[s-cars] CT Mihnea tuning session report (long)

[Marc Swanson]

Wow, what a weekend!

pictures here:

http://www.theswansonfamily.us/modules/gallery/mihnea_tuning_7_25_04

I didn't get a chance to see the festivities on Saturday but Sunday
certainly turned out to be an interesting tuning and general tire
kicking day.

First of all a big THANK YOU goes out to Paul K, Mihnea, Tom Mullane,
Frank Stadmeyer, and Philip Mische all of whom stayed until all of the
(green!) S6es became more than driveway ornaments.  I guess Paul doesn't
count since he had no choice but to stay.. it's his house! :P  Kidding
aside, you went above and beyond and host for the festivities (as
always).  Thanks!

Other attendees included Neil Swanson who had me drooling over his 2B
camber plates and Rich & Adam Assarabowski.  There were others that
drifted in and out but from what I was told, Saturday was definitely the
busier day.  

After some cancellations it was just me and Tom Mullane scheduled for
Mihneafication.  He had previously installed a 'standard' Mihnea chipset
from a few months(?) back so his ECU was already socketed and ready to
go for the new code.

I started prepping my car (pressure test the intake with Mr. Mullane's
nifty tool and install the Racetronix 42# fuel injectors.. more on this
later..) while Mihnea and Tom were out street testing the car.  They
ended up pulling back in after a bit due to a hose slipping off the
turbo outlet providing for great photo ops like this one (sorry Tom, I
had to):

http://tinyurl.com/3kvce


Things managed to stay clamped together (although I'm not sure how with
the 30psi of boost Tom is running. MAN is that car fast.  I actually
opted for a bit more modest performance on my car to err on the side of
safety (Mihnea had concerns about the 57 trim I'm running as opposed to
the 50 trim which he seems to prefer).  We'll see how long I stay
satisfied given what I have to compare my car to..  Keepin' up with the
Jones's er.. Mullane's I tell ya!

Neil Swanson showed up while Tom was out blasting away so I wasted no
time checking out the 2B camber plate setup.  Very nice pieces indeed. 
It was neat to see exactly what he meant by hybridizing the ECS and 2B
plates to give himself more caster.  The added caster alone might make
these plates worth picking up.  I only regret that I didn't get a chance
to take a ride.. next time?  Neil also had some poster sized prints made
up from the racing at LRP a few weeks back.  Very nicely done.  I
imagine that it will look very good in Paul's garage if he can find a
blank wall space in there.. somewhere..

Anyhow, after Mihnea finished with Tom's car we started hooking up his
sensor and ecu rig to my avant.  After several no start attempts a lot
of head scratching started going on until it was discovered that I had
managed to break a wire on the cam position sensor in the process of
swapping the injectors (D'oh!).  Yeah, it has not been my week with this
car..

After some crafty soldering work (Frank apparently has even more tools
than I do!  That desoldering stick is a nice piece, and giving me your
spare was totally unexpected and unnecessary, but THANKS! :)) the car
fired right up and we were off to do some tuning.  There wasn't too much
argument from me when Mihnea would tell me to bring it up to 7k in 3rd
and 4th(weeeeehaaa!).  We actually ventured back to my house in Simsbury
as part of the tuning run so we could pick up some of my soldering
equipment since all of his stuff is for European 220v...  Part of that
journey includes Day Hill Road which is one of my favorite play zones
since it is basically a deserted divided two lane road after 6pm or on
weekends.  I have never been used to the car being so fast so on one
major WOT (yes, that IS the word of the day) blast doing about 110ish we
hit a bump in the road and bottomed out the suspension pretty hard.  It
was loud enough to make me start looking nervously at the oil temp gauge
(note to self, and oil pressure gauge!).  Thankfully all was ok and I
certainly pulled into my driveway with an ear to ear grin that wouldn't
quit (especially after verifying that all of the bits on the car were
still there!).

We did a little more fine tuning on the way back specifically targeting
the 6-7k range by lowering the boost a bit in favor of a bit more
advance which seemed to make the car pull better up high.

By this point (and probably for most of the day) Mihnea was looking dead
tired.  When we got back, he set to work swapping the chips in Tom's car
which went off without a hitch since his ECU had previously been
socketed.  When it came time to socket mine Mihnea's fatigue set in and
the car wouldn't start after the procedure.  Upon closer inspection one
or more of the pins on the socket had accidentally been bridged causing
the failure. We're not really sure what was cooked since the main power
relay still clicks on after repairing the solder bridge but no check
engine light would come on when plugging it in.  I could tell he was
really upset about cooking his first ECU out of probably countless that
he has done before but I guess it just goes to show how mistakes
happen.. especially with little sleep.

The sane decision at that point of the night was for Mihnea to give me a
spare working stock ECU, re-install the stock injectors, and go home
with the burnt chips and vmap in hand so I could perform the socketing
on my own since he had to leave the following day (today) for Belgium.

My own fatigue started setting in (I hadn't slept the night before)
around 11pm as I set to work re-installing the stock injectors.  Its a
good thing I had the help of Philip and Frank so that at least one of us
was paying attention to what I was doing ;)  Thanks so much, you guys
rock!

one of the seals on the old injectors was torn pretty bad so I swapped
it for one of the good ones off of the new injectors, which slid on
without incident.  The car fired right up and ran just fine on the way
home.

Paul, Tom, and every other married S-head that stayed all the way to the
end.. I feel so bad for keeping everyone around so late.  But at the
same time your camaraderie, help, and support was awesome.  

I hope to have the ECU socketed this week whether I take the plunge
myself or let someone else guaranty the work :)

See y'all at //S-fest!
 
-- 
-Marc Swanson-
95.5 //S6 Avant
87 4ktq
88 90q
www.mswanson.com/audi