swift.
06-13-2008, 01:38 PM
So here we are. What began more than 6 months has finally come to a close. First and foremost, anyone looking for a shop, whether it be for general maintenance or your next custom build, look no further. Autosportwerks, now in conjunction with EPL is all you need. I can't say enough for both Bryan and Tony. Both are an absolute pleasure to deal with.
As many know, last november my engine decided that it had finally had enough of the weekly concoctions of toluene and race gas. At wide open throttle in 6th gear, the piston ring in cylinder two let go. The end result was a severely scored cylinder two, bent valves and a warped head. After what may have amounted of a total of three minutes, we decided to make the best of a bad situation and build an S4 that would quench my hp needs. For now any way ; ) The build was to consist of a fully built 3 liter engine, turbos, custom tuning and a list that seems endless.
My knowledge could defiantly leave something to be desired when it comes to the inner workings of an engine. Through this process i have had to rely heavily upon those that know more. I must say, both Bryan at autosport werks, Tony from EPL and Brendon from Apikol have more than made up for what i was lacking.
A little about the engine. The 2.7 was stroked to a 3 liter with the combination of a 3 liter crank and CP pistons. The block was bored to 82.5 mm, balanced and o-ringed. Heads are 2.8 with stock valves, Cat retainers, springs and locks. RS4 goodies consist of cams, throttle body, fuel rail etc. Clutch, flywheel and downpipes were supplied by Dahlback. Brendon from Apikol made a stellar set of intercoolers to maximize the space allowed by the wider fenders. Fueling and tuning is courtesy of EPL (more on that later). Turbos were originally built for Mike @ Wicked Motorsports and are comprised of an RS6 housing stuffed with a 50lb billet compressor wheel.
While the car was down, it decided that the color need a change. SVE was responsible for an incredible color change from Santorin Blue to Pearl White. Again, here is another outfit that has continually impressed me. Always professional and meticulous. The car came out better than i could have imagined.
As i am sure many of you are aware, a custom build never goes exactly as planned. With each new obstacle Bryan continued to impress me with his vast amount of knowledge and his willingness to push forward. I won't bore you with details, but there seemed to be a countless number of adjustments along the way. One major one, under close inspection of the turbos Bryan discovered that both diaphragms were torn. One possible reason that these turbos weren't able to be tuned properly prior to this.
Fast forward to about three months ago. Engine is re-assembled and back in the car. Car is painted and interior back in. Engine is ready to fire. Now, i have no idea what to expect. I have nightmares about oil spewing from places i didn't even know required oil. First turn, car fires and idles perfectly. Now, i know many out here have had many issues when it comes to software. Tony emailed us an existing file that he had been running at sea level. It is my understanding, that without any modifications, this file ran perfectly in the car. In fact, after all this, the car idled smoother than previously. So car is running for all about a week, and Adam decides he is the next Ricky Carmichale. Well, i am not. And the end result was a severely broken leg requiring surgery. As i type this, i am still sitting here with a giant boot on my leg. Believe me, the ladies love it. So for the last three months the car has pretty much sat at Autosport Werks. Little items were buttoned up in preparation for Tonys arrival. Now, keep in mind that none of us really had any idea on how this would run. The turbos i purchased from Mike were never able to be tuned correctly. It all sounded great on paper, but like we all know, sounding great and running great are two very different things.
Tony from EPL arrived Wednesday. I had heard great things about Tony from many members on these forums but the extent of my interactions were email and a few phone calls. Orginally we had hoped that there would be more cars to tune, when it looked like it was going to be just mine i was bit worried tony wouldn't be interested. But no need to fear, Tony had made a comitment to tune my car and here he was. Wednesday was to be comprised of street tuning, followed by dyno tuning thursday. Even though we had one of his files for months, there had been very little logging so tony didn't have any idea on what to expect. After just a few logs it was apparent that EPL delivers a stellar product. Fuel trims, ignition timing, and so on were all perfect. This is an off the shelf file. I am sure Tony would be willing to share logs for those that are interested.
Now the car feels fast, at least from the passenger seat but we are having difficulty building and holding any more than 20 lbs of boost. This goes on for what seems like hrs. It looks as though the compressor wheels may be too large, and there is not enough air to move them. Great. I mean seriously, i have x amount of dollars in this thing, a great deal of expectation, Tony here, and these turbos appear to be not at all what i had thought. We end up back at my house with the understanding that Tonys here and we might as well make the best of it. But there is definately the possibility that these turbos may need to come out and something else put in. Fantastic right? So we decide to take the car to ASW in the morning before dyno time and do a leak down. Bryan is kind enough to meet us there at 6:15 and help us determine the deal.
