I'm Back

B8 S4
#1

What’s happening dudes. Some of you may remember me. I used to post quite a lot over at Audizine, then wised up years ago and followed those in the know from there to EA and finally here. I’ve basically been on hiatus spending time with family and having fun with other hobbies (mainly shooting) but have recently been drawn back to the Audi community - just couldn’t stay away any longer.

Some of you may recall my B6 S4 pictured here. She was a truly epic ride for 8 good years, but has since moved on to a new owner who is pretty damn excited to be driving her around to say the least. This picture was taken just a few days before the car left the barn. I will truly miss her.

http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt21/sdkaliman/IMG_0131.jpg

That brings me to my new love and the reason I’m back in the scene. 2011 CPO DSG Prestige. This is a shot from yesterday, fresh home from the tint dude.

http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt21/sdkaliman/IMG_20130814_160036.jpg

and an interior shot

http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt21/sdkaliman/IMG_0153.jpg

So first impressions (and I’ll keep this as brief as possible) Holy Shit this car is nice. What a (few) steps up from the B6 platform on every level. I thought I was going to miss the V8, but nope. This little honey get’s er done. Very surprised at the power this car makes. In all fairness, I do miss the V8 sound, but the mod list to this new car will take care of that. Here’s what I’m planning and I would love any feedback. Still learning about the car and I had been lurking for some time over here even before I bought it to get a feel for things.

Tune -Quick thoughts on this subject…

  • Love JHM and what they did for the B6/B7 platform. Trust them.
  • They don’t have a tune now as we all know. Contacted them and they are working on one.
  • In the meantime they recommend APR
  • Would like your feedback as well though.
  • If we can meet up this weekend, I’ll be doing a run against a buddy of mine who has a 2012/B8 6MT S4 with
    Stasis and AWE exhaust. Not sure if he’s got an intake or not.
    Looking forward to see how it stacks up against my stocker.
    Exhaust - AWE non res set up. Of all the versions I’ve heard so far, this one sounds the best to me.
    Intake - not sure on this one. Would appreciate suggestions.
    Suspension - H&R OE Springs. Keeping it simple here. Just want a bit of a drop.
    Wheels - Undecided. I specifically went with a car that had the 19 in stockers that she’s wearing. Of
    the two different stock versions, I like these better and that means I’ll live with them longer. Translation - I will spend money on other mods first.

That’s about it for now. Glad to be back and look forward to learning all I can and being part of the community again.

#2

Hey, welcome back.

intake - the roc euro intake gets the thumbs up from the fastest guys out there, so it’s kinda hard to argue

wheels - the stockers look awesome but weigh a ton. BBS CHR look great on there in silver. So do RS4 style wheels like on your old car. Plenty of options really. Just find something that doesn’t weigh the same as the moon.

With respect to your race against your buddy, that will be pretty awesome to see. It can go one of two ways

  1. if he has stasis version 1 and runs 91 octane, either
    a) he will barely inch you out if he is a good driver
    b) you will beat him if he is a bad driver (DSG is very tough to beat because it’s just perfect everytime)

  2. if he has stasis version 2 and runs 93 octane, you will lose no matter how hammy his fists are

I just drove my friends B8 S4 about 60 miles (with him not in the car) the other night and it is very fast. It really falls off in the higher rpms though. Great initial surge after a little tiny hesitation (stock tune on these S Audis is always a little muted…if you stab it reacts like you rolled into it) but you can just feel the bleedoff stepping in and stopping all hell from breaking loose to redline. A tune would be really cool. Not sure you want to kill your CPO. Good news is that if you want a JHM tune you will have to wait…so you can enjoy being warrantied while you do.

#3

Thanks Saki good to be back.

Appreciate the suggestion on the intake. I have seen that one so I’ll take a closer look.

