Bigserve134's S5 build and review

A5/S5/RS5
#1

This has been long overdue since I intended to start this post when I joined two years ago!

I was a bit reluctant to purchase this car over three years ago dumping my mint condition nogaro B6 S4. I just loved the S5 a bit more noticing it was a bit faster being lighter with the 4.2 FSI and significant better handling. The S5 also was much more stable at high speeds; the S5 was completely planted at 165mph whereas the S4 became squeamish over 140mph.
I know many of these modifications are known since they are listed in my sig. however I thought giving more detail may be relevant.

  1. My first addition were the KW V2’s I purchased from Eurocode. I needed the car at proper ride height to be able to tell how much of a spacer I would need for the wheels. I had these installed and aligned by a VW service tech as a side job I paid him $400 cash at the dealership!? I went this route because local shops were quoting me $800+ for install + alignment.

  2. Next were the brushed aluminum Forgestar 19x9 ET38 F14s. I built these to be as aggressive as possible for the B6 S4 but still able to fit the S5. They never went onto the B6 since they took almost 12 weeks to receive them from the time of order. They all ended up being between 24-25lbs per corner (~5lb less than stock per corner). When I first mounted them the car looked like shit like it was rolling around on donuts they were so tucked in!

  3. So then I went to the H&R DRA 15mm and 20mm bolt on spacers to achieve a much more aesthetically pleasing stance. However this was not nearly enough to cover my crater-like gap. I sent the 15mm back ordering a 25mm. I ended up with H&R DRA 20/25mm on the front and rear respectively, which worked for me aggressive enough without any poke.

  4. 20% llumar tint Luckily a friend owns a tint shop, so only $120 cash

  5. AWE track non-res downpipes, catback and GIAC tune installed with about 6 hours of labor at Streamline ind. I loved the way it sounded but soon regretted the drone at 1500-3000 rpms when any sort of gas was applied. I learned to keep the rpms up above 3k to avoid this annoyance. Overall I was happy with the exhaust being slightly larger piping than stack. The touring version with the increased diameter to 2.5" was not available at the time of purchase and only came out a year later. From a performance standpoint I believe I will be looking at an upgrade to 2.5" in the future likely from FI. I had the exhaust installed at the beginning of the week then tune at then end of the week to assess the upgrade. I did notice a little more power after 3500 rpm, however the GIAC tune was shit, fucking robbery. Basically all they did was remove the accelerator delay. I was told it would adapt to race gas if I choose to run it which I did after noticing the tune was shit. Even after a full tank of race gas and aggressive driving there was no difference or adjustment. In fact I think the car was slower ??? I notified Streamline and they contacted GIAC as did I. This was John Voss’s response
    [quote]Thanks for the e-mail. The 4.2 motor, being naturally aspirated is very limited on power gains through software. You can only adjust air, fuel and timing to bring out more power and as you know you can improve throttle response. Unlike a turbo car which you can also increase boost pressure. All naturally aspirated motors are the same in this respect, you are limited with gains with software alone.
    [/quote]

  6. Then came the JHM short shifter! This was the second best mod I have done to date. Shifting became precise, clean, crisp, and faster.

  7. Added the JHM light weight rotors front and back with hawk street pads. At first I was unhappy with it, had to depress the brake much more to get the same effect, was soft, unresponsive even after the bedding process. However after a few weeks (~300 miles) it all came to life and brake pedal more responsive, brakes grabbed harder, and livelier. After the Forgestar F14, JHM rotors, and michilin PSS i dropped a total of 14lbs per corner compared to stock!

  8. At the same time as the JHM rotors were going on Eurocode was also doing a free APR TVS1320 supercharger install subsidized by APR! This was the best mod by far I have done to date. Transformed the S5 into a BEAST! Previously the fastest car I had driven was a M3 or 911 carrera S. Eurocode performed the install in one day with a carbon clean. They also guaranteed the carbon would not build up promising to clean it again if it does, otherwise I would have not cleaned it since it was a mild-medium build up. I had 23k miles at the time, 20k of which I clocked on. I am up to 32k miles now and everything is still running well. Had a faulty aux supercharger coolant pump that was recently replaced (hope APR ends up covering it since it was still under warranty at the time of the issue). I do get occasional misfire that set up my check engine light (7 times in the last 10months) probably due to shit gas or altitude? Not sure but Arin said I could log the fault codes and APR will adjust the tune for me.

What should I do next?

