My build log

B6/7 S4/RS4
#1

Well an official intro.

I bought this car last year and have put about 10k miles on it. When I bought it, it already the 1-2 second cold start rattle. But it didn’t bother me as I knew I would be working in the car anyways.

The car is highly modded with the VF supercharger (TVS1900), JHM headers and a host of other items. Not to mention it’s been converted to a wide body using the factory RS4 body panels.

Either way, the car has been through some owners after it was built who clearly either didn’t know about cars, didn’t car about the car or took to a shop with the same issues.

So, here we are. I’ve built a few cars in my time and the time has come to make this car mine by rebuilding it back to its proper status. It’s going to take a ton of work as there are plenty of issues that I’ve already fixed and more I’ve identified.

On to some pics.

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#2

I had to start off with the removing the rear brakes since the odd are worn down and need to be replaced. The rotors also need to be replaced. It’s got the BBK from Stassis both front and rear. Since Stassis is no longer in business I had to contact Alcon directly for a replacement.

To my surprise, they said that they haven’t sold any replacements for that kit yet as they said that everybody just opts to put the factory stuff back on.

Well that’s not me. :). But since they don’t have any measurements for the hat, I need to send them my rotor and hat so they can find the correct rotor. I’m going to be replacing the calipers while I’m back there since they’re cheap and original.

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#3

And so now I’ve moved onto the front, to start the process of taking the engine out and fixing things along with the obvious of doing the timing job.

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#4

Not sure if you can see it below but there’s a power steering leak

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160404/51cf9a3ec40f7fca13262723045b3a76.jpg

I’ll be fixing that of course. I haven’t identified exactly what it is but I’ll get to it.

I couldn’t get the head lights out as my torx bit was to fat to fit in the hole to get to the 3rd bolt through the fender. Doh! So I need to go buy one.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160404/97ab9fef2883b8641aabf5e6de5beed2.jpg

Here’s where I got to. I had to stop for the day unfortunately as I have 2 kids and this was done while they took a nap. Lol. A little at a time.

#5

I haven’t actually done anything to try and identify this but I’m going to ask anyways. Does anybody have any idea what this is?

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160404/e6832afea4eeaebe53ccad3db5186de1.jpg

Again, I haven’t followed the lines as its a rats nest over there and needs work.

I’ve accounted for the JHM oil cooler, super charger aftercooler, condenser and radiator but I’m not sure what that is? Either way, obviously once I dive into I’ll figure it out was just wandering if anybody knew.

#6

Here’s a quick pick of the car prior to being taken apart.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160404/8d5ebcd8e88b4360a38134df7386237a.jpg

#7

Welcome to the site your in the right place for help and some history.

First off the one part you were asking about is a JHM power steering cooler. It links back to the power steering lines. It could possibly be for some transmission cooling too but I think If I remember correctly that was for the power steering.

As for the rear rotor try contacting JHM about that as well. JHM had the car for a while to help with some of the stuff you are seeing. At one point when VF wouldnt help the past owner he took it to JHM untill the past owner destroyed that bridge.

Your car was owned by the notiorous NGNG. Some have called him the top scammer of scamers. He has been accused of stealing out of peoples cars at car shows and not at just one car show. Also doing an insurence scam on the car to get the pannels on to getting the original blower put on for a discount to push the VF brand. There was more then that I just was putting that out there to give you an idea… He was called the paid off spokesman after it was found out that he took the blower from VF under the idea he would go on line and push the kit after that not too many people believed him or in him.

He had the VF kit with the m90 on it. The VF M90 is such a huge fail when he went to JHM to race JHM the all motor no blower assisted JHM car with the JHM tune headers and cat back destroyed his VF blown S4. VF looked stupid and coudnt sell a kit after that. So an angry NGNG and VF built the kit you have now. It got tested and tested on his car. Some say that it destroyed one motor… I dont know if it did but the ending for the story was that even with the bigger blower you have on the car it still ended up being slower than the jhm stage 1 blower kit that came out for much less. After that and how the car would die after it got heatsoaked it sounds like NGNG sold the car and the other owners just didnt know what to do with the car.

