Vinny's s4 timeline

[James777]

Vinny

Car is looking great!! What are your thoughts on the Rev Motoring springs now that they've had a chance to settle in? Also I'm planning on doing some soundproofing, as I've got a FI exhaust, and trying to quieten down the cabin noise/drone. Any advice/comments/suggestions with removing the boot trim, rear shelf, etc as you've done it? Any hints and tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks

James

[Mr. Corey]

Car looks much better with the drop nice work!

[bmoreS4]

Good stuff man, keep it up.

[q_dubz]

You've been busy! BTW I have those same license plate LEDs, do you get a bulb out code cause I do!

[Gosser]

The drop looks good!

Any update on that stereo? After picking mine up yesterday, I realized the stereo can really use some more jam.

[VinnysS4]

hello Audizine. It has been ages since i have posted anything here. Life got SUPER crazy there for a while. Lots has happened since i last posted. I'll try to remember it all and update as i go.

So i posted on a stereo forum a while back asking for advice. I wanted a daily setup with the subwoofer i have and i want it to be light weight and removable for long trips when i need my trunk. I was told to sell it and buy something that fits. LOL so i set out on a mission to accomplish just that. Lightweight is a pretty relative term, and everyone might have their own ideas as to what that means for them. For me, i just didn't want to add an extra 150 LBS for a speaker box to hold the sub in. So i decided to do a hybrid Ported/infinite baffle setup. The subwoofer i have is a Fi BTL N2 18". it needs at least 6 cubic feet of airspace to sound decent. So i did a lot of math and used a Giant bag of packing peanuts (seriously haha) to measure the volume of the trunk. i decided to basically "wall" the trunk off as its called and use the remaining trunk space as the subwoofer enclosure. i don't like everyone else's approach of just throwing a pair of subs in a small box and tossing it into the trunk. Tho it is a LOT easier, less crazy, and less expensive than my approach...lol... its just not for me.

I decided to seal the front half of the trunk from the rear, behind the trunk liner/carpet. I took some 1" closed cell foam used in industrial sound deadening applications and lined pretty much every inch of sheet metal behind the trunk liner to help with noise. I started mocking it all up with cardboard before making any cuts to make sure it would all fit. i cut some MDF inserts and glued them to the dynamat on the sheet metal. that way i can always remove it at a later time when i get bored with it or sell the car. I cut a piece of wood that fits on the under side of the rear shelf. i glued and screwed it into place using the factory screws that hold the rear sunshade in.







My idea was to mount a Baffle board to the inside of the trunk at the same angle as the rear seats so i would lose as little trunk space as possible. I decided to mount the subwoofer inverted and facing into the "enclosure" aka trunk for a few reasons. 1. with the seats folded down, it looks bad ass. lol 2. if i get a little crazy with the volume, i will be able to smell the coils WAY before if the motor structure was inside the enclosure and 3. i'm going to make a grill to cover the woofer so it will be less noticeable when i pop the trunk. Its a lot easier to hide the cone than the magnet, and with the seats up, you wouldn't have a clue what lies behind them.





Part of my crazy last few months was a career shift. I'm now a sheet metal worker and have access to all sorts of equipment. So i decided to make some angle brackets for the baffle board to mount to.




I wanted to get as much output as possible so i did a rolled port. i taped the trunk off, molded some foam into the approximate shape i wanted and threw a few layers of fiberglass over it. I haven't ever done this before so don't laugh too hard at the outcome. LOL its a learning experience :) It is getting covered in carpet anyways, so i don't care if its a little rough.










I made a mounting bracket for my extra battery and built a bus bar to transfer the power to my amps, and built a quick amp rack to mount my Sub amp. I should have known better that buying such a big amp would come back to hinder me. lol. this thing is huge and took some finessing to get it to fit.

Stay tuned...more to come....

[VinnysS4]

saved for more pictures ;)

[VinnysS4]

Q-dubz

I actually ended up going with the OEM bulbs again. One of the lights quit working all together and never threw any codes, the led housing would just get super hot.

[Badger Audi]

Who flosses while driving??

That ashtray lid is probably being jammed by loose change that dropped behind it.

Nice work on the clean.

Rick Ross?

[q_dubz]

wow that's some WORK!

