I thought it was about time I told people about my road trip to tune my S4. I did it a good few months ago and meant to write it up but just never got around to it till now.... I live in Edinburgh but was prepared to travel the distance to get the best..... so I did lots of investigation.... my chosen mod route was....
RS4 intercoolers and removed fog lights
APR Bi pipe
Gutted precats
Main cat replacement pipes ( home made effort)
Custom Dual Exhuast....
and a remap of course....
Other stuff: H&R coilovers + 18 inch A8 wheels and RS4 brakes.... It didnt all happen at once of course but in a very short space of time..... Couldn'y believe the faf it was to get the RS4 coolers in.... didnt realise you had to cut so much away to get them to fit in... mind you they are significantly bigger:
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/coolers.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/coolers.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/coolers.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/coolers.jpg"]
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H&Rs fitted nice and easy:
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/front.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/front.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/front.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/front.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/rear.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/rear.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/rear.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/rear.jpg"]
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I didnt do any testing but with the area removed by taking out the fogs but If you imagine sticking your hand out the window at 60mph and having your other behind it . Then removing the front one . The difference to the hand behind is a lot . So I did it anyway .
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog1.jpg"]
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[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog2.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog2.jpg"]
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so it took me a full weekend to do all that ..not inc the exhaust downpipe work that I had done before but that took a week!
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4work.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4work.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4work.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4work.jpg"]
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car was looking pretty good I thought .
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4low.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4low.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4low.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4low.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4wheels.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4wheels.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4wheels.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4wheels.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
APR pipe, RS4 coolers and H&R coilies were all from Grizz on RS246.com what a guy , all at a damn good price too .
I had already treated the car to the usual new MAF and DVs and samco F pipe etc etc and have already rebuilt the engine so was fairly confident about doing it all the biggest pain was doing my decat pipes and pre-cat gutting . What a pain . Cost me about 90 quid in bits and machine costs (for flanges) and a whole lot of grief I think If I was to do that again I would just pay someone else to do it!
I decided to go to MIJ exhausts as they seemed to know what they were talking about and were on the way to MRC anyway.. ( there was only one choice for the remap!)
Anyway . This began my road trip, I had some wheels to deliver late the Thursday night to a mate so headed down to Dorchester and got to Brummy about 2 am . I decided to crash the night in the car with my camping gear .. wasnt sure how this would go but I slept really well! I put the drivers side of the split rear seats down and put the drivers seat forward climbed in and had my feet in the passengers side corner of the boot ( car is a saloon!) .. the ridge from the back seat to the boot floor is a birt uncomfy but padded out wit hsome clothes .. it was fine! Besides it was far too late to find a B&B! anyway .
Got to MIJ pretty early and booked the car in .. the new building certainly looked the part, they had only recently moved in to the purpose built building when I went so there was lots of works still going on ..
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/mij.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/mij.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/mij.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/mij.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
I spoke to Jay in details about what I wanted and showed him the APR exhaust from the net .twin 2.25 etc. We discussed a few thing and off he went to start making it ..
I amused myself in the reception with the DVD player and plasma screen with a very early Jackie chan film some various motoring DVDs and a rather amusing RC car vid which involved people doing daft things like driving down the highway with the RC car in front and jumping houses etcetc like a fast bikes video for RC cars . Anyway I met Maz (the guy who I had been talking to over the phone about the exhaust) when he came in and ended up messing about with his S3 with the then new version of VAGcom with acceleration times .. unbelievably when we were out testing on the M6 we saw some girls flash a trucker!!!! Never seen that before in the UK! I met some other people some other customer some friends of staff and generally had a good day .. Jays Skyline is a bit mad tho . 1000+bhp . Hmm anyway Jay was checking with me through out the manufacture of the exhaust whether I was happy etc and when it was done myself and Maz went out for a spin I was quite impressed I had to say and couldn't wait to get to MRC ..
Here are the results
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust1.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust2.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust2.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust2.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust2.jpg"]
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[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust3.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust3.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust3.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust3.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
All for 495 which was 180 cheaper than a fitted miltek dual!
So off to MRC
I didnt get there till 6.30 pr so but Minhea was expecting me late . I spoke to Doug for a bit and he seems V impressed with the exhaust
Minhea came back from mapping an exhaust and we chatted for a bit and some people came and went ..
Eventually we went out for the map now .. I can map cars I have had cars with programmable ECUs and I know mates who are tuners from my VW past and I can normally get maps for the cost of burning an EPROM so handing over 500 notes for a remap really did grind against me for something I new if I had the equipment I could probably do myself .. however . As it happens Minhea is a genius!
I couldnt believe how quickly he was navigating through the mapping software and vagcom and look up table etc etc all while Im driving like a loon . I was V impressed so that made me feel a hell of a lot better. I cant recommend MRC enough .. I had an MTM map from QST before and I thought it was so laggy I preferd the std map (which I had put back in!). was well chuffed,,,,, Although we had to stop cos the std S4 brakes are simply not up to the job, they were red hot and started knocking!!!! After the cooled down they were ok thou so at least I could get home . at this point I stopped taking pics as it was dark and just wanted to get on the journey home....
Then Minhea, ( the git!) took me out in his 520bhp S4 wow .unbelievable, Im sure if I was following on my blade it would have left me for dust certainly if any biker was in the wrong gear bye bye .. the torque is just unbelievable .was also a bit freaky as its LHD so I felt I was in the driver seat reaching for the brake pedal every no and then!!! So after that My newly tuned 340-360bhp(est) S4 felt really slow! Damn maybe that was the idea
Anyway ..the journey home was pretty rapid I was going to do a MPG test there and back to see the difference but I didnt care on the way home!!!!
Of course the first thing I did when I got home was buy some RS4 brakes from Grizz!!!
