G's Audi S6 Build

A6 All/ S6 All
#1

THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME! After lurking and following AR’s S6 platform for years now, I finally mustered up the courage and funds to sink my teeth into a C6 S6. Last Monday I received a 2010 Audi S6 in phantom black pearl effect with carbon fiber inlays clocking in at 66,700 miles and a relatively clean track record. I’ve since already taken the car on a road trip to Austin and done minor repairs since I plan to keep treating this car like a baby.

I’ll definitely upload some pictures when weather gets better and I fix the minor paint chips on the front bumper. Aside from those little chips and a missing front mud flap, the car runs and looks great! Of course, it’ll become even better when I can truly crack open that V10 with the assistance of our JHM friends and all who have pioneered the platform (v8a6, Justin, Black, Count, etc).

As far as modifications go, I’ll break them down into two categories: performance and cosmetic

Performance: (with deadlines/ideal times)
2017

  • K&N filter
  • Intake Spacers
  • SAI Delete
  • Hawk CP Brakes (front and rear)
  • Michelin Super Sport A/S tires

2018

  • [s]JHM Tune
  • LW Pulley[/s]
  • JHM Exhaust
  • Bilstein Coilovers + H&R A6 sway bar *updated from H&R coilovers
  • Audi R8 '18 19in wheels blacked out

2018+

  • LW Rotors
  • JHM Supercharger (if it’s not a myth and depending on price point)
  • Updated Intake Manifold… could be moved at sooner deadline depending on current manifold issues later down the line
  • Updating from 3G to 3G+ MMI.
  • APS+ (front parking sensors)
  • ACC (adaptive cruise control) + ACC instrument cluster '10-11 FUCK that… too much involved lol

Cosmetic: (no particular deadline… but the sooner the more badass)

  • RS6 Grill
  • RS6 Steering Wheel w/ RS emblem
  • RS6 Rear Diffuser
  • RS6 gear shifter
  • RS6 foot pedals
  • RS6 front bumper
  • RS6 headlights
  • Carbon Optic Package CF trim pieces - Audi Exclusive & Euro only
  • Maxton Design RS6 front spoiler, side skirts and rear side skirts
  • RS6 Red Calipers
  • RS6 Black Piano Dash

Now these upgrades or additions will be trickled in between maintenance, which I’m heavy set on keeping up with. If you treat your car right, then it’ll treat you right. :wink: I’ll be following Justincredible’s C6 S6 maintenance guidelines religiously, so that we can avoid most of what we’ve already seen from others’ S6s. When my next oil change is due is when I’ll perform a carbon clean, add the intake spacers, oil separator by-pass and start looking into injectors since it’ll be around 70-80K range. I’ll probably take a peek at the spark plugs too because why not? There’s reason not to be having preventative maintenance done to prevent any misfires or have engine failure. Also, I’ve been getting fairly into additives lately so I’ll be using Lucas Oil additives in both the motor oil and gasoline for additional, minor beits. I KNOW MOST OF Y’ALL THINK IT’S HORSE SHIT buuuuuut it can’t hurt… right? :stuck_out_tongue:

All in all, it should be a fun ride and a great learning experience for a new enthusiast. If there’s any recommendations anyone has that I might have overlooked or missed, then PLEASE reach out to me. I’m all for doing things the right way, so we can all have more smiles per gallon.

EDIT: Added some new items to the list, most notable will be the Audi R8 rims 19x8.5. ::slight_smile:

#2

Oh and I forgot… does anyone have experience with the Audi leather treatment products? I’ve been looking into them, and I figure it’s a better alternative to the Armor All wipes lol.

#3

save your money on the Audi branded stuff (pretty sure it’s AutoGlym or something like that)

I’ve always trusted Sonax Leather Care, worked awesome with the Nappa leather I had in my S4.

I’m sure someone else can chime in here, but that’s what I’ve used with success.

As for any other ideas, are you keeping the stock wheels?

Lowering springs are good if you think that a mild drop will do it for you. But there are options for coilovers out there (ST comes to mind) that are a decent price and with that mileage it’s not a terrible idea to replace the original shocks/struts. The coilovers atleast give you options on ride height if that’s a concern for you.

I won’t get into comments on tires, but ask what you plan on driving the car 80% of the time. You can likely save some money by not buying the craziest tire combo.

I would also consider flushing the brake fluid and coolant (not sure if that is in your routine maintenance or not)

Looks like you’ve got a solid plan for the car regardless, nice to see.

#4

CONGRATS OP CONGRATS. Its always great to have more solid guys with such great cars.

Excited for those pix

Also I really apprechate the nod in your post. I have seen so many platforms where they fail and fall down hill after a few years because all of the good information leaves. These smaller platforms do well due to the honest interests and lack of trolls who try to push there adjenda rather than facts. The S6 has come a long way and our community here is standing proof of where the good guys are good information will follow.

