S6 V10 JHM tune

A6 All/ S6 All
#1

Below is my intro thread with some JHM performance results.

I’ve been a member for several months, just haven’t had the time to share my V10 experience. I am the very happy owner of a 2008 S6 with 104k miles.

I purchased the car in early 2015, with about 78K on it. Not long after driving the dreaded misfires came. They were so bad it required carbon clean, injectors, coil packs, and plugs.

So, at that point I had been down the maintenance road just like most of the rest of you. I then did rear brakes, and tires. The car ran great after the maintenance and I drive it every day, driving about 300-400 miles/wk. After getting the big hole in my wallet filled up from the maintenance costs, then it was time for more power.

I did get the KN filters, they seemed to help a little, but not really anything to talk about as far as performance. I was looking at the APR tune, but also at that same time found Audi Revolution. After reading the posts, I waited for the JHM tune, and I am so glad I did. I’ve been running the tune for about 3 weeks, and after the initial break in, which included getting used to the instant throttle response, the car’s performance has put me in a much happier place. Considering the only other mod I have so far is the KN filters, I believe that is quite an accomplishment.

The JHM tune made the car better, how much better is objective, but I don’t think anyone could argue it was a huge difference from stock. Since gauging the improvement is objective, I headed to the track to see what was up.

As a baseline, I took the car to the track in stock form with the only addition being the KN filters my best time was 13.97@100.5.

After the JHM tune, the car ran 13.56@104.6. Four tenths and almost 5 mph was an incredible improvement to say the least. My timeslips and a video of the JHM tuned run are here:

http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/534056616.jpg

http://audirevolution.net/videos/186/c6-s6-v10

I expected that with the tune I would be giving up some mpg for the extra power, but I don’t see that, in fact, if anything I am up a few tenths overall.

For any of you wondering about JHM’s ability to put some power into these V10’s, be reassured that cutting 4 tenths of off a ¼ mile time is no easy feat and I don’t even have the intake spacers installed yet!! I do have the spacers, and will be installing them next along with the heater bypass. After that adding the JHM exhaust and I’ll be back with updated times.

Thanks to JHM for their efforts, and to all of you on AR that share the information that got me to where I am today with my car.

#2

Awesome writeup! The throttle response is completely nuts now huh? I’ve been driving my car w/ JHM tune for about 10 days now and still trying to get the feel for the throttle. This ain’t your mom’s honda accord anymore, the tune brings out the beast in this car and it’s almost a challenge to drive it without chirping the tires or making the car lurch about. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t let an inexperienced driver (in other words, a girlfriend ;D) drive this car anymore, it’s a totally different animal than when it rolled off the lot originally. Congrats on the tune, hope you’re able to do some more fun additions in the near future!

#3

First off WOW just WOW. I cant say Im too shocked this is vintage JHM come into a dead platform where every other company had a chance to make a big splash and nothing ever came out of it. No real tunes no actual perormance gains PRE JHM.

After 8 years the best S6 1/4 mile time we saw was 13.8 and that was with light weight rims a full exhaust and the APR tune…you blew that away and your stock other than the JHM tune. I would love to see how your car does with an exahust. Also the average 1/4 mile for the S6 is right where you landed. This is like the 9th example of the performance of the stock S6.

The best part is this is just the beggining of whats to come. Your car is stock. No exhaust. No light weight rims no light weight anything. Just a tune picked up 4 tenths and 4 mph INCREDIBLE

Just because it looks better then the link

http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/534056616.jpg

#4

4 mph gain is massive!!! :0

#5

from 1/4 time calculators, that works out to be about 385 HP at the wheels with an inputted weight of 4450 lbs.
30% drivetrain loss (rule of thumb is 30% for awd ya?) thats 500 crank hp…
Probably low on weight, high on friction loss estimates, but lets say its making at least 475 crank horse?

#6

Wow, insane pickup for a tune only… you usually only see that sort of difference on a f/i car.

#7

Makes me think this may be in order next… Once I get my car back from Cap Audi, it may just have to be done.

#8

Good stuff Rocman!!

#9

Although I am not expecting the secrets of the tune to be spelled out in detail, I am interested in what is being done with the tuning?

is the knock limit increased?
total timing?
cam phasing?
is it a 93 octane specific tune (hence more total timing and a higher knock limit?)
The OP mentioned a very touchy throttle, is the scaling of it changed, or is it more initial timing?

#10

The tuner knows what he is doing! He changed over something like 100 things on the B6/7 S4s tunes. From what I have heard through the grapevine there were multiple hold ups with the factory Audi software that drastically held these cars back. That is in addition to the hardware limitations that have already been posted about.

#11

Based on what JHM has said in other threads, I believe the octane rating on the tune can be either 91 or 93, you can pick which one for the gas available in your area. But they have also mentioned that the program is adaptive, so it will take advantage of higher-octane fuel automatically if you put some in your tank, but I’m not 100% sure on that. I do know the program is adaptive in other regards, for example it will adjust the profile if you make other changes to the car, like a new exhaust.

