2000 A6 4.2 - Project Mayhem

[v8a6]

Well, I still havent got the heads back from the shop. In the meantime, Ive done a few more mods

JHM short shifter (med spring) and derlin knob
LED tail lights
Plastidipped the wheels black :)






After doing the wheels, all the chrome trim is really starting to bug me. It will be next to be blacked out when I have the time, along with the mirrors.

[8520]

Starting to look like a muscle car, in a good way.

Clear corner those headlights already!

[v8a6]

LOL. Ill get around to them eventually :)

[v8a6]

Finally got the heads back from the shop! Ported, polished, and all cleaned up. Apparently, quite a lot of work was done on the porting.

[beemercer]

very nice, can't wait to see what they do for you

[v8a6]

very nice, can't wait to see what they do for you

Yeah, me too. We will soon see if the porting experiment nets me a nice HP gain, or if it was a waste of seventeen hundred bucks. Fingers crossed :)

One question.... I will be getting a JHM S6 modified tune when the heads/intake are installed. Im guessing it will be a variation of what are running. Am I likely to get alot of power from the first tune, or is the first one more of a test that then needs an update to achieve full potential? I am just wondering because I am VERY short on cash, and only have money for one dyno session. I am guessing it will be best to wait for at least the second tune to dyno the car?

[Hambone101]

I would install the heads and intake and get the tune done, then go to the dyno, and try to log as much info as possible. That way if anything needs to be tweaked you can get that done before a second doyno session. There are shops that offer a dyno tune session, time varies by shop, and if they have the right sofware they can dial the car in right there. That's only if the shop has the ability to tune your car.

With that said, I'm very interested in seeing where these mods get you. GL

[v8a6]

I would install the heads and intake and get the tune done, then go to the dyno, and try to log as much info as possible. That way if anything needs to be tweaked you can get that done before a second doyno session. There are shops that offer a dyno tune session, time varies by shop, and if they have the right sofware they can dial the car in right there. That's only if the shop has the ability to tune your car.

With that said, I'm very interested in seeing where these mods get you. GL

Thanks and good advice.

The only thing is that, in my case, I am having it tuned by JHM in California, not anyone locally with access to a dyno. Ill ask them if data logged accompanied by a dyno report will help them with the followup tunes.

[beemercer]

Yeah, me too. We will soon see if the porting experiment nets me a nice HP gain, or if it was a waste of seventeen hundred bucks. Fingers crossed :)

One question.... I will be getting a JHM S6 modified tune when the heads/intake are installed. Im guessing it will be a variation of what are running. Am I likely to get alot of power from the first tune, or is the first one more of a test that then needs an update to achieve full potential? I am just wondering because I am VERY short on cash, and only have money for one dyno session. I am guessing it will be best to wait for at least the second tune to dyno the car?

hmm, $1700 isnt too bad.. if I hang onto the A6 I may look into that after I pay off my Jeep.

Because of the head work you may not get everything all at once as far as power (since the amount of the air the car will move is still unknown). I would get the first tune, get some logs (I can walk you through this if need be), send them out and see what they say.

Who has your point of contact been? V8@jhmotorsports?

[v8a6]

That makes sense.

I have been mainly dealing with Keaton by telephone, and a couple calls with their Tuner (which I just forgot his name). Great guys to deal with.

They are aware of the project, and are just waiting on me at this point to schedule a time with them for the first tune and ECU mod (if necessary). Because my car is a 2000, it will likely be a bit different then the ones they have done with the newer ECUs. Regardless, they said it shouldn't be a problem.

I wanted to get the ECU done first, and then get the heads/intake/LW crank pulley installed seperately. However, because I have a loaner car for a limited amount of time, I will likely have to send the car to the shop to start the work, and yank the ECU and send it for programming at the same time. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly.

Gord Bush who did the head work, said that he did quite a bit of porting on the exhaust side, IIRC. He said that it should really open things up up top. We will see. I hope I dont lose too much on the low end. With your headers, I think your car would probably benefit even more. Anyway, we will have to see what happens with mine.

Thanks for the offer of help for the logging. When I get to that point, I will shoot you a message if I need assistance.

[beemercer]

^nice, I wanted to make sure you had talked to the calibrator (who normally prefers to remain nameless lol).

and not a surprise he did a lot of work on the exhaust side, when we were doing my headers we all noted how tight the exhaust side was (though thats typically how audi does it).

do you have newer or older exhaust manifolds? I'd think a 00 would have the older, S6 style ones.

and if you need to get a hold of me, my email is [email protected], I kinda come and go here so I may miss things so email would be quickest.