Funny, the two wheel choices you mention are what draw my attention the most. There’s a B8 posted on AZ that has RS4 style wheels and it looks super clean. IDK though, thought this would be a good chance to do something a little different this time around so we’ll see where I fall. Low 20’s for a 19 is where I would like to land in terms of weight.

Regarding the race, I’m just hoping he’s around this weekend. If so, I’ll try to remember to grab my Go Pro. In the past when he and I have run, we always went from a roll. We’re going to do that again it sounds like, but I want to run him from a dig as well. I think that’s where I would see the results you’re mentioning with v1. Not even sure what v2 Stasis is - addition of a pulley maybe? Yeah, I would get slapped for sure.

How you describe the driving experience on these cars is pretty much what I have felt so far. The first time I stabbed at it, I was amazed at the power - really wasn’t expecting it. And yeah, I have thought about just waiting for the CPO to run out. Hopefully by then, JHM will be an option. With intake and exhaust, it’ll still be a really fun car. Or depending on the outcome of our little run, I may go Stasis now and get thier warranty. I’m notoriously impatient so (2) tunes may be in my future. It’s a sickness I know. :-[

#4

im quite familiar with this sickness…

welcome to the better forum

#5

Welcome back. Clean looking car and I love the interior combo.

Those DSG’s go like stink, but I still enjoy rowing through the gears. Look forward to your progress and posts.

#6

QFT

#7

Stasis’ first tune was long rumoured to be a watered down versoin of APR’s original 91 octane tune. Guys who got it and went to the strip were disappointed. The two results we have are

Earle2 12.93 @ 107 with catback, Stasis 91 and Strat intake
PutTogether 13.38 @ 103 with Stasis 91 alone

A stock B8 on 93 should run 12.8 - 13.1.

The second Stasis tune is a REVO written file (Stasis bought REVO) and it’s much more satisfying, results wise. We’ve seen a few run 12.3-12.5 with it, just a tune.

Stasis/REVO has no pulley for a stage 2 option.

#8

Welcome back! Nice car…

As for your questions, Saki got most of them and I agree with him… APR is a very safe tune as is GIAC and Stasis I suppose… The old Revo was the one to stay away from… I prefer APR for not only their product, but service/support, product offering, etc. Arin is active on here as well and a good dude… I have run the APR tune on my 2010 since 2,220 miles on the car and now have 7,750 miles, no issues and I also have the pulley and a few other mods! LOL Also, have made over 200 1/4 mile passes with no issues…

I have the BBS CHR’s and like them but if I had to do it over I would go forged which is what I will do on my TTRS, but that obviously comes with the extra price… The CHR’s are a good compromise and look good…

Exhaust: I run Miltek non res and it is fine, AWE is fine also… most go with those… I also have HFC’s so it sounds different… Don’t waste your $'s on HFC’s, test pipes, or LT’s unless you plan to go stage III!

Intake: Roc Euro or USP… You want an open air intake as it flows better… Lookup Tsivas’s posts for support on this and I did some testing as well with vagcom and at the strip… I run a mish mash setup of the Roc Euro filter and shield, the APR connectors, a custom pipe designed just like the Roc Euro but much better material, and I have it wrapped with header wrap…

Suspension: I have the EC Alu Kruez and H&R sways… I didn’t notice as much improvement as others with the AK but it isn’t bad for the few hundred… sways helped quite a bit… I think the car sits fairly well but I may do coilovers at some point…

Not a ton of people post over here but it is growing and you have the more knowledgeable folks in B8 land as well as the other platforms…

#9

that’s a really good bunch of input there. Good point on the exhaust…jury is totally out on it. The B8 is a mad scientist…

[quote]p.s. I have the BBS CHR’s and like them but if I had to do it over I would go forged which is what I will do on my TTRS, but that obviously comes with the extra price… The CHR’s are a good compromise and look good…
[/quote]
Maybe a buyer in the wings…!