[VinnysS4]

Yeah! The lady doesn't get why I spend as much time working on my car as I do. I have been crazy busy and have much more to upload...just gotta find the time.

[RPMtech147]

Lotta work = )

[VinnysS4]

Hello hello. It's been a minute since I've posted anything, figured I'd bring some eye candy along with some woes. Sadly, I have had to park my baby and drive something else. She is in dire need of repairs and I can't daily her any more until she goes under the knife. More about that later. Now, onto the good stuff..

After lowering my car, the front tires now had more camber than stock due to non adjustable front control arms. I ate through a set of tires pretty quickly so I bought these..


I'm not sure what is going on in my passenger front suspension, but every time I turn my heels or hit any bump, I get a loud "rubber squealing " super embarrassing lid a** noise. I have looked At The suspension and my guess is a bad shock body. I know the shocks will fail due to being lowered. I disconnected the tie rod an the car still does it at ride height. If i Jack the car up, it goes away. I'm going to be pulling the suspension and doing a thorough looking over. Coil overs might be in my near future.

<a href="http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/vinnybabroni/media/20161007_105230_zps4wawqrkl.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah301/vinnybabroni/20161007_105230_zps4wawqrkl.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20161007_105230_zps4wawqrkl.jpg"/></a>

Pulled the downpipes and gutted the front cats. I feel like it woke her up a bit, however, it brought with it a resonant sound right at the floor of the car. Not to pleased with it so I'm going to make some downpipes soon. More to come with that.


Driving home from the mountain and had a bad slapping sound. Found this



Soo....

[0396]

Congrats with "all" your projects. When I was much much younger, I would do the same..create projects to customize the car to my liking. Good luck with your adventures.

[VinnysS4]

Well after sooooooo much debating, reading, banging my head against the wall, haha. I finally decided to swap in a 6-speed transmission. The torque converter is going out in the Tiptronic transmission, so after adding up all the cost of a new torque converter, me personally rebuilding the transmission, and me personally rebuilding the valve body in the transmission, I decided that it would cost about the same amount of money to do a complete 6-speed swap. Then I can even pull the rear differential, rear axles, Driveline, front axles, downpipes and crossmember and part those out to help lessen the dent on my wallet. I pulled the trigger today and ordered a 6-speed swap kit from Wolf Auto Parts. It looks to have everything included with the kit, including the rear differential that I noticed they don't include and some of their swap kits. I'm also going to do the timing kit while the engine is out, and I'm going to weld up some custom catless downpipes and maybe an exhaust to go along with it. One of my buddies at work is a custom metal fabricator and is on board and ready to make me any parts that I need that I cannot make myself. I have been seeing the value of S4's slowly dropping over the last year and it kind of scares me. So now I'm kind of stuck with this car and hope to be driving it for another hundred thousand miles and at that time I'll pass it on to another enthusiast! Stay tuned for more to come!
Vinny

[ZimbutheMonkey]

Well after sooooooo much debating, reading, banging my head against the wall, haha. I finally decided to swap in a 6-speed transmission. The torque converter is going out in the Tiptronic transmission, so after adding up all the cost of a new torque converter, me personally rebuilding the transmission, and me personally rebuilding the valve body in the transmission, I decided that it would cost about the same amount of money to do a complete 6-speed swap. Then I can even pull the rear differential, rear axles, Driveline, front axles, downpipes and crossmember and part those out to help lessen the dent on my wallet. I pulled the trigger today and ordered a 6-speed swap kit from Wolf Auto Parts. It looks to have everything included with the kit, including the rear differential that I noticed they don't include and some of their swap kits. I'm also going to do the timing kit while the engine is out, and I'm going to weld up some custom catless downpipes and maybe an exhaust to go along with it. One of my buddies at work is a custom metal fabricator and is on board and ready to make me any parts that I need that I cannot make myself. I have been seeing the value of S4's slowly dropping over the last year and it kind of scares me. So now I'm kind of stuck with this car and hope to be driving it for another hundred thousand miles and at that time I'll pass it on to another enthusiast! Stay tuned for more to come!
Vinny

Good call on the 6 speed swap. I did the same on my Passat way back when (5 speed FWD) and yeah you're right. By the time you add up all the parts required for a tiptronic rebuild, you may as well put the 6 speed in.

