Early 04 models have a casting flaw in the oil passages and cause cam failure and rocker arm and rollers rockers to fail its.a big deal
Get more information on the head work stuff and let us know. Head work is the foundation of more power… If done right that is. If you can get a solid port job and the full head work package your going to be able to pull out more power from the motor. If you have the heads off and you have the time I would call it a must… once again if done right.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but too much head work without a properly matched cam to take advantage of the better flow can hurt performance or gains. Our 40 valve V8 seems to have a pretty good design from the get go. I just think in the end, even if you had custom cams made and found someone capable of tuning it (CV), it wouldn’t be worth the time and money.
If only we had an LS1 “like” motor to throw a heads/cam at and gain 80hp
Anybody have bench flow testing numbers for the stock heads? How much do the heads flow compared to the intake? Where will you run into a ceiling first?
Wow… That’s fan-fucking-tastic. Just when I was thinking that I took care of everything I needed to while I was doing the timing repair. And just when I was beginning to forgive the early '04s for all their faults.
Time to clean her up and up for sale she goes… Tired of this shit.
Sorry for the threadjack.
Lol your good bro it didnt happen till 118k so it’s not horrible just something to be aware of with Jhm’s head program there’s a good chance that it can or IS fixed. Just keep an eye out
Plus if you want to hear about disappointing I’ve drive my s4 for like 5months I’ve owned it over a year
anything with an internal combustion engine would likely be too scary if that’s your reaction to something that, until today, you had never heard of. My lawnmower had a problem iwth the carb last year. I guess you had better sell your lawnmower now.
Nobody said it’s a problem all 2004 cars had.
I have never heard of a head issue so I would say it is very very isolated and rare. Half of the 04’s out there have well over 100k and you don’t see people posting threads with this issue.
The heads were flow tested by JHM, as they said in their thread on AZ. Not sure if we will be able to beat the information out of them.
Very slippery slope. To be frank. When you look at the design of the head thats where you start to make conclusions. Each head is not alike. The Audi guys… and Im not saying present company. The Audi guys tend to think that each car is just like every car. There are very specific things that separate motor class from motor class.
You’re right. Maybe I overreacted a bit. Back story… I only heard about the timing component issues about 2 weeks before it happened to me, so I’m still a little shell shocked about all these issues.
I only have 60k miles now, so if it all goes bad in 40k miles from now then I think I will be ok. By then I should be ready for a JHM motor.
gotcha. You’re scarred lol. Makes sense. Maybe grab a Lexus IS350 AWD? They’re quicker than a stock S4, and are reliable as hell.
Ouch haha
The old “if you cant stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen”.
It’s a very viable option for a fun fast good looking AWD sports sedan. Gets overlooked a lot. My IS300 I had for 4 years was epic reliability. Nothing went wrong in 70,000 miles. Never changed even the brake pads for crying out loud. It was a great car. If you don’t need AWD, look at the IS-F.
There is no compairsion between is300 to is250/350.
Ok so after reviewing parts and Shit for the heads 034 makes +1 oversized valves bad it looks like Jhm is just upgrading the valves in durability so wonder how big a difference the +1 valves make versus Jhm’s? And can jhm install these bigger valves and will it be both while
Why not?
Small fun car with enough power and Lexus reliability. I wouldn’t say they’re that dissimilar.
Saki has a soft spot for Lexus
easy Joe
You’re next for a Toyota/Honda product. You used to shit yourself everytime you heard as much as someone’s dog rattle its leash, thinking your chains were failing 
Well yeah, that’s a big part of why I sold the S4. Don’t want to deal with that financial burden if something lets go.
Toyota’s are great. Girlfriend has an 07 corolla that we take everywhere we go.