Sounds like thats ended here. Sounds like the car has found a good owner. If we we can help let us know. We are all here and happy to help.

#8

Thank you for some of the history there. I found out about some of it after I bought the car. A couple of the things in your post are new but no big deal to me at this point either way. Can’t say I would have bought the car knowing the history of the vehicle that I know now but, you know what they say; it is what it is.

The car runs perfect. Idles perfect and doesn’t really have any issues to speak of other than the cold start rattle. I’ve never had any issues with it dying at any point, so maybe they fixed that. Who they would be, I don’t know. Lol. But it doesn’t do that now.

It’s not the fastest car I’ve owned but it’s still pretty quick. I’ve never been in a JHM blown car but if it is indeed faster, that’s ok by me. There’s always faster cars out there.

My plan is to put the car back to where it should be as an Audi. No matter what it’s a wide body blown v8 sedan. Cool in my book. :). It just need a lot of TLC to get back there.

Honestly, part of my reasoning for moving forward with this build is because of this site and the helpfulness of the members. I’ve never done a job quite this big as most of my previous builds have been on 4 cyl motors. But the information here makes much easier to swallow.

Plus, it’s all just nuts and bolts at the end of the day.

#9

Sorry my post wasnt meant to come across as a JHM Vs post when it came to blower The JHM stage 1 kit is a nice kit and has done very well the stage 2 kits put down 10 sec 130 mph times. Given all the work they put in to try and out do the JHM stage 1 kit and how it didnt work out that was part of the dissipointment and why the car went up for sale so quick .It really wasnt meant to be a JHM Vs VF Just trying to give some background on why someone would spend all the time to build the car then sell it.

The B6 and B7 S4s are great cars but you only know that when you own one. Its a great car and we are all here to help. The blower you have has nothing to do with it. The attitude you have has everything to do with it

I think you will run into a lot of bugs and issues along the way with the car. As you said it has been in and out of the wrong hands for a long time and not owned by true enthusists.

#10

I’m with you. I haven’t ran into bugs yet per se but I have ran into a few things that make you say WTHell?? Why did they do it this way instead of that way. But I think you’re right in that now that I’m diving into the engine bay I’m sure and prepared to find a fair share of…ish. Lol

I’ve already done a ton of work on the inside of the car. It came with no sub woofer and Walmart speakers. So I had to replace all that stuff and when I did…well I have before and after pictures of the wiring behind the dash. It’s much better now.

I didn’t take it as a JHM vs. VF but I did want to get ahead of it just in case, hence my post about it being ok if they’re faster. :). But honestly, this site just doesn’t do that. It seems to be above that rhetoric. Which is why I’m posting this thread here and not Audizine.

This is my 3rd S4, so I have an appreciation for them for sure. I do plan on keeping this one for awhile though. So this thread should be a long one…if the wife allows me to buy the parts. Hahah

New parts I plan to be putting in:

Anything rubber that is already exposed and ready to replace. It’s already got a bunch of 034 stuff but I’ll be renewing those for sure.

Probably a new A/C compressor since I’m already back there.

New rear brakes.

Removing the front calipers to have them powder coated.

Removing the Ohlins to have them be rebuilt.

Powder coat the valve covers.

Not sure if I can powder coat the super charger as I haven’t looked into that yet. But if I can then I’ll be doing that as well.

New headlights.

New front bumper. Current bumper is pitted with rock chips and has been ghettoed up with Bondo for some reason. A new bumper will fix that.

And whatever other maintenance items come up while removing the engine.

Thank you so far for all the informative posts. I’m quite sure I’ll be asking for help as I get deeper into it. Lol

#11

Holy moly! Blast from the past.
Hey does it still have those Volk wheels? Those are great.

