TMU's Glacier White B8.5 S4 - MRC Stage 2

V6_Man

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Hi guys, have been a silent reader on the forum for sometime as I've had quite a few Audis in the past. I recently treated myself to an S4 (B8.5) - and it makes me think why did I not do it sooner .

The initial plan was to keep the car stock and then I started reading about tunes and many a threads here on the forum in detail and what a mistake . The plan therefore lasted only a few months and the car was eventually booked in for MRC Stage 2 along with the DSG remap. Like many before me have done I must also thank Doug and guys at MRC for all their effort - I had heard a lot about them before my visit and tbh, it didn't disappoint. And I am sure like many of us here I can't recommend them highly enough. Legends!

I also wanted to change the Exhaust at the same time as the tune but it looks like it will have to wait for a few months as I can't decide between Milltek Non-Res vs Valvesonic v Scorpion. Scorpion was the latest addition to the "wish list" after meeting @jaygemson who was also there for a health check on his B8 S4 and had the said exhaust fitted to his car.

The car was rapid before but my God the tune changes it to a completely different beast! Joining M40 from the Banbury exit, I have never been excited by any car before. Not that I have an exciting car history, but a tuned S4 unleashes the beast and brings the car to life - how it should come factory in first place. The car pulls and pulls and there is no stopping to it ... I believe it would take me a few weeks getting used to of the added power as it is a bit too much for me to handle .

Pics FYI

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Dyno
 
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Get the ValveSonic as you have the best of both words then :)

I love mine
 
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This was exactly Doug's suggestion. Also met @jaygemson there who has a Scorpion setup and I must admit it sounds awesome as well. Need to upgrade the brakes as well so will see. But thanks for your help. Would have stayed Stage 1 had it not been for you guys


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Are you planning to get a map tweak for that exhaust? Will be great to see what the gains are (and it's not just noise!) :)
 
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Are you planning to get a map tweak for that exhaust? Will be great to see what the gains are (and it's not just noise!) :)

@Dippy, I would love to see if I could hit 490 (+/- 5). You guys are the experts do you think I'd be able to see any gains. I met Jay (as mentioned above) who was there for little tweaks and his final numbers were impressive; 493. If I could I'd love to get to 490 to be honest .


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To be honest I'd rather get it done sooner rather than later. I don't get to hear the exhaust as much as I used to before the map. It is supercharger whine, which is cool but would love to get some deep exhaust noise as well. And by the way I love the drone; helps keep my wife quite


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To be honest I'd rather get it done sooner rather than later. I don't get to hear the exhaust as much as I used to before the map. It is supercharger whine, which is cool but would love to get some deep exhaust noise as well. And by the way I love the drone; helps keep my wife quite


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Go for a custom set up with an xpipe if you like the drone mate you won't be disappointed
 
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Go for a custom set up with an xpipe if you like the drone mate you won't be disappointed

I did think about it buddy but I have pretty much made my mind. It is Milltek either race non-resonated or valvesonic. Am waiting for MRC to come back with availability along with few other bits


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Miltek non Rez gets my vote bud

I agree mate. The whole idea behind buying these cars is a) for it to go fast and b) to make some noise. I don't like it too loud like the boy racers but at the same time I also want it to be there all the time. It is equally important to understand which one gives me power gains (if any) and if valvesonic does it then I'll have to bite the bullet and go for it


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Yeh there very quiet machines standard, I went for the boy racer loud all the time approach :sunglasses: but yeh I'd deff say if your after every last broken horse you can get then go with the best option for that
 
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Milltek non res gets my vote as well, i haven't heard the resonated system but i think i'd be disapointed, the non-res isn't all that loud, barely noticeable if you're taking it easy, only really comes alive when you've got your foot down and on these cars you hit very illegal speeds very fast with your foot down
 
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That's my ValveSonic.The first 10 seconds or so are valves closed :)
 
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I don't think there will be any gains at your level apart from more noise no seems like a lot of expense for no performance gain, surely the money would be better spend on bigger brakes etc? Even with the cats removed from the downpipes the gains are not noticeable until you get to the level of stage 2 with dual pulley, meth and Ultracharger etc
 
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The MRC car with 520PS :hubbahubba:runs the valvesonic :whistle2:
Maybe it helped to reach that figure ........

 
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The MRC car with 520PS :hubbahubba:runs the valvesonic :whistle2:
Maybe it helped to reach that figure ........


