MisFortune & Fortune Today...

[Eddie Man]

Today, I was headed out down I-75 to finally get my JHM Tune at VAST here in Detroit (Ferndale) when I started to smell rubber then shortly thereafter a funny pulling/tugging of the wheel...

I said, WTF, and pulled off the interstate and into a parking lot.


I guess, lucky for me I didn't ruin my rim and the tire actually collapsed over the rim. The tire completely got shreded and frankly just started to crumble.
Oh well after inspection, it appears that I ran over something pretty sharp and blunt to puncture about a 1/2 diameter into the meat of the tire.

Well anyways, rolled up the sleeves and changed this bad boy on the spot.
Trusty (I call it trusty as it was fail proof, gotta use some common sense w/these jacks) jack & minimal tools. The OEM BBS rim/tire came in handy just like it should for emergency.
Got another Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 on its way from TireRack

Back on the road to VAST to get my JHM Tune...
But first some detail.

About a week ago, I pulled the trigger on a set of Milltek Catless DownPipes from Stratmosphere as my Milltek HiFlowCat DPs were starting to fail (70k on them). So I figure why not just swap them out and go for the gusto and do the JHM tune at the same time, so I did.



BTW, I did measure these DPs and they are indeed 2 1/2" in diameter.


I installed these w/o hesitation in my garage w/the help of Joey's S4 6MT DP Removal/Install DIY
Props to Joey for a well written and informative write-up

Also took Joey's suggestion to double up on the O2 extenders to aid in avoiding the dreaded Cat-CEL (eventhough the JHM Tune takes care of this).


Here's a pic of how the Milltek DPs compared.


Well anyways, back to the JHM Tune...
It took about 45 minutes to get the chip burned into my ECU.
Prince was great and Mike (the master) did the operating.
After the install Prince and I took it for a spin for a test run and some data logging for record.

Now let me tell you, this JHM Tune is unbelievable IMHO...
It revs and gets going much faster and quicker. Almost the sense of that I am almost WOT all the time but I'm not.
The throttle response is much more agressive to the touch of the pedal waiting for gas.
It pulls much harder right through 6500 RPM.
I got the 93 octane tune and explained to their programmer that I was going completely catless so I believe he tuned it to that spec.

After about 4 hours of driving soft and hard, I am 1000% satisfied as this is definetly a new beast at 71k miles.
I'm sure I'll have a more descriptive opinion of my experience once I have a little more road time w/it.
All smiles here

[UnstableOS]

Nice! Can't wait for my FI setup and tune..

Why did you go with Milltek DPs over other options?

[iconoclast]

bitter sweet day.

[joeycuccaro]

Awesome man! Nice day for you. Unfortunally when i got my new dps and tune tragedy followed soon after. Hope you can enjoy it longer than i did. Thanks for the drops on the DIY.

Was it easy enough to get the DP's out?

Regarding the tune and your cats, the JHM tuned ecu will adapt to itself to whatever setup you have. I was concerned since my tune was set for piggies and then i installed downpipes, but Jay and VAST reassured me that it will adapt itself on its own. Great guys! Couldn't ask for better support or products.

[EYE4SPEED]

Hey Eddie. Must be nice being local! Congrats on the upgrades. I wanted to do the tune first (new car feeling) and then the DP's (new car feeling again).

Since the old ones failed, can JHM gut those and install them on my car??? I'd be happy to pay you for the old ones...

[Eddie Man]

Nice! Can't wait for my FI setup and tune..

Why did you go with Milltek DPs over other options?

Thanks and Well, I guess I just wanted to keep it within the "Family"...
My take as to having no issues (fitment, sizing, placement, etc).

bitter sweet day.

You got it !!!

Awesome man! Nice day for you. Unfortunally when i got my new dps and tune tragedy followed soon after. Hope you can enjoy it longer than i did. Thanks for the drops on the DIY.

Was it easy enough to get the DP's out?

Regarding the tune and your cats, the JHM tuned ecu will adapt to itself to whatever setup you have. I was concerned since my tune was set for piggies and then i installed downpipes, but Jay and VAST reassured me that it will adapt itself on its own. Great guys! Couldn't ask for better support or products.

Thanks Joey...
My heart goes out to you on your situation.
With you having your head in the right spot, I'm sure you'll be just fine landing on your feet prolly in a better situation than before.
Good luck w/that my friend.

Yeah, I believe you are spot on w/the self adapting feature for throttle response and such but from what I gathered when collaborating w/JHM, they do have flexibility to somewhat stretch the boundaries (lean vs rich) when it comes to having a catless system. No issues whatsoever will come about when burning very hot. Burning hot though is a major issue when cats are present.
So, me not being completely astute w/this programming matter, that is my "Engineer" take at it.