Welcome to the site. Good to see you getting in there and making it right. Looking forward to seeing your progress

Here’s the car with the original supercharger against the jhm all motor headers car with and without nitrous…

https://youtu.be/3n7xVwjWWD0

And then here’s your car with the old kit vs the jhm supercharger stage 1

https://youtu.be/D2XIrAxQbNc

#12

Hahaha. Yeah I’ve seen bits and pieces of those. Thanks for throwing them up.

It was definitely good PR for JHM. :slight_smile: clearly it was/is a faster car.

Again, I can’t say had I known the history of the vehicle that I would have bought it. But I did. So here we are. Till death do us part when you get married right. Lol.

Regardless of what car is faster or not, I think the car is cool. Having said that, the more I dive into it I can see that people have owned this car that just didn’t care. So I have my work cut out for me.

That’s ok though, because as I work on it, it becomes my car and not NGNG’s old car that got beat up by JHM’s car on every level.

The inside has been fixed. A bunch of wiring from old radar detectors and LED lights were all wired incorrectly and/or just left hanging there after being removed. So I had to spend a bunch of time basically taking every panel out from the inside of the vehicle to fix the wiring and replace the speaks and add in an amp for the speakers and sub.

And the rats nest that was behind the radio and underneath the steering column was…just wow. But that’s fixed now.

Here are a couple of before after pics of the wiring.

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http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160405/2f8c91ba01629e70dbdc01b76ce86c7a.jpg

As you can see just epic in its level of fail.

So I cleaned it up.

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You might think it was just zip tied but I removed a ton of wiring that was just sitting there not hooked up to anything or took wires that were hooked up but were 15 ft longer that they needed to be and shortened them to their correct length.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the crap I pulled out. Lol. But again, I feel much better about it now. I also put a sweet sound system and had my buddy help me build a box for the sub

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160405/591934460ac762afa6941c099a410fa6.jpg

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#13

Thats kinda what I meant by bugs. You will find a ton of little suprises along the way.

Its great to see the car in the hands of someone so involved. Exciting to see all the issues that were hidden and just how well your able to sort them out and end up with a much better condition of everything

the rear sub box that is very nice work. that is how they come on the newer cars so I bet it will sound great

#14

Update. Got the front clip off. Learned a lot about the car now that I have an easy view at everything.

Found more evidence of stuff being…I’ll just call it WTF’d. Lol.

I have my work cut out for me on the driver side as you can see here.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160408/219b31ca46a5b3840d09617125b4b33f.jpg

Just a rats nest. Looking forward to diving into it to figure out where everything goes and how to make it better.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160408/95314d000cdfa7ba0203e1d4c905b8fd.jpg

Snub mount looks good. Valve cover gaskets are pouring out.

Oil cooler is leaking.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160408/91aacdc3387b81a14af6cabbefb5c7ae.jpg

All in all not a bad night. I only had a hour or so but at least progress was made.

#15

Example of WTF’d

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160408/d4835ef9a00f15557de645cf21b3d2a7.jpg

That was just laying in the engine bay? Obviously vacuum related but what is it?

#16

That looks like thats the secondary air solinoid. I dont think its the trigger solinoid for the intake flaps but either way that is an unacceptable mess. That really shows how the lack of total over all workmanship they put into the car.

Looks like you have your work cut out for you but you are doing a great job

#17

Welcome to the site, with the help of the people on here site you will be way more comfortable with the car when you are done. Enjoy and don’t feel rushed.

#18

Wow, cool to see that this car is still around. Look forward to seeing it rebuilt properly

#19

The black solenoid is for the intake flap and the grey one is for the secondary air injection. Very sloppy work that someone did.

#20

Regarding the solenoids, being that they aren’t being used can I just remove them altogether?

I’m thinking they’ve been written out with the addition of the supercharger since I don’t have any CEL.