With respect to the downpipes, just order the SS Autochrome ones. I've had mine in for about a year now and I've had no issues with them (knock on wood). Trust me, having fabricated my own downpipes on my V6, it's way cheaper and far easier to just shell out $300 and be done with it.

Contrary to what all the ignorant naysayers think, the SS Autochrome catless downpipes are every bit as good as the JHM ones and can be had at a fraction of the price.

*****One thing to note, YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR CAM TIMING IF YOU GO CATLESS!!!****** In a nutshell, you have to separate the lobe angles way more with catless downpipes. Otherwise you'll get a big dip in torque. I've documented it all when I did my downpipes. I suspect the issue has to do with the fact that the S4 exhaust manifolds have those hydroformed internal sections. Basically, what happens is you have the exhaust pulse exiting this tiny high pressure section, then once it hits the open 2.5 in area where the cat used to be, you get a counter-pulse which causes a reversion before the exhaust valve even gets a chance to close.

I know it seems counter-intuitive, but I have tons of logging data that shows a loss of power with the amount of overlap that the stock ECU demands early on in the RPM band.

If you want, PM me if you go catless and I can send you a .bin with my own revised cam timing tables.

Also, make sure that you have an H-pipe or an X-pipe as well. Again, you loose power if you go catless and the cylinder banks can't equalize pressure.

**********PS: also MAKE SURE THAT WHEN YOU BOLT THE 6 SPEED TO YOUR TIP EQUIPPED BLOCK THAT YOU INSTALL THE SPACER!!!!******* I made the mistake of bolting a 6 speed to a tiptronic equipped block without the spacer and ended up with a 10 inch crack all around the bellhousing

I can probably salvage the transmission, but now I need to find someone to TIG weld it back together. That's what set me back on my hardtop build over the Christmas holidays. I'll get the car back together eventually, but it was just sickening to see...

[VinnysS4]

Thanks for all that info bud! I have high hopes for my S4 after she's done. I won't do a rush job because I have 2 other vehicles to drive in the mean time. I live where I don't have DEQ, so I will probably be going catless. I don't want to drive with a CEL so that is a concern. I'm either going to buy DP s with a j bung welded in, or I'll do it myself to pull the rear O2 out of the air stream.

That's crazy about the bellhousing ... can you elaborate on the spacer?
Yes an x pipe is a must. I'm looking at building a full 2.5" 409 stainless exhaust . Resonated with flowmaster deltaforce 40 series mufflers. Unless I plan on going bigger than 400 hp, I don't see the need for much larger exhaust. I have access to TIG and mig welders and a shop to the weld it up at, so I'm not worried about that. I had debated on just going with aluminized steel, but I plan on keeping my car for a while and I want a little bit better corrosion resistance. Stainless is the way to go. I work with 304 and 316 daily, but 409 is a better Alloy.
We will definitely have to talk about tuning!

Right now one of my Jeeps is just torn apart in my driveway and I am waiting parts for that. So in a couple days when I get the parts installed and that jeep all back together, I will swap spots with my Audi and start on the process of getting the engine out. Tons of pictures to come!

[ZimbutheMonkey]

Thanks for all that info bud! I have high hopes for my S4 after she's done. I won't do a rush job because I have 2 other vehicles to drive in the mean time. I live where I don't have DEQ, so I will probably be going catless. I don't want to drive with a CEL so that is a concern. I'm either going to buy DP s with a j bung welded in, or I'll do it myself to pull the rear O2 out of the air stream.

That's crazy about the bellhousing ... can you elaborate on the spacer?
Yes an x pipe is a must. I'm looking at building a full 2.5" 409 stainless exhaust . Resonated with flowmaster deltaforce 40 series mufflers. Unless I plan on going bigger than 400 hp, I don't see the need for much larger exhaust. I have access to TIG and mig welders and a shop to the weld it up at, so I'm not worried about that. I had debated on just going with aluminized steel, but I plan on keeping my car for a while and I want a little bit better corrosion resistance. Stainless is the way to go. I work with 304 and 316 daily, but 409 is a better Alloy.
We will definitely have to talk about tuning!