  • JHM stage IV clutch and light weight flywheel
  • JHM test pipes
  • JHM headers (not sure if these are something they are selling or proven with gains)
  • APR TVS 1740 (RS4 and S5 are suppose to be launched real soon first week in Nov. then R8/RS5) + JHM light weight crank pulley
  • JHM supercharger (may be a ways away…) + JHM light weight crank pulley
  • JHM intake spacers (may not fit with the APR charger)
  • OZ racing superforgiata 5 fori (17.6lbs for 19x10s cutting another 7lbs per corner from the F14s!)
  • Any 2.75" exhausts for an S5? Maybe Danny can cook some up ;D

Im leaning toward the OZs and then all the other light weight mods before going for the bigger forced induction. This car is not going anywhere soon since there is nothing on the market I would consider (closest thing would be a nogaro RS4 with low miles), so im planning on all of these mods! Any other suggestions?

http://i43.tinypic.com/ejg7m9.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/25eycm8.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/2r77go0.jpg

Then I decided to change to my favorite color…

http://i43.tinypic.com/25fk7zr.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/70e69v.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/2di0mmv.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/zw0q61.jpg

Dipped satin red! I’m happy with the end result especially now that all of the S5 lines are much more pronounced. So easy to clean now by just spraying it down with the hose then wiping dry with a towel. Im contemplating taking everything that is aluminum,graphite, silver and dipping satin black. Brake calipers also need some love…not feeling the ronald mcdonald theme so much :smiley:

#2

Wow. Nice little build thread. Love the car, let me know when ya want to sell it lol. I’ll take just how it sits!

For your next mod, I’d say there’s no question it’d be some 2.75" dp’s to a full exhaust if possible to open up all that extra flow, and honestly probably protect your motor (if you’re still on stock dp’s with the precat right by the engine). And a stg IV (or may want to look into the V) clutch may be required sooner rather than later with all the extra power. I really enjoyed the LWFW with the kit as it let revs drop a bit faster which made fast shifting line up better.

So was that a plasti-dip color change (hard to see the color process on the cracked cell phone lol ). I’ve been temped by doing it several times on different cars but hadn’t taken the plunge due to fear of quality and removal. I agree though, the yellow calipers looked great on the blue, but not as hot with the red (however, red/red isn’t as much fun, maybe green or seething wild lol).

I really have a soft spot in my heart for the S5’s and came very close to getting one when I replaced my Audi, but they were just too slow stock and not enough aftermarket support. That’s starting to come around though as more people enter the market. They have killer looks, I just wish the performance matched the aesthetics more for the lightly modded cars (I.e. Still NA).

Glad to see you enjoying the car. She’s a beauty and keep the updates coming as you continue to mod her.

#3

Thanks, planning on keeping it for a while…there is nothing on the market or coming to the market that interests me. But I’ll be the first to let you know if I change my mind.

Stage V? I highest stage I see from JHM is the IV and from the way they abuse their clutches it is the only product I would consider. I have’t heard good things about the southbend / APR dxd, in fact Arin had to go to something else because his wasn’t holding anymore.

I’m with you on the 2.75" exhaust but I’m not sure how my engine would be protected?

Did you get any chatter with the light weight flywheel? I hear it is inevitable and depends on skill to how much it chatters

Yes, I was mixed one part red to one part glossifier for the satin red.

That is funny that you mention green because I agree and was thinking the same thing. More specifically lime green since it will make it pop contrasting the most with the red ;D

#4

JHM has been testing a stg V on dans rs4 for the better part of a year and possibly on some customers cars as well. If you look at the thread axel started about the sticking clutch you’ll see it talked about. The stg IV is awesome and 100% daily driveable. But they’re thinking that the higher rpm+increased rpm/sec+overall power of the JHM blower on the RS4 is showing the weakness in the rs4 pp (best oem pp to date). So they’ve been working on a Stg V for the SC guys. I don’t know if any of it has been adapted to the S5. But I know they have been working on clutch kits for the S5 for quite a while now. But as time goes on, our you upgrade to a bigger blower, you’ll start to see the weakness in the oem setup. I personally would wait for the JHM kit and get in touch with them as they abuse and test the clutches the hardest it seems.

Also, the JHM LW FW had virtually no chatter. Only time I ever noticed it was when is be in a gear way to tall and coming to a stoplight and almost stalling bc I didn’t pull out. So I wouldn’t worry about that much. Others will tell you the same thing. But you definitely will notice how much free the revs rise, and more importantly drop. I felt with the LWFW fast shifts were 100% improved bc the revs dropped faster and were closer to the next gear’s engagement point.