[v8a6]

Thanks Bee! I really appreciate all the help and guidance youve provided over the course of the project.

I am almost certain that I have the older S6-style ones. My mechanic swore that I had precats on the dps when he did the manual conversion on my car, while Scotty said that my car, being an early 2000, only came without precats and was equipped with the bigger S6 exhaust manifold. Well, Scotty was right; my dps had no pre-cats. So, Im assuming he is right about the exhaust manifold too, although I haven't been able to confirm this by sight. I went on the assumption that I had the S6 style ones when I planned the engine mods. If I had the smaller ones, I would think they would be a bottleneck in the system, and porting the heads may not have much impact. Hopefully the S6 style ones are good for at least 425-450hp before they start choking things off.

[v8a6]

Actually, if someone had a set of the S6 manifolds off the car, is it easy to figure out the cfm and deduce max hp? Or, is it more complicated then that?

[beemercer]

Actually, if someone had a set of the S6 manifolds off the car, is it easy to figure out the cfm and deduce max hp? Or, is it more complicated then that?

you could flow bench them and see what they do and get an idea, though the flow bench is better for comparing before and after porting something since the pressure setting would be kind of arbitrary for an exhaust manifold (hard to estimate dP at an exhaust port).

The S4s see issues at ~350whp on spray with the stock 3 runner/newer manifold, so hopefully you'll have a bit more room than that though that sounds like it would meet your goal(spray having slightly less volume per hp but without a positive manifold pressure).

[JediJoker7169]

Starting to look like a muscle car, in a good way.

Agreed.

Clear corner those headlights already!

Or buy some of these.

[v8a6]

Or buy some of these.

Love them! But $1169! Ouch! And the problem with all the eBay knockoffs is that they dont fit the widebody A6s.

I think my 'dream' headlights would be the Allroad ones in the widebody. Of course, they dont exist (but I think I saw one guy who made it work on some forum, with a total rebuild of the headlight)

[v8a6]

you could flow bench them and see what they do and get an idea, though the flow bench is better for comparing before and after porting something since the pressure setting would be kind of arbitrary for an exhaust manifold (hard to estimate dP at an exhaust port).

The S4s see issues at ~350whp on spray with the stock 3 runner/newer manifold, so hopefully you'll have a bit more room than that though that sounds like it would meet your goal(spray having slightly less volume per hp but without a positive manifold pressure).

Sounds like the ones I have should do the trick, then. Can't wait to get the heads installed.

[v8a6]

Hey,

Does anyone know what the circled roller parts in the picture below are called (or Audi part number would be even better for S8 head)?



Gord, who rebuilt the heads, suggsted replacing them with new ones. He said, a failure of them is catastrophic, and they should only be about 20 bucks each. One is smooth and solid feeling, while the other is loose and spins freely, while rattling a bit. I think that one is on the way out.

[terrytcl]

Hey,

Does anyone know what the circled roller parts in the picture below are called (or Audi part number would be even better for S8 head)?



Gord, who rebuilt the heads, suggsted replacing them with new ones. He said, a failure of them is catastrophic, and they should only be about 20 bucks each. One is smooth and solid feeling, while the other is loose and spins freely, while rattling a bit. I think that one is on the way out.

timing belt roller -

077109244C

nice build

[v8a6]

timing belt roller -

077109244C

nice build

THANKS!!!

[diabolical1]

impressive project. i really dig these A6s and yours is a stellar example.

[bmx_a4]

Your car looks awesome! I really like where you're taking things!

[CHEROHALA]

looks great man... very interested how much hp/tq she puts down when your done.

[sherbet]

Love it.

[v8a6]

Thanks for the comments guys. Just saving up some money to pay for the work that has to be done on the engine. Hopefully, Ill get the car in the shop by the end of the month.

[m_haiser]

any updates? sick build so far

[v8a6]

any updates? sick build so far

Thanks!

No recent updates, unfortunately. I had a big home reno project going on at the same time as this one, and it went way over budget and used all my cash. So, until I can scrape some more money together, the heads are sitting in the basement waiting to be installed.

[v8a6]

Actually, I am working on a set of new wheels. I found a set of 20x10s for really cheap. However, they need refinishing, so they might not end up so cheap in the end...



http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...30#post7822830

[Richard]

What are your thoughts on the finish? Loving the wheels with that car.