#10

I have the EuroCode sway bars and endlinks. While I don’t have a direct experience on the H&R, The EC ones certainly look better on paper. The endlinks can be used with either and are an improvement over the stock endlinks.

I have the APR exhaust and have been happy with it, however, the concensus seems to be that the AWE and Milltek are the best.

-Skid

#11

best what…best sounding? best performing? I have (still) not seen anyone discuss performance of B8 S4 catback exhausts. Just lots of sound discussion.

B8 Exhausts
B8 Exhausts
#12

Right me either. I love the way AWE sounds, but what is the diameter of these things? Do we know what’s optimal for this platform yet? Took the OEM’s some time to figure out that the B6/B7 needed 2.5 inch.

#13

Great info and thanks Prime. This is why I’m over here. I’ll peruse this info and look into your suggestions.

#14

Got it. From what I can gather it seems the current bunch APR/STASIS/GIAC are all pretty close. Lot’s of variables for best ET’s I know, but just in general terms that seems to be the case. Having said that however, it seems that APR is preferred outside of loss of warranty.

On another note, I noticed 2 things about this car that bother me. Both involve the DSG.

  • Car short shifts (below 7K) in Manual mode in any setting. This has been discussed a lot, but wanted your take. Mechatronic deamon on 2011 cars, or is this by design to keep the motor in the proper pwr band for best performance?
  • Car surges forward slightly after coming to a stop in traffic. Feels like it’s selecting the lowest gear too late
    in the process of stopping. Very annoying.
#15

the testing on exhausts isnt there quite yet like with the b6/7. with that said, the AWE is 2.5 with a bottle neck where the DP meets the CB and the miltek is 2.36 all the way through with no bottle necking

#16

manual FTW!

but then your clutch gets fried lol

#17

Ah one of life’s dilemmas. Too late for me to worry about it now.

#18

Welcome back, likewater. And congrats on your new car.

As you noted, the short shifts are well-documented on the B8s. Not sure if Audi fixed that on the B8.5. If you head out to the track, make sure to keep it in “Auto,” and it’ll shift perfectly every time.

As for the surging forward when coming to a stop, I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed that. Perhaps because I always drive in manual mode, but not sure.

#19

Now that I’ve had a moment to read through this a little more carefully I am wondering something. You’re saying an open air intake flows better. Not going to discount that at all and I trust your advice - you guys run great 1320’s and I’m ready to pull the trigger on one of these.

What I’m wondering is, does anyone know why this type intake flows better than having a sealed intake? I realize it is sealed with the hood, but the design is very remenicent of the old Strat CAI for the B6/B7. That thing worked for shit and had so much heat soak that the car stumbled like it had a bad coil pack after sitting at a light. Went to the stock airbox and a drop in K&N - night and day difference.

You even wrapped your pipe with header wrap. I was going to do that with the Strat because it just seemed like there was far too much exposure to engine heat. No way should that thing have been considered a CAI.

What’s the difference with this one? Does it have something to do with the motor being FI? JHM uses an open intake on thier SC for the B6/B7 so maybe FI is the common denominator?

#20

The b8 being supercharged is going to need more free flowong air then pressurized air. Chances are you can mess with the stock air box on the b8 amd get better flow.

On tbr 4.2 na motors the air box created a high pressure zone due to its size…with the. Throttle being the low pressure zone the na cars do well with the air box as the air box is assisting in the motor getting the air quicker…

On the jhm supercharger 4.2 there is no room for am air box

On thr b8 s4 once you add more boost then stock the air box will probably never be a high pressure zone again so then it comes down to what has the least restriction in getting air to the blower quick enough… if you cant pressurize the air box then its less and less valuable…the open elements are zero pressure but good flow…the blower gets to tbe point it is going to be pulling in the air at such a rate that it just makes sense to get everything out of its way and open up the intake best you can

Most of the b8 intakes look flimizy and cheep…I haven’t seen them all…so far there must be a difference between them all as each seems to bave difference between them