Also, look into the B6/7 S4 conversations about the precat placement. It’s a huge issue and possibly one of the biggest factors to the cylinder wall scoring. To meat EPA regulations, they put the pre-cat extremely close to the motor to help generate heat and make the cat work more efficiently sooner. The design on the S5 has been improved (I believe) but the underlying design idea remains. Now that you’re throwing that much extra air/heat/fuel through the motor, I would really look into a dp that is catless, or at least moves the cat down stream.

#5

Oh nice, if there is a stage V then ill be on it. But if the clutch isn’t giving with all that power…something has to give and as long as it is the tires things should not break ;D

No chatter. that’s good to hear and you’re the second person that I have heard form that has mentioned nearly zero chatter on the JHM LWFW

Sounds like the JHM test pipes should be my next mod then based on the cat placement on the S5

Thanks for the info

#6

Love the red! Car looks great

#7

Big how did I miss this post…great stuff…get thr jhm clutch you should be able to put more of that power doen then…

#8

:o

Thank you!

Thanks, I think i’ll do the test pipes, clutch LWFW and headers all at once since they are all pretty much in the same area and may save some labor. It would be fun to be able to launch whenever I want not having to worry about melting things ;D

#9

Just to clarify, JHM was working on headers for the S5, but those would most likely go from the exhaust port off the motor all the way to the catback, i.e. no “dp” or “test-pipe” anymore.

However, given the blower, headers would be great, but bang for your buck is probably better spent on just doing the “test-pipes” i.e. catless downpipes. That leaves your oem exhaust manifold in place, and replaces the DP from the manifold to the catback.

Just thought I’d clarify some for ya. But yea, clutch at dp’s at the same time is a great mod and cuts down on labor if they’re done separately.

#10

The headers should be able to eliminate the need for test pipes. maddog sadi that already. I would think about getting the test pipes if they are available now. Knowing the past luck with the 4.2 and the pre cats. You might want to get those out of there ASAP

#11

http://audidirectusa.com/parts/2008/Audi/S5/?siteid=218003&vehicleid=203860&section=EXHAUST%20SYSTEM

Ok, I understand, So part #1 (those cats) in the middle diagram is what comes off the manifold that needs to get the fuck out? Then the downpipes follow as part #15?

What kind of history do the B6/7s have with the precats? searching for cylinder wall scoring right now, im assuming that is what you meant

Thanks

#12

Correct the cats #1 in the middle diagram need to go. Test pipes are probably the best bang for your buck as Maddog said.

I hate that companies call the pipes with resonators #15 “downpipes” because they are more like mid pipes. Also it confuses people that switch from the older cars because the downpipes on the older cars had the cats in them.

The older cars had two cats on each side for the V engines and the first cats were called precats then the main cats were further back. Unless you look at the B6 3.0s that had the precats and then the main cats right behind the precats. With the cats so close to the back of the engine that means that there is a huge heat source right behind the engine. No wonder both the 3.0s and B6/7 S4s have so many issues with valve stem seals failing and scored cylinder walls on the S4s.

I think 034 Motorsport has catless pipes for the B8s but I remember 91GL saying negative things about them like they are too small.

#13

Yes contact jhm about there catless dps…that will be the best bet

#14

Ask and you shall receive. I was looking for brake pad wear sensors for someone’s car but then I saw these: http://jhmotorsports.com/shop/catalog/exhaust-test-pipes-stainless-steel-25-jhm-for-b8-s5-42l-fsi-32v-p-1789.html

They are beautiful!

#15

“product not found” either that’s one hell of an edit by JHM, or the linky no work.

#16

The link works for me on both my phone and computer.

#17

My bad, it had my last search setting recalled (products vaild for a B6/7 S4). Cleared that and it pulled up.

Pretty good price actually for those pipes since no one else offers em, obviously great quality, and recessed O2 bungs for catless.

#18

Thanks for clarifying Jbones! I see why my AWE downpipes are really not downpipes now. Although when I ordered them I opted for the non-res for less restriction?

A few months ago Jake actually contacted me about the test pipes seeing if I wanted in on the first batch! We spoke about emissions and that I would likely not pass them once I swapped them in. That is why I didn’t grab them then. I suppose if these are an easy swap without have to drop the engine or trans I could just juggle them when emission time comes around.

They are… and expensive for hollow pipes, but one must pay to play. Also since JHM are first to market they can skim

#19

Most of the time the resonators are just for sound and by sound I mean drone.

The B6/7 S4 downpipes are $1,200 for probably twice as much or more tubing, plus flex joints, and hardware/gasket for the middle connecting flanges. But with the midpipes the B8s are probably paying more in the end.

#20

I hate that fucking drone! I throw it in neutral or keep it above 3k rpms otherwise its a disaster