On to your post
Performance: (with deadlines/ideal times)
2017
K&N filter - Great
Intake Spacers - Even greater
SAI Delete - terrific idea
Oil separator by pass - I’d be careful on this. Might just be better off getting a new oil sep unit.
Hawk CP Brakes (front and rear) - I have hawk on my car. I love the pads.
Michelin Super Sport A/S tires - [b]not a big fan of Michelin but to each there own on tires.

[/b]

2018
JHM Tune - THIS IS A MUST DO. HANDS DOWN THERE IS NO BETTER TUNE FOR THE S6 or S8
LW Pulley -this is a sneaky performance mod that drops so much weight you will be surprised at the gain
JHM Exhaust - The entire package you are looking at here really takes the car to the next level
H&R Coilovers & Sway Bar OR Springs (unsure yet, although coilover & sway bar seems more productive) - A soldi coilover kit and sway bar really make the car more confident

2018+
LW Rotors - This is another seakey mod that really make a impact when you install it.

#5

As for the leather wipes I’m with murphenur. I have had a great history with the meguiar line of products

#6

LOL, dare I ask what y’all’s tire preference is? I can get a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3s for around $850-900, which I’d say is fair for 19in wheels. I say Michelin because those are the current tires and the ride is pretty damn smooth and comfortable.

Also, after seeing v8a6’s headers… I might add those to the list… $7K… but incredible power unleashed… but $7K. Is it worth putting custom headers with that price on a car with 115-130K miles? I can’t come to grips with it, and this is all assuming I’ll even have $7-10K to throw at it when that time comes.

#7

I have pilot sport AS3+ on my car(275s)… only one HPDE/track day on them so far and only two sessions due to alternator belt failure. I’ll update probably after we do VIR this weekend. I have 5 wheels/tires so they were like $1400-1500 or so total. I got the last two randomly due to a failure/hole in one sustained due to a piece of metal on the highway, and the need to get a matching spare tire after. They’re usually like $250-300/tire I think. I also have bilstein dampers and I think stock springs.

Yeah I think the price on the headers is also a tough pill to swallow, but if I had the money to blow and didn’t have a dead S4 to get back on the road, I’d probably just spring for a set. Also gotta consider the cost to drop the engine again though, so that adds another 2-3k I guess lol. I’ll probably end up waiting till I have more money or until the supercharger kit comes out.

#8

The JHM supercharger is a hard score to pass on. Its been such a huge success on all the other platforms its been on…

The headers are obviously well under the cost of the supercharger kit and add a good amount of power but its a option that I would love to see. JHM has said they are still working on the development of the kit and have a few beta customers but from what I understand JHM wants to make sure they get a few other products to market and help make the 5.2 community grow before they go too far with advancement.

#9

What other products could there be at this point? a new intake manifold? not sure what else we can do from here until the kit comes. the last thing on the list for me is the lightweight rotors, but when i was at the track last time, they were telling me i may want to stick to full weight because of the amount of heat generated with consistent lapping. Thicker rotors are better for that apparently. Maybe lightweight wheels, but we have such horrible roads here lol. Think I may be done for now except for maybe a radar and laser shifter/jammer setup. Eventually I’d like to get more custom carbon fiber stuff done, but just can’t justify it until the S4 is up and reliable as well. First world problems though so no big deal lol

#10

I’m not entirely sure either, but regardless it’s gonna be some cool sh*t. JHM never disappoints. I’ve looked into Avant Garde wheels coming out to 21 lbs ea, but having trouble pulling the trigger on that before I look further into maintenance items and performance mods.

#11

Keep in mind the LW rotors are the same thickness/diameter as stock on the friction surface; the weight savings comes from the center section where it’s replaced by an aluminum hat which is a carrier for the friction ring. While there’s certainly less material there to act as a heat sink, the stock rotor would be sinking the heat into an area that you don’t want it; the axle and bearing. Since the center of a brake disk receives no active cooling, it’s going to be there a while heating up the wheel beatings and eventually the brake fluid once the knuckle gets enough heat sinked into it.

You want to keep the heat in the friction ring where it can shed that heat via airflow to the internal vanes and cool back down, not transmit the heat into other parts of the suspension. Further, I’m pretty confident the stock rotors are internally straight vaned whereas the LW rotors are certainly directionally vaned. It’d make them slightly more efficient, but only at higher wheel rpms would the difference be more signifigant. Very little difference apple to apples on say an AutoX run, even back to back but a massive difference on a roadcourse where theres a longer time between breaking events and higher wheel rpm’s between them.

TLDR; the LW are actually better than stock weight difference notwithstanding. The fact you save about 13lbs per corner as sprung weight is a MASSIVE performance improvement in general, braking performance would actually improve.

I’d also highly recommend fabbing up some ducting from the nose to the brake dust shields to increase that fresh airflow and help them internal vanes do their thing. :slight_smile:

#12

Great post compugeek.