Right now one of my Jeeps is just torn apart in my driveway and I am waiting parts for that. So in a couple days when I get the parts installed and that jeep all back together, I will swap spots with my Audi and start on the process of getting the engine out. Tons of pictures to come!

The spacer is basically a metal cutout outline of the shape of the bellhousing. If you don't have it in place, you overtorque the bell housing and crack it.

As for your exhaust, I'd just use galvanized piping or even mild steel. Any exhaust I've ever made hasn't been made out of stainless and I've never had a problem with rusting. But It's your call. Stainless just adds a lot of cost and it can have a tendancy to crack along the welds.

Looking forward to see your results

Finally, another option for your exhaust would be to do what I did with my cabrio and use the catback portion from an RS4 if you can find one for cheap (you'll just need to weld in an H pipe section where the pipes meet up, about a foot into the catback.)

The center resonator section is designed just right to avoid drone. Throw on a set of Magnaflows (the RS4 muffers are too wide for the S4 with the spare tire well) and it's about the best sounding exhaust system I've ever heard on an S4 and anyone who's ever heard it seems to agree

[neilpaku]

Hi Zimbu, do you have any data on fuel consumption with the change from hollowed out pre-cats to straight pipes, like those Autochrome you mentioned? Presumably it'd be a bit better if the engine is able to make better torque on the fuel that it's using. I'm just curious on how much I'm leaving on the table. Can't imagine it's a mile or two?

[q_dubz]

Hey Vinny, where'd you get the axle boots? I need to do that myself.

[neilpaku]

Zimbu, I looked at the picture of those SS Autochrome downpipes on their website. Kit looks like it has pre-cats and no main cats - is that correct? I was under the impression that the pre-cats (either presence of them, or if removed, then the diameter transition issue in the emptied out container) was a constraint on the engine, not the main cats. What's your findings / thoughts?

[VinnysS4]

Hey Vinny, where'd you get the axle boots? I need to do that myself.

If i remember correctly, I got them from eithet rockauto or ecs tuning. Ill be ordering a few more to make sure the ones going on my car will be good to go.

Where is a good place to get valve guides and seals and headbolts?

[q_dubz]

If i remember correctly, I got them from eithet rockauto or ecs tuning. Ill be ordering a few more to make sure the ones going on my car will be good to go.

Where is a good place to get valve guides and seals and headbolts?

Audiatlantaparts.com

- - - Updated - - -

Also techtonics tuning has seals

[ZimbutheMonkey]

Zimbu, I looked at the picture of those SS Autochrome downpipes on their website. Kit looks like it has pre-cats and no main cats - is that correct? I was under the impression that the pre-cats (either presence of them, or if removed, then the diameter transition issue in the emptied out container) was a constraint on the engine, not the main cats. What's your findings / thoughts?

The one that I got was just a straight 2.5 in pipe. But yes, you're correct about the transition issue with a hollowed out large diameter area right behind the exhaust manifold. You'll create a resonance wave that will eventually cause a reversion as the RPM's hit it's natural resonance frequency. You'd have to dial the cam timing back at that point to avoid reversion, both of which will likely hurt your powerband.

I say stay with the straight pipes and adjust your cam timing accordingly (separate the cam angles more than stock).

[VinnysS4]

Thanks for the info dubz. They at pricy tho at $333.60 for the 40 guides. Europa has them for less than half that at $158. I'm going to check the valve to guide clearances to see where I sit first. I'm planning on port/gasket matching both the intake an exhaust ports. If im going this far into it.... The sky's the limit

[VinnysS4]