With regards to the touchy throttle, as far as I can tell it’s not that the throttle scaling was changed so much as the low-end torque is so much higher and available more instantly. First gear is downright difficult to use, you have to have some serious finesse with your foot or else the car will very quickly get away from you. It’s something I’ve never experienced in any other car I’ve ever driven, definitely takes some getting used to. Even second gear can be a little wild at times. Honestly I understand, now, why these cars were de-tuned at the factory. This kind of serious low-end torque would make for a fairly unpleasant driving experience for most drivers. People don’t usually enjoy needing to be completely “in touch” with the car to drive it, they want to just drive without really thinking about anything.

#12

Wow. Great times. And this is without an exhaust!? Truly impressive. If you have a chance, would love to see some in-car acceleration runs.

#13

I believe you (along with Meistah) are in my hood. Once my car is done with it’s extended visit at Cap, I’ll let you know if I am going forward with this as well and provide one better. Though I will say, mine’s just black… And doesn’t have the baller wheels yours did during your ownership.

#14

around a tenth or a mph = about 10 hp. Picking up 4 of them is impressive from a tune only situation. Can’t wait for tune/exhaust and a couple of lightweight parts. Would like to see a couple of these things in the 12s without a ton of work done.

#15

Really impressive improvements, and finally shows the potential of the car/engine combo that Audi (for some reason) decided to neuter before releasing it. The reason for the neutering remains a head scratcher, to me…

It will be interesting to see how much improvement the spacers and other goodies make.

Enjoy!

#16

your car would gain 100 hp with a tune. Why would Audi ‘neuter’ it?

Same with your previous S4. Gains comfortably 60 or so hp with just software. Why would they neuter it?

Answer is simple, and there are 2 reasons

  1. they need to maintain a gap between various cars. the S6 can’t be S8 powerful because the S8 needs to be S8 powerful
  2. they need to hold back power and performance to allow for a steady increase over time generation over generation

Look at the S4 average stock 1/4 mile times

B5 14.4
B67 13.8
B8 13.2
B9 ??? (I’m guessing 12.6-12.8 or so will be pretty average)

My B6 S4 with a JHM tune, catback exhaust and lightweight parts went 12.9. Audi put a restrictive exhaust and held back tons in the tune. Why? They left tons on the table and JHM opened it up…so why couldn’t audi? Simply put because they will have B8/9/10/11 to think of.

They’ve got this planned for 20 years out.

#17

There was AMPLE space above the C5 S6’s performance and yet below the D3 S8’s and C6 RS6’s performance.

Heck, the C6 A6 4.2’s acceleration wasn’t far off the C6 S6’s!

Point is, they didn’t need to neuter it as much as they did.

#18

huh?

C5 S6 was a 14 second car
C6 S6 was a 13 second car
C7 S6 is a 12 second car

The D3 S8 is barely a mid 13 second car itself.

Not sure where you see ‘AMPLE’ space in that. Care to elaborate?

The C6 RS6 is a different animal entirely. I think you’re losing focus though. Here’s what I wrote:

  1. they need to maintain a gap between various cars. the S6 can’t be S8 powerful because the S8 needs to be S8 powerful
  2. they need to hold back power and performance to allow for a steady increase over time generation over generation

The

#19

C5 and C6 S6 are both roughly 14-second cars.

C6 S6 could have been set up to perform better than it did without infringing on the S8’s or RS cars’ space.

RS cars are NOT a different question entirely - they’re all part of the Audi model spectrum that you so helpfully laid out for us, and S cars have always been in-betweeners; sometimes uncomfortably close to the A cars, and other times uncomfortably close to the RS cars…

C6 S6 is part of the former group.

Don’t get me wrong - I’ve always liked the C6 S6, and considered buying one at one time. The relative lack of straight-line performance and expensive long-term maintenance stopped me from pulling the trigger.

Back to the OP’s point - nice gains for an NA engine tune - enjoy!

#20

I believe the answer is 2 parts… the first part is what Sakimano described, the S6 and S8 had exactly the amount of power they needed to fit into the product lineup where they did. The S8 had ~15 more hp simply because it needed to have slightly more HP than the S6. Neither could be much above what they were without infringing on the RS & R8 lineup. Yes, the RS and R8 are significantly faster on the 1/4-mile, but remember that dealer brochures don’t list 1/4 mile times, they only list HP and Torque.

The second reason, I believe, is what I described earlier in this thread - driveability. The S6 and S8, in stock form, were/are some of the finest driving cars available. They nearly always beat out BMW and Mercedes in the driveability category. As we’ve seen here with these tunes & other aftermarket parts to improve performance, the more power these cars put down to the ground the more difficult and “unpleasant” they become to drive for the average driver. Most “normal” people probably wouldn’t enjoy driving my car how it is now - but of course I sure do! But it’s very clear that the way my car performs now, with the HP where it should be, is not exactly what Audi had in mind when they designed these luxury executive sedans (remember, these were never meant to be racecars).