Would you rather.. Save up and go stage 3 all at once or.. Slowly upgrade.

[j-dells]

I want to know what others may do. Im working over the summer and want to upgrade to stage three. Im debating saving up and getting all the parts and going full stage 3 all at once or possibly just upgrade here and there throughout the summer. What would you do?

[Audi_From_Hell]

I'd save up and do it all at once. My first s4 was stage 3 and I pieced it together slowly. This is my third s4 and this one will be getting the full treatment when the timing belt comes up. It's much easier to just do it all at once.

[vavJETTAw36]

It depends the tuning route you go. If going custom tuned, you will want to do any items that will affect the cars performance that way you can get it all tuned at once.

If going Off the shelf tune from giac, apr, asp, or awe to name a few, you can get away with doing it in pieces because you are tailoring the parts to the tune, not the tune to the parts.

The path that was taken for my car was an ASP fueling kit, k04s, and exhaust. I've been slowly upgrading other stuff like Intercoolers and fuel pump.

I much prefer to add things in one by one as it makes troubleshooting much easier. If you put everything in at once... Well... You have no clue what causes what. Gotta troubleshoot from scratch.

If you are looking for a cheap off the shelf fueling kit, I have for sale an AWE k04 fueling kit. 500 shipped. All you would need is k04 turbos. Comes with maf housing, injectors, ecu and tune. It's 93 octane btw. 365-400whp, 25psi




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[j-dells]

Sounds tempting but Im going to go e-85 and I guess im getting an apr tune but the people I go to help tune it to better suit my car. so its like their version of an apr tune.

[vavJETTAw36]

Sounds tempting but Im going to go e-85 and I guess im getting an apr tune but the people I go to help tune it to better suit my car. so its like their version of an apr tune.

Hopefully they will know to go low torque on e85 with stock internals. Do they have an e85 tune premade and just need to tweak it for your car?

[m47thew]

I'm in the same boat as you man. I've been lurking the forums for months now. Doing research on what seems to be the best way to go. I'm saving up to do everything at once. The deeper you go, the more you learn. I find myself changing my mind a lot which wouldn't be a good thing if I was to piece everything together. A big part of it for me is the Canadian dollar and shipping rates. Also I'm hoping that if I find one source I may be able to get a bulk deal and save some cash that way. I agree with the troubleshooting aspect mentioned above but with the amount of build threads and resources we have I feel pretty confident I will be ok. Save some money. Do your research. And dream about the beast of a car you are going to create.


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[verstappen]

I couldn't buy everything at once, I wanted to tackle anything that needed attention and anything that had easier access with the engine out. I started buying stuff in January, finished my car beginning of April. Unfortunately is back in the garage lol.

I would make sure I have everything ready before pulling the engine such as: clutch (if needed), mounts (both engine and trans), good time to do shifter bushings, Slave Cyl, I bought a new alternator, vacuum hoses, timing components, valve cover gaskets maybe and of course turbos, maf and housing, injectors, etc. Get your stuff lined up, then you wont be waiting on parts with the engine on the hoist.

[christianb5s4]

I'd do everything all at once, which is what I'm doing for my build. In addition, it's not just the parts you expect to replace. It's also the parts you don't expect to replace that will inevitably pop up during the build that you should budget for. My rule of thumb is do everything you can possibly afford to do while you're in there.

[jballou]

Do it all at once. Just drive your car normally, collect all the parts you need for the job, set aside some extra money for the stuff you can't see until you pull the motor, when you have all the parts and extra $, do the job. In the end, you will be happier, your car will run better, and overall, you will spend less money.

[j-dells]

Hopefully they will know to go low torque on e85 with stock internals. Do they have an e85 tune premade and just need to tweak it for your car?

Im pretty sure that they have anything I would need. They are the most prominent German car performance shop in my area.

[Dfloods4]

I'm with jballou do it all at once. It's taken me 2 years of parts hoarding but I've got just about everything would want. Plus since I wasn't in a hurry I got great deals on parts as sales came around and rare parts came up on the classifieds.


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[MarlinFoundNemo]

All at once for sure! Seeing that pile of go fast parts accumulate in the corner of your garage or wherever, and then getting to unbox them all at once will be very satisfying :D

[jballou]

All at once for sure! Seeing that pile of go fast parts accumulate in the corner of your garage or wherever, and then getting to unbox them all at once will be very satisfying :D

You need to un-box them when they come in to make sure you got the correct parts. Most vendors will give you the stink eye if you complain a year later letting them know all the parts ordered did not come in, or something is/was broken. OPEN your boxes people, even if you are not going to install for a while.

