Next round of mods for the 2019 S4

[TJay74]

Just a little IE hardware upgrades for your viewing pleasures on my 19 S4. Been working with IE over the last couple of months on tune revisions. I ordered the IE Turbo inlet before I realized that it only works with their CAI. So went ahead and pulled the trigger on the IE CF CAI so I could use the IE inlet. Luckily I knew the challenges in trying to remove the inlets and had the experience and tools to handle the job. All in all it took me just at an hour from start to finish to take out the old 034 CF CAI and ECS Tuning turbo inlet.

Next mod will be the HPFP and then update to the Stage 1+ E85 tune and see how the S4 responds. As of now the S4 has already responded very well, granted the weather is 38° and the D/A is -350'. Even so the car just pulled it's best 0 to 60 to date (3.4 seconds) and it's best 1/4 mile on Dragy at 11.55 @ 118.6mph. The D/A was only 350' better than my previous attempt, the data is showing the car is making more power down low so the claims of increased air flow and less restrictions can be seen.

One of the issues I am running into now is with the really cold and dense air with me being on E85 I am becoming fuel limited on my WOT pulls, so much so that the ECM is having to pull boost back and causing me to lose power. My prior best runs were 11.61 @ 118.5mph, with us finally being in boost weather I have been struggling to get back into the 11.6xx range and over the 117mph range. I am hoping with the IE HPFP upgrade I can get some of the cold weather boost back that I am losing due to being fuel limited on right now back and get lower in the 11's and then call it done.

Of course here are some PFA...

[spacecase]

someone can correct me but I don't think your intake is causing your power drop. Your engine is a heat pump, and itll draw in the air it needs. If you opened up your intake flow, your engine should have less trouble pulling in the necessary air, but shouldn't lose power. Your stock intake IS a CAI as it is sealed from the engine bay and works really well. An aftermarket air filter like racingline or KN would probably work just as well as a full CAI setup (but could be wrong on this). Also, I'm getting around the same dragy time as you and I only have a stage 1 E85 tune and intercooler with medicore all season tires and higher DA. Do you log your intake temps? You could be losing power due to heatsoak as before I installed my intercooler I would get heatsoak on WOT pulls on E85.

[TJay74]

someone can correct me but I don't think your intake is causing your power drop. Your engine is a heat pump, and itll draw in the air it needs. If you opened up your intake flow, your engine should have less trouble pulling in the necessary air, but shouldn't lose power. Your stock intake IS a CAI as it is sealed from the engine bay and works really well. An aftermarket air filter like racingline or KN would probably work just as well as a full CAI setup (but could be wrong on this). Also, I'm getting around the same dragy time as you and I only have a stage 1 E85 tune and intercooler with medicore all season tires and higher DA. Do you log your intake temps? You could be losing power due to heatsoak as before I installed my intercooler I would get heatsoak on WOT pulls on E85.

In my case you are wrong, I've had the 034 CF CAI on the car since I bought it 3 years. I was one of the 1st customers to get their CAI for the B9 S4 platform. So it was on the car for all of my testing and changes once I tuned the car and went with IE for my tune. the CAI is not the issue, the engineer over at IE has the data logs, the ECM is physically pulling boost as that is the way they have the tune setup.

As air gets colder and D/A decreases you need more fuel to keep the WOT target AFR at its commanded value. This isnt a problem on 91/93 octane as the LPFP and HPFP can both keep up, put E85 into the mix and with the extra fuel flow that E85 requires and suddenly you are running out of fuel at WOT throttle. I am 48, been data logging cars for years. This internet folklore that people have everyone saying now that aftermarket CAI dont do a thing is false the vast majority of the time.

My IAT values are not far off of ambient, they climb as expected under boost but they are not out of line or cause for concern. The issue is purely boost related right now due to the tune. Even the IE engineer admitted I was making several PSI less boost from my 70° run versus my 40° run and that was because that is how he had the tune setup. They do a bunch of their tuning from their dyno with some beta testers throw in as well. Basically once I brought the issue to their attention I started being a beta tester in another market with much colder air than what they see.

