Broken Cat...decisions decisions

B8 S4
#81

Ray is the guy who installed Jeff’s headers (and all the other mods), and this is how he did that install. Definitely a legit guy who probably goes over the top a little. But I prefer that to people who take short cuts. Best price quote I got in Michigan was from Alexi at Speed Industries. He quoted me at $1200 and said it could be worse if bolts broke. He also couldn’t start until after the dream cruise. Steve’s and AutoEurope said it would be 1500, which is pretty much motor drop kind of money. Ray is legit and his labor is cheaper given the currency conversion.

I guess one side beit is I’m getting the 034 motor mounts installed. We’ll also try to figure out why this happened to begin with. My guess is there is a problem with the exhaust.

I am really hoping the timing pull issue is resolved once everything is reinstalled. Guess I’ll find out :-\

#82

Yeah whoa… engine out = over kill.

May be required for headers but definitely not test pipes.

I guess the plus side is that they won’t have troubles installing it.

#83

cool pixs though, anymore? :slight_smile:

#84

Sure, planning to pick up the car this afternoon. Hopefully, get the car flashed with a test pipe file asap. Here are the test pipes installed, you can see the location of the primary O2 sensors for example.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5835/20538285715_fb748311ee_b.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5700/19915642824_6648894c53_b.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5628/20544696831_0e206dac33_b.jpg

#85

they way those pipes flow slightly up then down from the headers, I can see why it broke where it did, looks likes the highest stress point, can’t be good if your exhaust system is moving up and down too much over a good amount of time.

#86

Well, I picked up the car yesterday and then went over to have the test pipe file flashed. Overall impression of the test pipes is the exhaust is kind of raspy, with more drone, but I did have a bunch of crap in the trunk with the seats folded down. Sounds possibly like I need to double check that all the hanger hardware is bolted down tight. But cabin rattle seemed worse. The exhaust is definitely louder up top which is a nice change. Not sure about powah, will find out at the drag strip in the fall.

Ray seemed to think that the exhaust still has a ton of resonance, and is vibrating a lot. Whether this is the cause of the cat failure…dunno. The other cat had a hairline crack in the flange, so it was probably only a matter of time until that one failed. My choices are to modify my current exhaust downpipes with either: (a) another flex joint; (b) weld in a HFC. The other choice is to go with a different aftermarket exhaust. I would probably go either Milltek or JHM. I would feel OK selling my current exhaust well below market cost, so in the end this would probably cost me 1k or so.

On a side note, the APR flash process was a pain in the ass. The tech offered to change the settings on my TCU tune (I wanted to re-enable auto downshift on kickdown), and while updating the TCU flash, it hung and semi-bricked the TCU. Had to put the car on rollers and move it over to some kind of APR computer which forced the stock TCU flash. He then was able to flash the APR software. Repeatedly was on hold with APR while asking for tech support. Took about 3 hours just to get the car updated.

#87

JHM has a B8 exhaust? Didn’t know that.

I had Miltek non-resonated. It sounded great, but there was some drone at lower RPMs. If that bothers you, I would go with the resonated version.

#88

Yes, here: https://jhmotorsports.com/shop/catalog/exhaust-cat-back-full-stainless-steel-25-jhm-fi-for-b8-s4-30t-fsi-24v-p-2679.html

https://jhmotorsports.com/products/pictures/exhaust/B8-S5/JHM-B8-S5-Full-Exhaust-Diagram.jpg

https://jhmotorsports.com/products/pictures/exhaust/B8-S5/JHM-B8-S4-S5-Cat-Back-Exhaust-Installed-2.jpg

It looks quite similar to mine in terms of components
http://www.neuspeed.com/300248-neuspeed-60mm-stainless-steel-cat-back-exhaust.html

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj283/supremepowerparts/Parts/300248_zpsf4554717.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A5ypxwJATxc/maxresdefault.jpg

The main difference would probably be the JHM is 2.5" while the Neuspeed is 60mm (2.37").

#89

Nice! Would love to see some videos. JHM is solid, as many on here can attest. I’m not sure any of the B8 exhausts produce acceleration gains, but maybe JHM found something different. Great to see them get more into the B8 platform.

#90

Thanks for taking the engine out. Those photos are great stuff. If you have any more please post.

This is turning into an expensive job.

#91

Those differences are pretty huge actually. When making the exhaust you have a few choices.
Diameter, material, crossover or not?, type of crossover, location of crossover, type of mufflers (glass pack, perforated core etc) , type of resonators, routing (largely determined by the car on an aftermarket system), bends, country of manufacture.

The jhm and neuspeed are different in almost every way. And based on this , I’d guess the neuspeed is made in China…
“Designed and engineered Camarillo, California”

Companies usually only post that when they’re manufacturing offshore. Note they didn’t say ‘made in California’.

#92

Mike, what are your thoughts on the sound and performance after driving it for a few days?

#93

I’d say overall the exhaust seems maybe 20% louder. We were out of town over the weekend, so I haven’t really had time to drive it other than the work commute. I would say the tone can be more shrill, kind of like the sound you would get when hitting a metal trash can lid. I’m going to reserve judgment until after giving it some time to break in.
I will say the car makes more noise up top, which used to be pretty quiet relative to the lower RPM’s. Highway drone is mildly worse. A buddy with a S/C S550 mustang GT thinks it’s not loud at all.

Can’t say much about performance, I’d wager there is still some timing pull. I’m going back to mid-ohio this weekend, so I’ll try to grab some logs while on track.

I just realized yesterday that the apr dealer didn’t clear DTC’s after my ECU/TCU flash. Was weird, but my autoscan was hanging on the AWD module. Maybe something to do with VDCS (had this happen before). The smell was getting pretty bad while I sat in the garage for 10 min. So idling with ignition on isn’t great.

#94

Drob, every time I get a new tcu flash and try to clear codes, vagcom hangs up… I can’t clear them via running a full scan and hitting clear, I have to go individually and clear then run full scan and clear again. Not positive the last step is needed but I do it…

#95

Hmm interesting, thanks for the suggestion!

#96

Good deal. Thanks for the update. I’m kicking this around as my last mod, but I’ll probably wait until some happens to the cats first…

#97

I’ll try to get a video together in the coming days.

#98

FYI - just ran a scan and this is what you get

ddress 01: Engine (J623-CGXC) Labels: 06E-907-551-CGW.clb
Part No SW: 8K5 907 551 E HW: 4G0 907 551 A
Component: 3.0l V6 TFSIH07 0002
Revision: --H07—
Coding: 0A250034052608060000
Shop #: WSC 06208 000 00000
ASAM Dataset: EV_ECM30TFS0218K5907551E 001002
ROD: EV_ECM30TFS0218K5907551E.rod
VCID: 387FE37A836BDDFEAE-806C

2 Faults Found:
13272 - Catalyst System; Bank 1
P0420 00 [101] - Efficiency Below Threshold
Not Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 1
Mileage: 51235 km
Date: 2015.08.18
Time: 07:23:55

13273 - Catalyst System; Bank 2
P0430 00 [101] - Efficiency Below Threshold
Not Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 1
Mileage: 51235 km
Date: 2015.08.18
Time: 07:23:55

Readiness: 0000 0101

#99

Strange that the tune doesn’t turn that off. That’s tuning 101.

#100

It does remove the MIL light in the dash FWIW.