I just realized that last week I responded but never gave the next update. So, here it goes.
After we got a clean bill of health on the car it was time to take on the project. The overall concept was the customer needed a wagon and he needed an automatic. He loves the V8 sound but needed closer to supercar acceleration with a great area under the curve. We talked and came up with realistic goals.
The outline was, Super car acceleration, uncompromising ability to be daily driven and not just daily driven, but the ability to get in the car and drive across the country if one wanted to, that kind of drive ability and reliability. The car had to be fun, fast but real day driven fast with a real area under the curve. A power curve where at any RPM point the car would have lots of reserve power where the car would pull just as hard in the 2000rpm range as in the upper 4500rpm range. All this and the car and the motor had to stay in good shape.
So, we came up with the already great working blueprint of the JHM stage 1 Supercharger, JHM Headers with a custom 2.75" Catback exhaust system The kit adds well over a 100whp on its own add the headers and the monster catback and you’re well into the mid 450whp range. The goal was lower 12-second 1/4 mile. The great part of the JHM supercharger kit is that it can be now expanded to the stage 1+ kit with an intercooler and a little more boost and once the customer is ready for a built motor and a stage 2 upgrade you’re now in the over 500whp range and well into the 11-second 1/4 mile range.
With a solid game plan and a good solid report card from the compression test and general inspection, it was time to tear into the car and see what everything looked like behind the scenes.
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/830506091.jpg
Up the car went and what should have been an easy tear down quickly revealed some issues along the way. The car had an aftermarket exhaust that had been welded on for whatever reason and the hangers were bent and re-welded on. We couldn’t make out any reason why this needed to happen but it took about four times as long to remove the exhaust system.
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/427782798.jpg
Next, we tackled getting the front end off. We were happy to see a bit of low drama here. Nothing hidden here or issues here. The snub mount all but disintegrated once we pulled off the front core support, other than that this was not bad for a car with over 100k on it.
At first, we not sure if the valve cover gaskets were original. Given the condition of the gaskets and the amount of collection on the heads we felt it was incredibly unlikely. What through us for a loop was the fact that the car still had almost all of the original coil packs and spark plugs. On further review, we noticed that the valve cover gaskets had to have been replaced. As it looked like a few of the valve cover bolts were missing and they were haphazardly replaced.
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/57034958.jpg
As expected some of the hoses and lines were cracked or just worn out we put those on the list of things to get replaced. The Downpipes were shot the flex joints were destroyed with no chance of saving them. This wasn’t a concern given that the headers will replace this section.
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/947851385.jpg
With the motor out, it was time to call it a day. We felt it would be best coming back after a few days of rest to make the list of needed replacement parts and a deeper inspection to see what else might be hiding.
rear ended on 1 of the accidents, lol. But most have forgotten he actually acknowledged the previous owner having a rear end collision in his RS4 intro post. The also should be ashamed of that dusty @$$ RS4 engine bay. But did the S4 check out like he said? He had so many inconsistent stories with the RS4, that I thought to stay away. Anyways, good luck with the build.