Me and several others notice the drop in power when IE released the Stage 1 V2 tunes. As of now the most recent release is now V2.1 due to our testing and data logging of my car and several other beta testers. I am confident once the fuel issue is addressed the car will respond with better times.

Plus as it is now it is showing that the much larger IE turbo inlet is working. The car dropped over a tenth and picked up a solid mph with no changes to the tune or fuel changes.

[spacecase]

In my case you are wrong, I've had the 034 CF CAI on the car since I bought it 3 years. I was one of the 1st customers to get their CAI for the B9 S4 platform. So it was on the car for all of my testing and changes once I tuned the car and went with IE for my tune. the CAI is not the issue, the engineer over at IE has the data logs, the ECM is physically pulling boost as that is the way they have the tune setup.

As air gets colder and D/A decreases you need more fuel to keep the WOT target AFR at its commanded value. This isnt a problem on 91/93 octane as the LPFP and HPFP can both keep up, put E85 into the mix and with the extra fuel flow that E85 requires and suddenly you are running out of fuel at WOT throttle. I am 48, been data logging cars for years. This internet folklore that people have everyone saying now that aftermarket CAI dont do a thing is false the vast majority of the time.

My IAT values are not far off of ambient, they climb as expected under boost but they are not out of line or cause for concern. The issue is purely boost related right now due to the tune. Even the IE engineer admitted I was making several PSI less boost from my 70° run versus my 40° run and that was because that is how he had the tune setup. They do a bunch of their tuning from their dyno with some beta testers throw in as well. Basically once I brought the issue to their attention I started being a beta tester in another market with much colder air than what they see.

Me and several others notice the drop in power when IE released the Stage 1 V2 tunes. As of now the most recent release is now V2.1 due to our testing and data logging of my car and several other beta testers. I am confident once the fuel issue is addressed the car will respond with better times.

Plus as it is now it is showing that the much larger IE turbo inlet is working. The car dropped over a tenth and picked up a solid mph with no changes to the tune or fuel changes.

That's really interesting. My fastest run was when I was driving up to the mountain last week and it was around 20F on the stretch of road I hit. I'm running 034 FWIW. I don't think a CAI doesn't do a thing..colder, denser air will always be better for your car but most aftermarket CAI leaves an opening into the engine bay that sucks in heat. I think Racingline CAI were one of the few that is completely sealed off. I was just interested to see how your intake + inlet combo will make it seem like you're losing power but it looks like it could be the tune itself? Regardless, your car seems to be running great for a stage 1 with just intake. also, your car color is amazing

[TJay74]

That's really interesting. My fastest run was when I was driving up to the mountain last week and it was around 20F on the stretch of road I hit. I'm running 034 FWIW. I don't think a CAI doesn't do a thing..colder, denser air will always be better for your car but most aftermarket CAI leaves an opening into the engine bay that sucks in heat. I think Racingline CAI were one of the few that is completely sealed off. I was just interested to see how your intake + inlet combo will make it seem like you're losing power but it looks like it could be the tune itself? Regardless, your car seems to be running great for a stage 1 with just intake. also, your car color is amazing

I may not have been clear, the post isnt about the prev CAI or inlet causing the issues. I knew the issue was within the tune and from fueling issues. For my mod path I wanted the larger inlet, the IE model is 30% larger then stock and is still right around 17% larger than the ECCS Tuning inlet. Turbos are all about efficiency, make it easier for them to pull air thru the I/C and into the engine and the less heat they will cause to the intake charge and the more dense the air will be.

Also it is assumptive to say that all CAI pull hot air from within the engine bay, the 034 Motorsports CAI doesnt and neither does the new IE CF CAI. The 034 pulls air from the fender and use the stock air air channel that picks up from the front grill. The new IE CF CAI is a full 1 piece design that picks up from the front fender as well and also has its own ram air scoop just like the OE and pulls from the front grill as well.

Once I get on my off set later this week I will be cleaning up the 034 Motorsports CF CAI and selling it and the ECS Tuning turbo inlet. So someone will get a pretty decent deal on a like new CAI setup if they are interested.