[v8a6]

What are your thoughts on the finish? Loving the wheels with that car.

Thanks! Looking at the wheels on their own, they probably wouldnt be my first choice. But, somehow I think they match the car perfectly.

The lips will be polished, and the centers will likely be brushed aluminum with clear coat (if I can afford it), or painted a light silver. Maybe something like HRE Satin silver. I was thinking maybe HRE Gold (as in pic below) but I have a feeling it just isnt going to look right. Vince is going to photoshop them gold for me to see what it looks like.

[v8a6]

latest pic

[v8a6]

Over a year after purchasing the S8 heads and intake, they are FINALLY on the car.

Initial impressions:

The car feels much smoother all through the powerband, and really takes off up top. I am not sure if the smoothness down low is due to the new parts, the JHM lightweight crank pulley, or other things that were fixed along the way. Regardless, everything just feels so much smoother, that the engine sounds like it is singing :)

Power - I wouldnt say it is a disappointment, but it isnt a "pound you to the back of your seat" fast. It is more of a smooth, gradual, quickness that really takes off above 5500 RPM. I guess this makes sense as there isnt really much difference in low end torque between an S8 and a A6 4.2.

Tuning - I am still running the stock A6 tune. This is definitely holding things back. On the highway flooring it, the car takes off until about 4500, then it suddenly drops about a 1000 rpm, and loses a lot of momentum. Same thing happens again at about 5700. It almost feels like you are in an automatic that just shifted. These are the points where the stock ECU is flipping the flaps on the S8 intake, in the wrong order. This should be resolved with a new tune.

On top of that, I should be able to increase the RPM limit on a new tune, to take advantage of the high end of the powerband. And furthermore, Im hoping that the tune will get the most out of the new parts. I would guess that the stock ECU probably isnt pulling all the power it could considering the port and polished heads, and the full 2.5 exhaust.

Still having idle issues that will be taken care of with the new tune also.

BOTTOM LINE: Stay TUNED :) Hope to have the new tune within a month or two, and then its off to the dyno to see if all this money I wasted actually translated into some healthy gains.

[v8a6]

One more thing...

a big THANKS to Rick and his team at RPM Imports in Toronto. They did an awesome job on the car, and returned it to me looking like the day it rolled off the lot. Definitely a top quality shop!

[v8a6]

Oh, one more thing...

The shop swapped the stock ECU out for one that I bought from a wrecked US car (also a 2000 A6 4.2). It was a straight swap and the new ECU works perfectly without any recoding. So, Ill be sending in my original for the new tune, and running the backup in the meantime.

This may not work on 2001 and up A6s due to the immobilizer, but it seemed to work fine on the 2000.

[beemercer]

nice, glad to hear you got the heads on.

I'd be inclined to say the stock tune is causing your issues. After I installed my headers my old tune would dial back throttle angle above 4500rpm since I was meeting requested load at part throttle.

[v8a6]

nice, glad to hear you got the heads on.

I'd be inclined to say the stock tune is causing your issues. After I installed my headers my old tune would dial back throttle angle above 4500rpm since I was meeting requested load at part throttle.

Ah, good to know. It does seem a more dramatic loss of power, then just the intake runner length could cause. I can see the intake runner length decreasing HP by to 20-30hp if configured wrong, but it shouldnt drop the RPM 1000. It feels more like the engine is suddenly cutting fuel (or cutting air), which makes sense considering what youre saying.

Hope the guys at JHM can sort it all out.

[Widebody4.2]

So much awesome

[v8a6]

So much awesome

Hahaha ... thanks

Just dying to get it tuned now

on the phone with JHM as we speak :)

[DNB01A64.2]

Hahaha ... thanks

Just dying to get it tuned now

on the phone with JHM as we speak :)

Cant wait to see the results man. subed to this thread ever since i been on here man. be sure to give hp/tq numbers when the tune is done PLEASE. lol good luck

[v8a6]

Cant wait to see the results man. subed to this thread ever since i been on here man. be sure to give hp/tq numbers when the tune is done PLEASE. lol good luck

For sure. Sent the ECU overnight to JHM, so I may even have it back by the weekend (if things go really well)

Called around and found a couple AWD dynos. So, MIGHT have a dyno as soon as early December, if the tune works well with the car.

One question, what type of logging can be done along with the dyno to check if the fuel injectors are getting maxxed out? I know people said the stock ones should suffice, but I'd like to verify this with logging. Anybody know?