It's been a busy month for the S, a few things to update.
- Power steering still doesn't work. I bought and installed a new Bosch pump from FCP (after completely flushing the system) and it worked for about 5 minutes before not working. I continued to drive w/o PS for a while then caved and bought a new rack from Rockauto. Installed that (after another complete fluid flush) and on first engine start it dumped all the PS fluid out the passenger side rack seal. Put the old rack back in and I've just been driving around w/o PS again.
- My next move is to source a used (known working) rack and pump and swap them at the same time. I've had my reservoir out twice for thorough cleaning, and blew fluid through the restrictor in the return line into a bucket to make sure there are no obstructions. Maybe the fluid I'm using is not good, but it says to use where CHF-11S is specified: https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/o...0657p.html#srp
Engine update:
- First fill with Amsoil SAE30 break-in oil
- Oil / filter change at 75km and re-filled with Amsoil SAE30 break-in oil
- Oil / filter change at 300km and refilled with Castrol conventional 10W-40 (these are total km on the new engine, not the oil change interval)
- Oil / filter change at 700km and refiled with Pennzoil 10W-40 full synthetic. Up to here I generally avoided long stretches to vary the RPM around town. The tune was limited to 0% WGDC (so ~7psi) and I made sure to load the engine adequately during acceleration.
Tuning
- At about 800km I met up with my tuner (Ward Performance Tuning) and after about 1.5-2 hours we had the boost up to 19psi and the timing / fuel ratio / boost curve etc all nicely dialled in. No issues came up during the tuning process. We left some on the table since we were very happy with how the car was running, it was 30*C (40*C with the humidex), and traffic was busier than usual for the roads we were on. We will be doing some remote tuning next followed by a dyno session. We'll increase the boost, ramp up the boost curve a bit more aggressively, and I also picked up some boostane premium for the dyno session. I'll have the option to flash the following tunes: 94 octane, 94 + boostane (~100 octane), and eventually a 94 + boostane + WMI (or just 94 + WMI... gotta look out for that poor RS4 clutch!).
- I'm up to about 1300km on the engine as of now.
Impressions
- Mechanically the engine has been absolutely flawless. It revs up freely and sounds amazing. No misfires, starts right up, drives around like a normal engine should, and the power is very nice. We estimate it's at about 380-400hp (crank) right now so definitely a bit of head room. I'm fine with that for now as I see if any bugs want to show up. It definitely has enough power to get me in trouble!
Issues
- Power steering... gah
- I've had to re-adjust the passenger side intercooler to prevent it from hitting the frame rail (pretty tight between the frame rail and AC dryer!)
- I flushed out the ATE Super Blue from the clutch line. Since using that my clutch master had been squeaking and was very sticky. All is back to 100% now. Thank goodness too, I was really hoping I didn't have to pull the engine to investigate a release bearing / fork issue. Clutch now feels like it should, very smooth.
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