Yes will post tonight.
Also do you know what the MAF readings are supposed to be at idle on these cars?
Thanks.
Quick update, just chexked stft and sprayed brake clean by bank 2 head/mani interface. Fuel trims went normal engine idled up and smoothed out. Confirmed vacuum leak there…time to rip it all apart again, migjt have shifted the gasktet
quick question about the tumble flaps. wondering if that is what is hanging me up. when i removed and was reinstalling the intake, they look to be closed abotu 25% of the way…should they be retracted completely out of the way? if so how can I do that? the motors natural postion keeps them 25% closed it seems, and cannot turn the motor by hand due to the gear reduction it has…unless jsut have to push harder but did not want to break anything.
thanks.
Don’t want to sound rude or anything, but did you use the proper tightening sequence? Just want to rule that out.
With the intake spacers you now have to compress two gaskets, as well as line two up I had to jiggle one side a few times to get it right. This is when having the front end off really helps.
Hope you can get it fixed asap.
I am not using intake spacers.
Tightening sequence is done from the middle outwards in a circular pattern.
spec is 8 nm first round, then 9 nm + 90 deg. I will double check my torques first actually, as i did it all hand tight with the 3/8 drive ratchet to gudentite specs. something is hanging up though,
The tumble flaps motor defaults to that spot on most cars. On some they stay open but on key up you can see the motor pulls them shut and opens them to help cold starts. If you always had them in the 25 range it wouldnt effect anything as unless you have the JHM tune they sit at between 25 to 50 up until 3500 or 80% throttle
Id strongly suggest you consider intake spacers. They drastically drop intake temps and most of the RS4 guys see both better performance and better gaps in carbon cleaning but on to the tightning.
I have never heard of a circular pattern so I would have to say that might be part of your issue. You do start in the middle but you jump from one side of the intake to the other in a X fashion. Going from one side of the intake to the other NEVER tightning the bolt directly across from the last one always at an X never in a square. With some intakes its not super sensitive but when your talking about a longer intake like a V10 the X pattern is going to me more important.
Also did you remove your port spacers… if you didnt do it now you will be glad you did
What are port spacers? the tumble flaps in the head?
I put it back together last night and its running smooth as butter! the lack of torque definitely sucks.
I will be doing spacers when I get a new manifold whenever that may be, just was not in the budget right now.
No misfires, smooth idle etc. I forced the motor back to retract the idle tumble flaps completely, maybe it was getting hung up on them before…dunno. but its nice now. Id love to feel how this feels with spacers, working manifold and all cleaned up. It will be getting long tubes and a nice stainless X pipe exhaust system + tune down the road, just…not yet. Enjoying the high speed smooth cruising of the car again though.
Did get a check engine light yesterday that is still on, maybe to due with the tumble flaps, ill scan and check but nothing to do with the combustion quality of the engine as its super smooth again 
i lied, getting lean codes on all 4 banks. chekced with hose in ear and confirmed with brake clean and a smoke test, the manifold is leaking at the separation seems.
Guy at work who is an engine builder suggested using the OEM AUdi anaerobic sealant instead of RTV. well, half of it did not set so it is a huge PITA to clean up now, the set stuff is super hard to scrape off. Just going back to the tried and true good ol black rtv. At least I can get the whole mani out in 18 mins flat now
Hey Greg - sorry to hear, and thanks for detailing your saga on this to-date. Frustrating.
I spent $200 cleaning / gutting my mani and paid to have it reinstalled (some stuff I tackle, but a carbon clean was beyond my desire!) for nothing as it runs like crap now and you’re right the lack of torque sucks.
Me, I reluctantly opted to bite the bullet and by a new mani, which was supposed to be here this week, 1-2wk special order from Audi… still not here. Frustrating!
Alas - like you said… I’m REALLY looking forward to how this monster will run w/ a new mani, plugs, carbon clean, and phenolics! Tick tock.
Mr. Incredible… got a name? Hate calling folks by screen names 8-). So you’re saying that when my manifold comes back off that I should remove the divider flaps within each head port? Want to ensure I understood you correctly and if so ensure my shop does exactly that!
Hugely appreciate your insight with all this, very generous of you to share all the time!
Sgt, by saying your car runs like crap with the gutten manifold do you mean rough, misfires etc?
Mine was actually very smooth, minus lack of torque, smooth idle etc. The vac leak 2nd time around is small enough that the short and long term fuel trims masked it for the most part to where the car was running “normal” as in lambda 1. I suspect you had vacuum leaks originally too.