It also runs a even larger than stage2 pulley and additional custom mapping which prob made more difference than the exhaust! We've dyno's two identical Stage2 cars on the same day at MRC one of which had decat test pipes and one which didn't and there was only 1hp difference.
 
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This is Doug's car, I am sure he can make it run faster and get even bigger gains


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MRC told me not to bother with an aftermarket exhaust because the stock one is not restrictive. That's fine for me as I don't want my car to be any noisier. But I remain sceptical that the OEM system has NO restrictions, so it'd be great to see what you get. But as long as you're happy with the improved sound then you shouldn't be too disappointed if the gain is only slight.

IIRC Doug's car originally made about 500PS with the high ratio pulley and bigger charge cooler. So maybe there is the potential for up to 20PS from the exhaust, but only at the highest ratio.

I'm more interested in the other end of the airflow - waiting to see some results with APR's "supercharger".
 
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It is a shame B8.5s are slightly restrictive than B8s. A standard Stage 2 on a B8 gives you slightly higher gains compared to that of a B8.
Re: APR Ultracharger, what their website suggests are significant gains 143hp/143tq and 540hp at the crank and that too with 104 race fuel. However (and this is my view) with the number of other modifications one has to make is it actually worth it. On 91RON it only gives you 478, which MRC give you anyway.


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These Americans like boosting about their numbers anyway. Hitting 11.3 on an Ultracharged S4, I believe XP would be able to that easily - a piece a cake


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The MRC car with 520PS :hubbahubba:runs the valvesonic :whistle2:
Maybe it helped to reach that figure ........



XP; you sold me the Stage 2, I could have been £900 better off today and now you are forcing me go Valvesonic. Who needs enemies


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Hahaa I wish,but my skills aint as fast as a DSG lol.
A dual pulley car just broke into the 10's too
 
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MRC @ 480 is on 99 RON (Tesco's Momentum/Shell Vpower) I thought. This is equivalent to the 93 AKI line in the APR data. 91 AKI is equivalent to our 95 RON standard petrol. Using this page for the APR and B8.5: http://www.goapr.com/products/ecu_upgrade_30tfsi_b85s4.html
The 93 AKI ultracharger produces 498 HP. I think you'd need to be pretty well off or want the pub bragging rights to buy new charge cooler, ultra charger and potentially bigger pulley (and have it all fitted & fettled) for 20 or so HP.

FWIW, I'm having my car tuned (more of that another time) and exhaust changed at the moment for an AWE resonated touring (took an age agonising over this, still don't know if I've done the right thing). The other I was looking at was the Scorpion system and I must have done 20-30 hours research and it came down to those two. I'd be very careful re cabin drone especially with a non resonated system and stronic. Whilst these things may sound fabulous from the outside, if you can't hear yourself think inside the cabin, it will wear after a time. After all, an S5 is a luxury coupe, there's no need to go all boy-racer with it... The idea is to be able to look and sound classy whilst you are destroying the boy-racers ;)
 
I hope you guys that are changing your exhausts are removing the Catted downpipes as well before remapping? I think once you start knocking on the door of 500+hp then a cooler upgrade is a must and the standard cats days are numbered which will need them either replacing or removing and the map tweaking to suit.
 
MRC @ 480 is on 99 RON (Tesco's Momentum/Shell Vpower) I thought. This is equivalent to the 93 AKI line in the APR data. 91 AKI is equivalent to our 95 RON standard petrol. Using this page for the APR and B8.5: http://www.goapr.com/products/ecu_upgrade_30tfsi_b85s4.html
The 93 AKI ultracharger produces 498 HP. I think you'd need to be pretty well off or want the pub bragging rights to buy new charge cooler, ultra charger and potentially bigger pulley (and have it all fitted & fettled) for 20 or so HP.

FWIW, I'm having my car tuned (more of that another time) and exhaust changed at the moment for an AWE resonated touring (took an age agonising over this, still don't know if I've done the right thing). The other I was looking at was the Scorpion system and I must have done 20-30 hours research and it came down to those two. I'd be very careful re cabin drone especially with a non resonated system and stronic. Whilst these things may sound fabulous from the outside, if you can't hear yourself think inside the cabin, it will wear after a time. After all, an S5 is a luxury coupe, there's no need to go all boy-racer with it... The idea is to be able to look and sound classy whilst you are destroying the boy-racers ;)

These figures of 498hp are only made with Stage2+ inc dual pulley & the Ultracharger V's MRC's stage2 480hp with just the larger crank pulley. agreed its a lot of extra money for 20 or so HP......is it really worth it?
 