To add to that. The JHM LW Rotors are directional and they do have larger vanes. Over all the rotor thickness is the same but the weight is lost in the fact that you have more vanes then rotor material and as mentioned the aluminum hat helps as well.

The LW rotors add a tremendious amount of weight savings but if tracked too long with too high of heat use they can stress crack if pushed too hard. So can stock rotors but stock rotors tend to take more abuse before this happens. I push my car hard and have never seen any JHM LW rotors heat crack but if you over heat them at a track that’s possible. Its not likely that you would ever be able to duplicate this kind of abuse on a real driving situation on public roads but constant abuse at a race road coarse where your driving in a race situation for 45min you see lots of stress cracks in any LW rotor no matter who makes them. So that is something to keep in mind.

#13

Aluminum has a considerably higher thermal conductivity than cast iron, say 4 times as much. So, the LW rotors with the aluminum hats will transfer heat more easily to the wheel hub/bearings. Thus, the LW rotors are WORSE in this regard, not better.

#14

[quote]So, the LW rotors with the aluminum hats will transfer heat more easily to the wheel hub/bearings. Thus, the LW rotors are WORSE in this regard, not better.
[/quote]
I can’t say I disagree with this more. You’re correct that aluminum conducts heat at a much higher rate than steel (over 200W/mK vs. something like 50W/mK iirc), but in a practical application particular to brakes it doesn’t equate to higher heat sinked into the hubs. You’re missing from this practical equation that aluminum also sheds heat at a much higher rate than iron as well; What you’re saying is that a 15lb mass of iron transmits less heat than a 5lb mass of aluminum?

I think your math is off son.

#15

Maybe I am off. How would you do the math?

For conduction through a wall, the mass doesn’t matter: q=(k/s)AdT

The area is the same in both scenarios. The T1 in dT is also the same same as that represent the temperature of the cast iron rotor, which both scenarios will have. The k for Al is probably closer to 2.5 times the k for Fe, assuming a 7075 aluminum. Not sure how much thicker the aluminum would be to get the equivalent strength of steel, and then the hat geometries would be a bit different. It’s the thickness that matters, not the mass.

For the convection aspect, I’m assumed there isn’t much near the ID. There isn’t much exposure the airflow, and the surface area isn’t much.Outboard, there’s conduction at the wheel, so there’s some heat sink there. But, if there’s more heat going to the wheel, then there’s more going to the hub as well.

Walk me through what you are thinking? Maybe I’m misremembering, but heat transfer cares less about weight and more about thickness, area and thermal conductivity of the material. An object with more mass may hold more heat longer though, is that what you’re saying?

#16

Remember, steel takes longer to warm up, but it takes equally long to cool down. So, whereas aluminum might get hot 4x faster than steel, steel will remain hot 4x longer than aluminum (I don’t know if those are the exact figures, just guessing). In other words, while aluminum gets hot faster, it has a far greater capacity to be cooled quickly. I, for one, would prefer rotors that are hot only during braking, rather than hot all the time - but I can’t prove one way or the other which one is more stressful on other components. All I can say is I’ve been running the JHM LW rotors on all 4 corners for about 18 months now and the performance difference (in both braking and acceleration) is undeniably better than before, and I’ve yet to experience any adverse effects from brake heat.

#17

After talking with Blacks6, I’m going to also add 3G+ MMI to the list. Also, contemplating adding front bumper parking assist to help with custom suspension later down the line (last thing I need it a busted bumper).

#18

to help try to end the LW rotor debate. Ill add these points.

The LW rotors are not just aluminum they are steel rotors with aluminum hats the actuall steel rotor has big air fins that act as giant heat transfer devices. The entire idea of the rotor is to be able to shed heat quicker and the actual design is built for less weight and less weight. and as several have stated it works. Sure there is truth that aluminum has a fantastic heat transfer rate but it also has a shed rate that is higher than steel.

Compugeek was correct IMHO when he said in this practical application there are several dynamics that make the statement that aluminum hats are worse is incorrect. After all in actual world testing race teams follow the same path of using a steel rotor and aluminum hat Audi race teams and several others for years did this. Now with carbon brakes we see new materials but the point is from race to the street this seems to have been the combination of choice for years and years and years. And as a finial thought I have not seen anything to suggest that there has ever been any increase of anyone with LW rotors needing to change out wheel bearings or any supportive parts.

#19

WOW I would love to see an how to on these. I like the idea of the front park assist.

#20

According to Blacks6, it’s really a matter of simply changing out the 3G MMI unit for a 3G+ MMI unit. It’s a little more complicated from 2G to 3G+! Front park assist is nice, and I’m curious as to why Audi didn’t originally include both as opposed to just the rear? I found a kit for about $700, and I’ll look into it when I start getting more involved with the RS6 front bumper.