[MarlinFoundNemo]

You need to un-box them when they come in to make sure you got the correct parts. Most vendors will give you the stink eye if you complain a year later letting them know all the parts ordered did not come in, or something is/was broken. OPEN your boxes people, even if you are not going to install for a while.

Oh yes of course. I forgot to add that haha. Just put em back in the boxes when youre done for dual unboxings.

[zatch_303]

take it from jballou and Christianb5s4 as both of their cars are over 300,000 miles ;)

all at once.

[christianb5s4]

take it from jballou and Christianb5s4 as both of their cars are over 300,000 miles ;)

all at once.

These cars are amazingly well built, 300K is nothing if they are well maintained. If they aren't, they can fall to shit real quick! Justin's car is immaculate though, mine has been through a rougher past but is soon to be stage 3.

[vavJETTAw36]

These cars are amazingly well built, 300K is nothing if they are well maintained. If they aren't, they can fall to shit real quick! Justin's car is immaculate though, mine has been through a rougher past but is soon to be stage 3.

The car just falls apart around the engine leaving the engine, frame, and burned turbos ;)

[MikeyB3]

Depends on if your car is running well, and you're trying to get the most out of it before doing an engine pull. There's lots of practice to be had if you've got some SMIC upgrade with undoing the front clip, and doing simpler stuff. I ran my stage 2+ up to 109k miles. Once the turbo let go, I started the process of getting all my parts together that was left to do up a stage 3. There's merits to both for sure. But I was always looking at the end goal. Try not to tally up how much you're spending.

[tar]

You need to un-box them when they come in to make sure you got the correct parts. Most vendors will give you the stink eye if you complain a year later letting them know all the parts ordered did not come in, or something is/was broken. OPEN your boxes people, even if you are not going to install for a while.

This. X50. Lots of vendors quality control is lacking.
My 3rd bedroom is all b5 parts hoping to install everything next weekend or the one after.

[jibberjive]

If it were me, I'd go piecemeal up to where you have to pull the engine, then do the rest all at once the engine is out.


I would go:
-Tune
-Downpipes
-Catback
-Intercoolers

then
-Pull the engine, full stage 3

And don't go with an APR tune, especially if you're running E85.

[jaychen]

If it were me, I'd go piecemeal up to where you have to pull the engine, then do the rest all at once the engine is out.


I would go:
-Tune
-Downpipes
-Catback
-Intercoolers

then
-Pull the engine, full stage 3

And don't go with an APR tune, especially if you're running E85.

Im surprised those three letters are still even mentioned when it comes to B5's anymore.

[vavJETTAw36]

Im surprised those three letters are still even mentioned when it comes to B5's anymore.

I heard apr didn't make a great e85 tune.

[jpurre]

There is alot of good advice here. I just started buying parts and slowly I had everything. At that point the work began. Do your homework. And one last thing.. what ever you think it's going to cost, it will be more

[palewhitemale]

to my knowledge, APR no longer supports the B5 platform past Stage I ECU tunes.

[Audimilo]

I did things all at once.

Gave me the opportunity to go through the Avant completely, and all in one go. Also makes it easier to do other maintenance when "you're in there"

[j-dells]

If it were me, I'd go piecemeal up to where you have to pull the engine, then do the rest all at once the engine is out.


I would go:
-Tune
-Downpipes
-Catback
-Intercoolers

then
-Pull the engine, full stage 3

And don't go with an APR tune, especially if you're running E85.

Im working on the inter cooler now going FMIC, already did the turbo back, and dont know if I will wait to tune it other than mess with throttle response until I get new turbos. Strong oil burning smell that im pretty sure is coming from the twins...
And I guess I was not aware that APR was not a good option for e85, but I guess the ecu is a starting point and from there my local tuner will be doing a custom tune.

[jibberjive]

And I guess I was not aware that APR was not a good option for e85, but I guess the ecu is a starting point and from there my local tuner will be doing a custom tune.

If that is what your tuner is suggesting, then go for it. But if you're thinking you'll buy an APR tune elsewhere and have your local custom tuner tweak it, I don't know of any custom tuners that care to tweak OTS tunes like APR, rather than just starting with their own tune. For one, APR has security protection that needs to be defeated (not difficult, but not usually worth the tuner's time, when he can just start with his own base tune that he is already familiar with). It takes far more time to try to research and try to understand the flaws in everyone's existing tunes, than it does to just start with the base tune that they are familiar with and tweak it from there for the individual setup.