[s-cars] [NurSC] Optimized garret chip... should I be scared

Fri Dec 5 20:08:03 PST 2008

AFAIK, the car’s still running on the original turbos and he didn’t mention
any upgrade in the engine bay beside the chip, so probably no upgraded oil
lines. The car has 80Kmiles but the chip has been installed in April this
year, so I would say a maximum of 10Kmiles on the chip.

Anyway, it seems turbos are things to seriously look at. Beside taking the
hoses off to check the play in the turbine axle, any other way to check them
more in depth than listening to whine at WOT in 3rd?

Vincent

  _____  

De : Theodore Chen [mailto:tedebearp at yahoo.com] 
Envoyé : 5 décembre 2008 20:29
À : Vincent Fregeac; Andrew Beckert
Cc : s-car-list
Objet : Re: [s-cars] [NurSC] Optimized garret chip... should I be scared

is this car running the stock K03s?  how many miles on the car?  how many
miles with the chip?  were the oil lines updated?  even with updated oil
lines, that's no guarantee the turbos will survive.

i have an '01 S4 avant w/tiptronic that had the revised oil lines, and it
needed new turbos at 50k miles.  it had a chip (not for very long) and
nothing else.  i had new K04s installed, and am running the AWE stage 1
chip, no other mods.  i was told the stock bypass valves weren't leaking, so
they're still in there.  i've been meaning to upgrade the injectors and get
a revised program to take advantage of the K04s, but it appears the
tiptronic would likely be the next thing to go, so i've refrained from doing
anything.

  _____  

From: Vincent Fregeac <vfregeac at gmail.com>
To: Andrew Beckert <abeckert at gmail.com>
Cc: s-car-list <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Friday, December 5, 2008 3:58:48 PM
Subject: Re: [s-cars] [NurSC] Optimized garret chip... should I be scared

HI Andrew,

Thanks for the detailed input on Garretts. The BPV problem has already been
taken care of with an aftermarket ones. So, it seems the guy kind of knew
what he was doing.

Vincent.

  _____  

De : Andrew Beckert [mailto:abeckert at gmail.com] 
Envoyé : 5 décembre 2008 18:41
À : Vincent Fregeac
Cc : s-car-list
Objet : Re: [s-cars] [NurSC] Optimized garret chip... should I be scared

garrett is Garrett Integrated Automotive Corp aka GIAC, as sold by
AWE-tuning and tons of other places.  One of the top chipsets alongside APR
for the 2.7TT.  The custom tune is perfectly normal and 337hp is about right
for an S4 with chip/exhaust combo.  He could also be making slightly more
power if the car was tuned for 94 octane, so you will probably be down on
power a bit with 91 (310ish).  Stock hoses on these cars do just fine.  The
throttle body boot used to rip before Audi started using a revised clamp.  I
would be more concerned about the bpv's and swapping to 710n's or something
aftermarket would be a better investment than a full samco hose kit.

Andrew

On 12/5/08, Vincent Fregeac <vfregeac at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to test drive, and may be buy a 2000 S4TT with
an < optimized > garret chip. Basically, the owner installed a garret chip,
brought the car to a guy specialized in VAG turbo engine, and had it
custom-mapped. Resulting output: an estimated 337hp calculated from
acceleration before-after the custom-map. The car is tempting since it comes
with real RS4 wheels (plus a set of 16" Audi mags for winter), a custom
cat-back double-2.5" exhaust (I hope it doesn't sound too ricy) and is told
to be immaculate except for the driver carpet (The owner must be some kind
of AR to mention_that_).

I don't know about garret chips, but I know some chips, like TAP, are not
really nice to the engine. Should I be worried about garrets?

On the plus side, the guy has a full log book, including gas receipt, always
filled his S4 with 94 octane (there's may be one gas station out of 20 that
carry 94 around here, super is 91 usually), and still has the log book of
his previous car ( a Golf 1.8T) that run 2 years on an chip optimized by the
same specialist. Also, he just bought a new V8 S4 so the reason he sells the
car _may_ not be he ruined the engine, the turbos and everything inbetween.

I know I'm in for a Samco set (the fact that he didn't blow off the stock
intake hoses with a 337hp chip already tells he was not really "using" his
chip), and a reinforced intake V.

The questions are:

-          What should I look for signs the engine didn't like the 337hp
custom map?

-          The owner said the engine was pushed to 337hp by enriching the
air/gas mix at high hps to protect the internals. It sounds weird to me as a
35% hp increase is usually beyond the capability of stock injectors, even
more if you plan to run rich (but I know almost nothing about the 2.7T
injectors capabilities). So, is there any truth in this?

-          What should I plan as safety mods if I want to keep the 337hp
custom-mapped chip?

-          The chip was installed in April. Is 8 months enough to ruin an
engine or turbos with 337 hp?

In case you ask: Yes, I plan to chat with the specialist who custom-mapped
the chip before I make my final decision to see if what he tells me sounds
"reasonable".

TIA.

Vincent who may feel a little less slow despite the new urR8 LMS F

P.S.: Sorry for the WOB about an S4TT but I trust you guys much more than
the AW forums

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