Well the day has come. I got my garage cleaned up and my work bench setup. My 6 speed MT swap kit came in and I have ordered a slew of parts to go with it. I still need to order the timing parts but I figured I'd wait until i crack open the mechanical adjusters. I searched and searched and looked at options for exhaust but couldn't find anything that I deemed "affordable". LOL
So I'm going to do a home brew exhaust of sorts. I am a sheet metal worker and have to deal with round pipes and using trigonometry to derive pipe lengths and angles so I don't think it will be hard. I ordered up a bunch of T304 stainless 2.5" exhaust tubing, 2 stainless flex connectors and 4 O2 bungs. I also got some flowmaster delta force 40 series mufflers fornthw back-end. I ordered enough piping to do downpipes and full exhaust. I'm going to go catless and non resonated for the moment and if it's too loud I will throw in some resonators. I'm going to do an x pipe as well. As for exhaust tips, I do like the quad exhaust look but I'm more partial to the oval tips. I might end up going oval with it. I am in no way trying to copy the RS4 or make my car look like an RS4, I just like the oval tips.
I have debated on throwing a set of headers as well, but I would no way shape or form pay $2,300 for a pair of headers right now. I've already spent way too much money. I've looked at the XS power headers but I don't like the lack of a proper merge collector. I thought about buying a set and modifying them but in the end I think if I do anything I'll just fab up a set for my own. There is a guy who converts the RS4 stock headers into S4 Headers by changing the flange, but I would still be looking at $700 plus shipping from another country.
We will see......

[jmcS4]

Good luck! Take lots of pics for us


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[q_dubz]

Thanks for the info dubz. They at pricy tho at $333.60 for the 40 guides. Europa has them for less than half that at $158. I'm going to check the valve to guide clearances to see where I sit first. I'm planning on port/gasket matching both the intake an exhaust ports. If im going this far into it.... The sky's the limit

Yea my upgraded valvetrain came with EVERYTHING so I only had a few suggestions. FCP euro is another good one.

[stringbean]

Cool build man! I'll be keeping an eye on your progress as you continue. Check out my build. I'm doing some stereo as well.


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[Terry.Reese]

I pm'd you about those parts.

[kevinye77137]

Let me see those piston rings! Do you consume oil?

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[neilpaku]

Just having it running properly will be reward enough, before you get into headers and such.

[VinnysS4]

Thanks for The pm. I'm still sorting out my budget.
No I don't really consume much oil. I think the most I've seen is less than a quart over 5k miles, but typically I don't use much if any. More doing it because the engine will be out.

My engine actually runs very good. It's jusy the torque converter issue.

[VinnysS4]

Here are just a few photos to get started...many many more to come!



Why does audi think this is a good idea to flatten out the exhaust pipes? Lol this is deffinatey robbing the s4 of breathing properly



This will be my work bench. It will be nice to be able to stand and work on stuff! Ignore the crap behind the table lol


I have a thing for how these sound on Audis:

[VinnysS4]

Well, thanks to photobucket, I'm going to have to repost all of my photos. I just wanted to give a short but long awaited update on my build log. I have had my car parked for a few months now and have done a ton of work to it. I have a family and a full time job, so my car is not completed, but it is getting close.

Here is a list of stuff I've done:
*Swapping from a automatic transmission to a manual transmission (New axels, driveline, rear differential)
*New clutch and resurfaced dual mass flywheel
*Head gaskets
*cleaned pistons
*valve seals
*valve job
*stage 2 port and polish on the heads
*port matched intake and head
*polished all valves
*timing chains and all guides/tensioners along with 2 updated RS4 guides and cam control housing guides
*new control arms with adjustable uppers
*Stern track motor mounts
*motor mount CEL resistors
*Stern street transmission mount
*2.5" 304 stinless custom made catless downpipes with built in 02 "non-fowler" pipe for no CEL.
*2.5" 304 stainless custom exhaust. Non-resonated with x pipe, running flowmaster delta force 40 series mufflers
*rear charcoal canister evap delete
*passenger auxiliary radiator delete
*custom TRUE cold air intake (not a hot air intake)
*Ported and polished throttle body and throttle body elbow
*injector seals
*brand new 32 way adjustable coilovers
*034 track upper strut mounts
*stitched welded subframe
*secondary air injection delete with custom 16 gauge T316L stainless block off plates.
*cleaned and painted intake manifold and valve covers
*gold heat reflective tape on underside of manifold
*New tires
*JL Audio component door speakers.

And most important, new wiper blades lol

Pictures to come


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[VinnysS4]

Real quick middle finger to JHM for not selling me the plastic spring retainers for the mechanical adjusters and only suggest me pay $750 and I'll get them. Really cool guys. I made my own out of some aluminum at work

[VinnysS4]

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[VinnysS4]

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[VinnysS4]

Much much more to come!!

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[Mr. Corey]

Coming along nicely!