[s-cars] The Emerald of the Rockies turns 150(long)

[CaptMagu at aol.com]

s-heads

My car turned 150,000 miles last week and I couldn't think of a better way to 
celebrate than to have   a little fun with a bunch of neu S4 guys. A local 
guy named Zev Barnett organized a dyno day over the weekend. The dyno being used 
was a roller type Dynojet. My previous runs were on a DynoPack hub type 
chassis dyno. This was basically an Audi event but there were a few other cars 
there as well. Two Vipers were the high output winners with a supercharged version 
pulling 610hp/660ft-lbs and a silly nitrous aided example pulling 
829hp/1062ft-lbs.

So there I was, all ready to leave on Saturday morning after changing from 
winter to summer wheels and tires. I didn't want any traction issues now did I? 
I got into my car to start it up and it just wouldn't keep running. It was in 
some sort of permanent limp mode but unable to get past idle. No, it wouldn't 
even idle. The only thing that I did was disconnect the battery over night to 
reset the ECU. I'm running around with my hair on fire so I call Brendan Rudak 
from ASW. Dave Jones is out of town for the weekend. We talk things through 
and I'm figuring out that I can get it to run but very rough. I also discover a 
big crack on the down pipe where it meets the turbo mounting flange. Oops, 
more problems. Am I going to make it to this dyno day at all? I get the car 
headed towards ASW and Brendan gets his buddy Brooks, who also works at ASW, out 
of bed and headed towards the shop. I end up meeting Brooks at the shop and he 
puts on an excellent temporary weld with everything in place. The car keeps 
running better and better. I'm doing run after run now with a new O2 sensor in 
place for my wideband air/fuel gauge. I get the mixture dialed in just before I 
get to Parker which is southwest of Denver and the location of the event. I 
have to race some idiot in a new M5 cause he thinks I challenged him while I 
was doing those test runs. Poor slob never had a chance.

I pulled into the back of the shop and shut things down after a cool down 
just in time to see Cody Payne do his 3 runs. Nice job Cody! They're running 
behind and I'm bummed because it looks like I'll be running an hour later than 
scheduled. Wait, Zev is anxious to see this modded C4 run so he sneaks me in 
right after Cody. I pull into the dyno and my car is doing the bad run thing all 
over again. Just as I get it into place on the dyno it starts running fine once 
again. The lead tech gives me some run info and off we go. The first run was 
the best. I pulled 412hp/430ft-lbs. The car felt absolutely BEAUtiful. Smooth 
as baby's behind. On the second run I couldn't leave well enough alone and 
violated a Golden rule of dyno tuning, only make one small change per run. I 
wanted to richen the air/fuel ratio so I increased the fuel pressure. I was 
running 28lbs of boost and I loaded a higher value into the Apexi to get me to 
30lbs. Well, the air/fuel came in right where I wanted it but the boost was too 
high and the ECU cut my advance way back and the numbers fell a little. Here's a 
link for the dyno chart on the big run: 
http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/15038/hapmacdyno.jpg

I've got a copy of my previous 402 hp run in my hands and the difference is 
stunning. Max torque on both are at 4600 rpm which is very close to the rpm for 
my next gear when I shift. The difference being 430 vs 403 ft-lbs. The 
horsepower was of course 411.76 vs 402.4. What I really like is the way the torque 
comes on above 400 at 4300 rpm and the horsepower is pretty flat around 400 
from 4600 rpm to the redline. We see a gradual tapering which is normal espe
cially given the nature of the programming of my Apexi AVC R. Kudos to Pete Tsai 
for doing the seemingly impossible programming of this unit. He did program a 
taper on the boost starting about 5500 rpm. The major differences in my car from 
the 402 run would be the addition of the Big Bore throttle body and the 
enlarged, ported, drilled and polished intake manifold. Granted these are 2 runs on 
2 entirely different days and 2 different dynos but the comparisons are 
worthwhile. The ASW 1.8t challenge car a B6 Avant was almost identical to its runs 
on the DynoPack vs the Dynojet at 360hp.

I should note that Autosport Werks built and tuned the 5 highest hp Audis at 
this event. Pete Tsai's B5 S4 at 422/433 with full Sportec regalia including a 
race program, my car at 412/430, 2 other B5 S4s at 377&370/434&430 and the 
ASW 1.8t challenge car, a B6 Avant, that tuned 360/322. Also noteworthy are the 
2 C4 S4s of Cody Payne and Dave Dawson that turned 317/380 and 325/401. These 
guys did better than mny of the modded B5 S4s and I think that there are a 
whole new group of later model Audi owners with   brand new appreciation for our 
"Old School" cars.

The question is, is there more available from my car? You betcha and we're 
going to find it no matter what! Up coming mods will be fuel related with a 
replumbing of some of the fuel lines to a larger size, a small fuel reservoir, 
larger injectors and a Bosch Motorsport high output fuel pump to go inline with 
the reservoir and stock pump. Then of course thee are larger turbos, new 
exhaust manifolds and water injection. Lots of stuff left.

Hap, plannin in Everboost, Maguire