And yes, the VAST/JHM partnership is definetely a win-win for us :)

Hey Eddie. Must be nice being local! Congrats on the upgrades. I wanted to do the tune first (new car feeling) and then the DP's (new car feeling again).

Since the old ones failed, can JHM gut those and install them on my car??? I'd be happy to pay you for the old ones...

Thanks for the well wishes...
I sold/traded my Milltek DPs & Stock OEM DPs to VAST today.
What I would do is contact Prince 1st thing tomorrow and stake claim.
Tell him you spoke to me and hopefully he can cut you a deal after he guts them.

[Sharkfin]

Sounds exactly like the title, . Get a vid of the exhaust sound when you get a chance.

[whartung]

And yes, the VAST/JHM partnership is definetely a win-win for us :)Thanks for the well wishes...
I sold/traded my Milltek DPs & Stock OEM DPs to VAST today.
What I would do is contact Prince 1st thing tomorrow and stake claim.
Tell him you spoke to me and hopefully he can cut you a deal after he guts them.

what will you do about emissions? i've always wondered about people who go catless.

[Sharkfin]

what will you do about emissions? i've always wondered about people who go catless.

Read above, two O2 spacers and the tune will hide it.

[whartung]

Read above, two O2 spacers and the tune will hide it.

i'm not asking about CEL actually. although now that you mention it, there are 2 o2 sensors on each downpipe, right? so you needed 8 spacers to do what you did?

[Mr. Corey]

Great write up. I'm going to do this next summer! Where did u get the O2 sensor extension? Hardware store or?

[Eddie Man]

what will you do about emissions? i've always wondered about people who go catless.

Well that's a touchy subject for some but really not for me...
Believe me, I love the enviroment and the tree-hugger movement but truthfully this goes against that grain.
So not to be accused of being hypocritical, I opted to go catless.
Now for emission testing issue, Michigan did away w/that requirement years ago. Auto registration does not require emission testing here in Michigan.
Now I believe it is heavily enforced in many other states, like CA & NY.

[Eddie Man]

There are 2 o2 sensors on each downpipe, right? so you needed 8 spacers to do what you did?

Yes & No...
Yes that we have 2 O2 sensors per downpipe.
No, that you only need 4 extenders, 2 per O2 sensors post cats or in other words the last O2 sensors.
Atleast that is what I did.
The 1st sensors are important as their main purposes are to directly report back to the ECU for proper fuel/air mixtures and timing.
The 2nd sensors are for reporting Cat efficiency/failure.
Joey, please correct me if I am wrong.

[Eddie Man]

Great write up. I'm going to do this next summer! Where did u get the O2 sensor extension? Hardware store or?

This is a damn great question as I believe all O2 sensor extenders are NOT created equal.

I've actually purchased inferior extenders that busted because of soft metal.
That was a big problem for me as I had major difficulty removing the broken section of the extender from my DPs.
Not fun at all.

I did find these Stainless Steel O2 Extenders that are far superior in quality.
They work(ed) great for me.

[Eddie Man]

Sounds exactly like the title, . Get a vid of the exhaust sound when you get a chance.

I'll do this hopefully this weekend so stay tuned

[Mr. Corey]

This is a damn great question as I believe all O2 sensor extenders are NOT created equal.

I've actually purchased inferior extenders that busted because of soft metal.
That was a big problem for me as I had major difficulty removing the broken section of the extender from my DPs.
Not fun at all.

I did find these Stainless Steel O2 Extenders that are far superior in quality.
They work(ed) great for me.

Thank you!! Going to order these now. Then when I go catless I'll be good to go.

[beemercer]

You're gonna be sounding like me . The tune and catless downpipes will really do a ton for your get-up-and-go.
And don't feel like a hypocrite, I've been running catless for months (and am a generally pretty strong advocate), and I'm taking two environmental engineering classes at the moment . So you're doing nothing more than helping me out with future job security.

PS for anyone with questions regarding the emissions regulationsh and getting around them/ exhaust performance feel free to PM me and I'll get back to you.

[ngng]

wow, just wow.

[oatzel]

congrats eddie.

[drew]

very nice. dps + tune FTW

[jaybquick@JHM]

Glad to hear you are happy with the tune. You did not need to run those spacers on your 02 sensors. We have this handled in our tunes now. So if they ever become troublesome you will be fine removing them.

Thanks again and enjoy, we have hundreds of hours tied up in these tunes glad to see it is being enjoyed by another B6/B7 S4 guy.

[b6onboost]

Speaking of sharp objects in tires reminds me of when I had my Jeep Wrangler. It had oversized off road tires with thick treads. Every once in a while I'd get a minor air leak and take it to a tire shop. On seprate occations they pulled out the head of fork and a fiskar scissor blade. Both times only resulted in a patch.

Your tire pics are what i would assume would happen if a low profile tire hit something like that. Sometimes its amazing the crap laying around on the roads.