, quartmile is 11.97sec.

The issue is I'm stuck on EPL, and would have to buy 034 or IE tune.

My dilemma: I could spend $1,000 for the other pulley and heat exchanger But I would have to spend another $1,600 for 034/IE tune, spark plugs are easy to change, just did the waterpump/themo 10k miles ago, did not do the pcv because shop said it did not need to be replace ( prob will regret it, eats burns 0.75 quart of oil per 5k miles ), test pipes cats are probably going have to be replace if I go dual pulleys, another $500.

So for another $3k, is it worth it and would I be going much faster than 11.97sec? Let me know yah thoughts.

[5000S]

Are you going to the track ?

[WideSuppie]

At that mileage, I'll keep as is.

[WatchMeSpend]

I would rather spend the money on the HX, clip the pump control wire and then stop. I mean when you go from 11.97 to 11.70, you don't really feel it. Get rid of the EPL if it fails, but why bother getting rid of it now. When I added the HX, the car feels consistent after a few hits and on the factory HX, it would be soggy after a few hits on a day like today as it's 90 degrees F here in Ontario. Bumper to bumper slow roll for a bit and then freedom every once in a while, my car feels great all the time.

[Daytonview]

Take it to the tracks?... Not really... I mostly do couple hard pulls a week to remind myself what the car is capable of. I'm at a point of spending the $3k to see if I can do 11.5 and see if anything breaks or use that $3k for a b9 S4... lol

But yah saying if I spend the $3k, I will only be going like 11.7?.. Then that will not be worth it.

[Burkeomatic]

It depends man. I daily drive my car, and I am sitting at 93k and I have the same debate as you. I actually have the JHM tune, and I can load up the 2+ tune whenever I want. I have the crank pulley sitting in my parts pile, my car is decatted (my cats were starting to give out) and I have the upgraded HX. I quite literally have every single thing I need to go dual pulley and I haven't.

The reasons I haven't is I live in South Texas, the car is already done after one pull in 100-105f heat anyways. If you look at the compressor map for the blower, you are spinning it hard on stage 2 and it is far away from the "efficiency island." Do I want to spin it harder? I spent a lot of time in turbo land, and when someone cranks their boost up on a baby turbo we typically say they are blowing more hot air and not making more power. I feel like that is about where we are at on these blowers. If you really want to break into power land, you need a bigger blower. From what I understand, that project was essentially stillborn and never saw production.

So I will be blowing more hot air in an already hot environment, and spinning the hell out of my supercharger for like, 10-20 extra hp? It is cool if you track the car alot and you are trying to be one of the quicker C7s and are caught up in the "power race" then fine. I've been there and done that, and decided that it isn't worth it in this car. It would be one thing if you blew your engine and you could toss a new one in over the weekend for $500, but that isn't what this car is. Once I realized that, I stopped, but everyone is different. I still have plans for a ported blower, but that is an efficiency improvement, not a spin and add more boost improvement.

Lord knows if this car gets demoted to project car duty if my other project cars don't come to fruition (A LFX RX8 or a LS swapped 944) but if it does work out like that, I'll probably try some insane stuff until I blow the engine, then attempt a 4.0t swap. If they can do it in a S5, certainly it is doable in the A7, and you start with the ZF8 transmission too... I know it isn't as beefy as the RS7 transmission... I know.

But I did move "laterally" from the EPL tune to the JHM tunes and will tell you that the JHM tune is better, has higher redline, higher launch RPM, shifts better, and feels better on the butt dyno. Does EPL not have a dual pulley tune? It was worth it to me, but may not be worth it to everyone. My car felt sluggish on the EPL tune, and the folks at EPL never seemed like they were in a hurry to help out. I can get JHM on the phone or email quickly whenever I need them and get great service.

I think much beyond the Stage 2 single pulley is a little beyond the point of diminishing returns, but everyone is different and will have their own answers. The above is my opinion, and not to be constituted as legal or medical advice.

[Daytonview]

Burk... great comments and advice. I didn't think about JHM but will consider them now. I just like the IE idea of adjustable launch RPMs.

When you switched laterally with JHM, was your 0-60 and quartermile any faster or was it just the everyday driving experience better?

I thought EPL was done? Back in 2021 when I first tune with them, Chris was helpful so I can't complain.

Driving in D mode it felt okay but sluggish like you said. In S mode the car woke up. If I launch in AMAX mode, the car drives fine and there are no funny business when shifting. However, if it is in S mode and I accelerate hard from a slow crawl, the car will have a 0.25 sec delay shift from 1 to 2 or from 2 to 3.

I feel that the EPL launch of 2,600rpm is too low. My 0-60 and quartermile would be better if that launch rpm is higher. Probably should of went Melen TCU tune. Quartermile of 11.97 at 116.3 mph. Currently no wheel spin, maybe with a higher rpm launch I would get wheel spin and ultimately the quartermile is still 11.9 anyways.

[WatchMeSpend]

I feel that the EPL launch of 2,600rpm is too low. My 0-60 and quartermile would be better if that launch rpm is higher. Probably should of went Melen TCU tune. Quartermile of 11.97 at 116.3 mph. Currently no wheel spin, maybe with a higher rpm launch I would get wheel spin and ultimately the quartermile is still 11.9 anyways.