Although, still good you got a new manifold. I always like things to work as they are intended to, but 1700+spacers was big money for me right now…eventually though.
maybe by then the S8 headers and full exhaust will be available
The car runs well when its all sorted out. you can call me whatever you wish by my name is in my screen name LOL
Yes remove the port spacer in the head. Its a giant carbon magnet. You will notice a nice part throttle response.
Even after you get all the vac leaks and all the other stuff sorted out you will still have misfires off and on. Again you took the reviews of two people vs the 10 that have had issues. BUT your doing it right to reduce the amount of issue you will have… I suppose its not anything to get too worried about at this point you can’t do too much more than you are and with the hotter weather the misfires are not as bad. The loss of tq that is probably going to be the hardest thing to live with.
Use the black RTV that is close to the Audi sealent
As for the headers and exhaust there is one guy who makes the headers and would be able to make you both headers and exhaust and he owns an S8 and I think hes starting on headers for his S8 in the next few weeks. . I would hit him up. He won’t take on new projects unless he has all his other projects finished. I don’t even know if he will respond to emails or pms if he has current open projects. But its Countvohn. I know he finished up all of his projects in April due to some big events he had in his life in may and june… so now might be a good time to send him a pm. That and I think we are all local to eachother.
I find it quite funny that there are so many Detroit area people on here…perhaps an AR meetup would be in order?
Hey Greg-
Car runs OK - most of the time. Idle sucks all the time, was fine before.
THAT is the part I really don’t get. My flaps were audibly rattling. So should (should) have been the same after taking them OUT I’d thought. Makes beyond zero sense to me whatsoever.
My car ran AWESOME before tho… just rattley flaps. Idle had an OCCASSIONAL slight misfire here / there. Sometimes threw CEL for misfire or slight lean.
Now it barely idles, surges in Drive w/ foot on brake (annoying), and if I clear CEL it stalls the f’n thing right out. Runs “OK”… but then sometimes it doesn’t… misfires down low, smooths out up high. Shut off / restart clears that up. Dumb.
Yeah… NOT pleased about spending $4k I did not have… alas… I DO like the car (adore!), and only had a year so far. 116k for me as of now - how about you Greg?
So, I figure… eff it. Make it RIGHT. Drive the friggin DOORS off of it (which I was already doing… cruise 24/7/365 @ 115-135 w/ my foot thru the boards and the car LOVES it. I’ve had street bikes catch me @ off ramps get next to me exclamating “WTF is in that thing - I could NOT catch you!”). Yeahyeahyeah, I know - I’m a dolt. Save it.
So, I figure it’ll be QUITE bemusing once finally sorted. AND… I’m looking forward to seeing if my 12mpg ave improves after the CC, mani, spacers, etc. and w/ my APR tune, 3" cat-back, X-pipe, no resonators, and K&N’s. We’ll see. While I hope so, I do realize that my foot habits are high contributor to low #'s heh heh.
WORTH EVERY RED CENT IMO
It SHOULD be f’n bauls out gnarly 8-). Muwhahahahaha…
btw… good to ‘meet’ you, Justin! You are such a great contributor / help to your community - huge thanks.
roflmao - btw… I’m Paul… in CT. Here I am asking for your name and mine’s not here. D’oh 
I normally get bored w/ cars after ~2yrs, and can’t cheat on my wife so figure gotta get rid of SOMETHING so I shuffle the fleet heh heh.
Alas, this car is special and not something that will ever be made again.
Exotic motor in a C-chassis. Amazing seats. Quattro. Fold down seats (can throw kids’ mountain bikes back there!). Back up camera. Bluetooth phone. Stealth looks. Has everythying and anything in a car that I want. Bought it right so spending the $4k for this was pretty much factored into the purchase, known variable going into it. Doesn’t make forking the moola over any more palatable, but whattya gonna do?
Paul thanks for the nice words. Maybe I can repay you a bit.
Gutted intakes missfires and they come and go. They have all the signs of come and go and some are more subttle then others a lot of times you get pops in the intake and the cars missfire register never sees it. Most cars are smooth off and on a lot of the issues are the turblence in the intake start to mess with the 02s after a while. So while you have a lot of the issues that you see with gutted intakes it sounds like you have a few others that souldnt be there.
If you want to try something. Try unplugging your MAFs both of them and see how the car is after that. As it sounds like you have other issues that might have been part of the total job. Keep in mind when you unplug the mafs the car might stumble at first and you will get a few dash codes but over all the car might run a lot better. you will loose some throttle response but its worth a shot.