TBF to the Ultra charger the power under the curve will be quite different to stage 2,but IMO the Ultra isn't worth it.
 
It doesn't appear to be much different (flattens out added torque at mid-higher revs based on the specs) but the vids I've seen of the guys in the US seem they are raving over it....
 
It is a shame B8.5s are slightly restrictive than B8s. A standard Stage 2 on a B8 gives you slightly higher gains compared to that of a B8.
I assume that it should have been a "B8.5" at the end of that sentence? However I don't believe you are correct there. Once you have the DL501 remapped (because the redline for the B8.5 is lower than the B8) I think you'll find that allowing for variations engine to engine (and other factors unique to each car or the day of the test), MRC's stage 2 is pretty much the same between B8 and B8.5 cars.

TBF to the Ultra charger the power under the curve will be quite different to stage 2,but IMO the Ultra isn't worth it.
Agreed on both accounts, however I can't help wondering if Mihnea could make good (better?) use of it in a remap. I may be stupid enough to pay to find out...:)
 
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So go get this extra power over the MRC stage2 you need about £5000 for the following
APR Ultracharger
Decat/test pipes
Upgrade Cooler
Dual pulley set up
APR remap (MRC were reluctant to custom map a dual pulley car when spoken to about it)
 
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If you just want a bit more noise on acceleration without the drone BCS backboxes are the way to go :)
 
So go get this extra power over the MRC stage2 you need about £5000 for the following
APR Ultracharger
Decat/test pipes
Upgrade Cooler
Dual pulley set up
APR remap (MRC were reluctant to custom map a dual pulley car when spoken to about it)
Ultracharger: yes.
Decat/test pipes: no.
Upgraded cooler: yes
Dual pulley setup: thought that was included in stage 2 - Dippy has both pulleys changed AFAIK
APR remap: yes, unless you can get MRC to successfully fiddle with an ultracharger

It depends what you are after though as it isn't all about horsepower. As far as I can tell, the supercharger upgrades (i.e. the airflow mods) do more for torque lower down than peak power. That's more useful in day-to-day driving.
 
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Ultracharger: yes.
Decat/test pipes: no.
Upgraded cooler: yes
Dual pulley setup: thought that was included in stage 2 - Dippy has both pulleys changed AFAIK
APR remap: yes, unless you can get MRC to successfully fiddle with an ultracharger

It depends what you are after though as it isn't all about horsepower. As far as I can tell, the supercharger upgrades (i.e. the airflow mods) do more for torque lower down than peak power. That's more useful in day-to-day driving.
APR's site recommends that the OE cats need to be removed at this power level, probably for good reason.
See red Box at the bottom on the page
http://www.goapr.com/products/throttle_body_30tfsi.html
 
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So go get this extra power over the MRC stage2 you need about £5000 for the following
APR Ultracharger
Decat/test pipes
Upgrade Cooler
Dual pulley set up
APR remap (MRC were reluctant to custom map a dual pulley car when spoken to about it)

Cooling and dual pulley is all you need to get that sort of power,obviously a map to go with too.
The US cars seem to have issues with failing cats on stock & tuned cars.Not something i have heard about in the UK.
Maybe our fuel is more consistent,maybe our climate being cooler helps ??
 
Since I bought the car this forum has helped a lot in learning about the car. You all are legends; treasure trove of knowledge for novices like me.
Dippy's S5 and XP's B8 build posts have been very helpful in learning about the platform and what it is capable of.


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Cooling and dual pulley is all you need to get that sort of power,obviously a map to go with too.
The US cars seem to have issues with failing cats on stock & tuned cars.Not something i have heard about in the UK.
Maybe our fuel is more consistent,maybe our climate being cooler helps ??
I know of two cars belonging to friends that have had cats fail, probably due to the extra heat generated when tuned. The last one on 90k the cat literally broke up and blocked the downpipe hence why testpipes were fitted and the car returned to MRC for a map tweak.
 
The US cars seem to have issues with failing cats on stock & tuned cars.Not something i have heard about in the UK.
Maybe our fuel is more consistent,maybe our climate being cooler helps ??
You've not heard of cats failing on UK tuned cars?
 
Speak to Doug @ MRC they've changed loads of these cat as they are prone to failure.