So there you go .! Hope you enjoyed that!
Cheers.
Mark.
RS4 intercoolers and removed fog lights
APR Bi pipe
Gutted precats
Main cat replacement pipes ( home made effort)
Custom Dual Exhuast....
and a remap of course....
Other stuff: H&R coilovers + 18 inch A8 wheels and RS4 brakes.... It didnt all happen at once of course but in a very short space of time..... Couldn'y believe the faf it was to get the RS4 coolers in.... didnt realise you had to cut so much away to get them to fit in... mind you they are significantly bigger:
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/coolers.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/coolers.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/coolers.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/coolers.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]H&Rs fitted nice and easy:
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/front.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/front.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/front.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/front.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/rear.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/rear.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/rear.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/rear.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]I didnt do any testing but with the area removed by taking out the fogs but If you imagine sticking your hand out the window at 60mph and having your other behind it . Then removing the front one . The difference to the hand behind is a lot . So I did it anyway .
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog1.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog2.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/fog2.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL]so it took me a full weekend to do all that ..not inc the exhaust downpipe work that I had done before but that took a week!
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4work.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4work.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4work.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4work.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]car was looking pretty good I thought .
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4low.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4low.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4low.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4low.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4wheels.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4wheels.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4wheels.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4wheels.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]APR pipe, RS4 coolers and H&R coilies were all from Grizz on RS246.com what a guy , all at a damn good price too .
I had already treated the car to the usual new MAF and DVs and samco F pipe etc etc and have already rebuilt the engine so was fairly confident about doing it all the biggest pain was doing my decat pipes and pre-cat gutting . What a pain . Cost me about 90 quid in bits and machine costs (for flanges) and a whole lot of grief I think If I was to do that again I would just pay someone else to do it!
I decided to go to MIJ exhausts as they seemed to know what they were talking about and were on the way to MRC anyway.. ( there was only one choice for the remap!)
Anyway . This began my road trip, I had some wheels to deliver late the Thursday night to a mate so headed down to Dorchester and got to Brummy about 2 am . I decided to crash the night in the car with my camping gear .. wasnt sure how this would go but I slept really well! I put the drivers side of the split rear seats down and put the drivers seat forward climbed in and had my feet in the passengers side corner of the boot ( car is a saloon!) .. the ridge from the back seat to the boot floor is a birt uncomfy but padded out wit hsome clothes .. it was fine! Besides it was far too late to find a B&B! anyway .
Got to MIJ pretty early and booked the car in .. the new building certainly looked the part, they had only recently moved in to the purpose built building when I went so there was lots of works still going on ..
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/mij.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/mij.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/mij.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/mij.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]I spoke to Jay in details about what I wanted and showed him the APR exhaust from the net .twin 2.25 etc. We discussed a few thing and off he went to start making it ..
I amused myself in the reception with the DVD player and plasma screen with a very early Jackie chan film some various motoring DVDs and a rather amusing RC car vid which involved people doing daft things like driving down the highway with the RC car in front and jumping houses etcetc like a fast bikes video for RC cars . Anyway I met Maz (the guy who I had been talking to over the phone about the exhaust) when he came in and ended up messing about with his S3 with the then new version of VAGcom with acceleration times .. unbelievably when we were out testing on the M6 we saw some girls flash a trucker!!!! Never seen that before in the UK! I met some other people some other customer some friends of staff and generally had a good day .. Jays Skyline is a bit mad tho . 1000+bhp . Hmm anyway Jay was checking with me through out the manufacture of the exhaust whether I was happy etc and when it was done myself and Maz went out for a spin I was quite impressed I had to say and couldn't wait to get to MRC ..
Here are the results
[URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust1.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust1.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust2.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust2.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust2.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust2.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust3.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust3.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust3.jpg"][URL="http://homepage.mac.com/kippertie/Mark/s4exhaust3.jpg"]
[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]All for 495 which was 180 cheaper than a fitted miltek dual!
So off to MRC
I didnt get there till 6.30 pr so but Minhea was expecting me late . I spoke to Doug for a bit and he seems V impressed with the exhaust
Minhea came back from mapping an exhaust and we chatted for a bit and some people came and went ..
Eventually we went out for the map now .. I can map cars I have had cars with programmable ECUs and I know mates who are tuners from my VW past and I can normally get maps for the cost of burning an EPROM so handing over 500 notes for a remap really did grind against me for something I new if I had the equipment I could probably do myself .. however . As it happens Minhea is a genius!
I couldnt believe how quickly he was navigating through the mapping software and vagcom and look up table etc etc all while Im driving like a loon . I was V impressed so that made me feel a hell of a lot better. I cant recommend MRC enough .. I had an MTM map from QST before and I thought it was so laggy I preferd the std map (which I had put back in!). was well chuffed,,,,, Although we had to stop cos the std S4 brakes are simply not up to the job, they were red hot and started knocking!!!! After the cooled down they were ok thou so at least I could get home . at this point I stopped taking pics as it was dark and just wanted to get on the journey home....
Then Minhea, ( the git!) took me out in his 520bhp S4 wow .unbelievable, Im sure if I was following on my blade it would have left me for dust certainly if any biker was in the wrong gear bye bye .. the torque is just unbelievable .was also a bit freaky as its LHD so I felt I was in the driver seat reaching for the brake pedal every no and then!!! So after that My newly tuned 340-360bhp(est) S4 felt really slow! Damn maybe that was the idea
Anyway ..the journey home was pretty rapid I was going to do a MPG test there and back to see the difference but I didnt care on the way home!!!!
Of course the first thing I did when I got home was buy some RS4 brakes from Grizz!!!
So there you go .! Hope you enjoyed that!
Cheers.
Mark.