2800 and I had wheelspin. It sounded like a squawk, but watching a video recorded by a friend and using the logs from HPtuners, showed it was more than that. I can see exactly what happens as the RPMs went up and then when the tires hooked the revs dropped ever so slightly. Remember, I'm at the track on a prepped surface. However, I do have dual pulley and the car is making more torque down low, so you need to factor that in.

[A665]

2013 A6 3.0T, 135k miles, in good condition, EPL stage 2 single pulley and TCU tune, per Dragy 0-60 is 3.82sec, quartmile is 11.97sec.

The issue is I'm stuck on EPL, and would have to buy 034 or IE tune.

My dilemma: I could spend $1,000 for the other pulley and heat exchanger But I would have to spend another $1,600 for 034/IE tune, spark plugs are easy to change, just did the waterpump/themo 10k miles ago, did not do the pcv because shop said it did not need to be replace ( prob will regret it, eats burns 0.75 quart of oil per 5k miles ), test pipes cats are probably going have to be replace if I go dual pulleys, another $500.

So for another $3k, is it worth it and would I be going much faster than 11.97sec? Let me know yah thoughts.

$3k to pick up, what, maybe a few tenths? You say you don't track the car. You won't even feel the incremental increase beyond the first 5 pulls.
HARD PASS.

[Burkeomatic]

Burk... great comments and advice. I didn't think about JHM but will consider them now. I just like the IE idea of adjustable launch RPMs.

When you switched laterally with JHM, was your 0-60 and quartermile any faster or was it just the everyday driving experience better?

I thought EPL was done? Back in 2021 when I first tune with them, Chris was helpful so I can't complain.

Driving in D mode it felt okay but sluggish like you said. In S mode the car woke up. If I launch in AMAX mode, the car drives fine and there are no funny business when shifting. However, if it is in S mode and I accelerate hard from a slow crawl, the car will have a 0.25 sec delay shift from 1 to 2 or from 2 to 3.

I feel that the EPL launch of 2,600rpm is too low. My 0-60 and quartermile would be better if that launch rpm is higher. Probably should of went Melen TCU tune. Quartermile of 11.97 at 116.3 mph. Currently no wheel spin, maybe with a higher rpm launch I would get wheel spin and ultimately the quartermile is still 11.9 anyways.

My record 0-60 went drom 3.8 to 3.5. I think my record is 3.4 but I can repeat 3.5.

Thanks for reminding me about the awful 1-2 shift on epl, it would hang up and really piss you off, mine did that too.

I also wanted the 130mph limiter taken off so I could run the texas mile and epl absolutely would not do it. That was the final straw and I left. What kind of tuning company wont let a car have the speed limiter removed for a sanctioned racing event? So I didn't run it that year and I haven't had the stars align for me since.

Luckily I had bought it "used" and was not out the full price.

Is EPL out of business? I don't know. I'm not so much angry or mad than disappointed, you would think they would have done better the way they used to spam the forum with "buy our awesome tunes."

It is partially my fault though, I didn't do very good research, saw a few people liked it, and bought the tune in the classifieds. Had I done my research, I wouldn't have bought it.

It also took a couple of weeks to get the tune transferred over to me, and you could only load it up in the window of time they dictated, which necessitated me leabing work early, which I did a couple of times only to have my tune unavailable.

Looking back, it was more than a minor inconvenience, lol.

[Daytonview]

Burk... 3 questions.

1. So the shift delay or hung up in D or S mode at 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 shift are gone on the JHM TCU tune?

2. When you moved from EPL to JHM ecu tune, did you flash back to stock on EPL then tuned to JHM or did you flash straight to JHM ecu tune?

3. What is your quartermile on JHM stage 2 single pulley tune?

[Burkeomatic]

Burk... 3 questions.

1. So the shift delay or hung up in D or S mode at 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 shift are gone on the JHM TCU tune?

2. When you moved from EPL to JHM ecu tune, did you flash back to stock on EPL then tuned to JHM or did you flash straight to JHM ecu tune?

3. What is your quartermile on JHM stage 2 single pulley tune?

1. Yes.

2. I flashed it back to stock before I flashed to the JHM tune, although I hear mixed things on the necessity of that. (It would make sense to me that you wouldn't need to, but I did it just to be safe).

3. My record was 11.8 last summer in a coolish evening, it would have probably been better over the winter, but my motor mounts just fully let go on me and I had some life happening, so I couldn't tell you. For all intents and purposes, you car should be faster most of the year than mine. I need to charge my dragy up and get some better runs.

Actually, I am thinking back about all the issues I had, and I thought I had made a post about why my car was so slow. I couldn't find it, but I did find this post about a P0219 "engine overspeed" I made a while back when I was running EPL. I kept getting that damned code. I haven't seen it since I went JHM. I noted that my car was going mid 12's on EPL, and IIRC the best time I think I managed was a 12.2 or a 12.3. I'll keep looking for little nuggets of info I left laying around. I technically still own the tune, as I cant resell it being the second user, it is what it is (yet again had I know that when I bought it, I never would have, but yet again, my fault). My memory is fuzzy as I only used it for several months, as I was so disappointed with it I changed it.

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/933568-P0219-Engine-Overspeed

Edit, I seem to mention it in passing in my build thread to. When I say I switched and never looked back, I mean it.

All that being said, there could have been something wonky loading the tune up...... although I think I may have done it twice just to make sure. There could have been other things causing it, I don't know. I don't want to say with absolute authority that EPL is garbage, but when I switched to JHM, that cleared a ton of my issues up.