Leak down test shows a small leak, but not enough to be causing the problems we are having. Tony suggests the waste gate cracking pressure may be set wrong. We test, and sure enough the drivers side is cracking at less than 2psi. Bryan some how manages to adjust while in place, both turbos are now set correctly. We still have no idea if thats the fix, but at least we are hopeful. Its off to the dyno.
Dyno is a dyno dynamics, and the first thing the dyno shop says to me is that this is known as the heart breaker. Supposedly reading even lower than a mustang. First pull on 91 nets about 400 whp. For comparison, we did dyno a stock S4 though Tony feels like it may not be accurate due to ramp rate or something. Apparently stock car was ramping up as fast as a stage 3 car. He can elaborate. But a stock car did about 185 whp. Now, a stage 3 dahlback car on race gas did about 320 whp. So 400 on pump is not looking so bad. To speed this up, with a correction rate of 1.15, we ended up with 467 whp on pump and about 495 whp on race. If we compare this to the dahlback car, we are looking at gains of about 170 whp on race. Car feels strong, really strong. I have yet to drive it, and won't have the opportunity for about another 3 weeks. But the thing is all business.
Sorry, had know idea how long this would end up being. To summarize, i am thrilled with ASW and EPL. They were just awesome to deal with. Tonys **** rocks, straight out of the box. For those looking for software, he is it. His customer service is top notch, and he is really interested in this market. ASW of course, enough said. They will be working directly with EPL, so give them a chance. For everyone else, Avalon, Apikol, SVE, etc. thanks so much for helping this become a reality. Soon as i am driving i will be making it to some of the meets.
As many know, last november my engine decided that it had finally had enough of the weekly concoctions of toluene and race gas. At wide open throttle in 6th gear, the piston ring in cylinder two let go. The end result was a severely scored cylinder two, bent valves and a warped head. After what may have amounted of a total of three minutes, we decided to make the best of a bad situation and build an S4 that would quench my hp needs. For now any way ; ) The build was to consist of a fully built 3 liter engine, turbos, custom tuning and a list that seems endless.
My knowledge could defiantly leave something to be desired when it comes to the inner workings of an engine. Through this process i have had to rely heavily upon those that know more. I must say, both Bryan at autosport werks, Tony from EPL and Brendon from Apikol have more than made up for what i was lacking.
A little about the engine. The 2.7 was stroked to a 3 liter with the combination of a 3 liter crank and CP pistons. The block was bored to 82.5 mm, balanced and o-ringed. Heads are 2.8 with stock valves, Cat retainers, springs and locks. RS4 goodies consist of cams, throttle body, fuel rail etc. Clutch, flywheel and downpipes were supplied by Dahlback. Brendon from Apikol made a stellar set of intercoolers to maximize the space allowed by the wider fenders. Fueling and tuning is courtesy of EPL (more on that later). Turbos were originally built for Mike @ Wicked Motorsports and are comprised of an RS6 housing stuffed with a 50lb billet compressor wheel.
While the car was down, it decided that the color need a change. SVE was responsible for an incredible color change from Santorin Blue to Pearl White. Again, here is another outfit that has continually impressed me. Always professional and meticulous. The car came out better than i could have imagined.
As i am sure many of you are aware, a custom build never goes exactly as planned. With each new obstacle Bryan continued to impress me with his vast amount of knowledge and his willingness to push forward. I won't bore you with details, but there seemed to be a countless number of adjustments along the way. One major one, under close inspection of the turbos Bryan discovered that both diaphragms were torn. One possible reason that these turbos weren't able to be tuned properly prior to this.
Fast forward to about three months ago. Engine is re-assembled and back in the car. Car is painted and interior back in. Engine is ready to fire. Now, i have no idea what to expect. I have nightmares about oil spewing from places i didn't even know required oil. First turn, car fires and idles perfectly. Now, i know many out here have had many issues when it comes to software. Tony emailed us an existing file that he had been running at sea level. It is my understanding, that without any modifications, this file ran perfectly in the car. In fact, after all this, the car idled smoother than previously. So car is running for all about a week, and Adam decides he is the next Ricky Carmichale. Well, i am not. And the end result was a severely broken leg requiring surgery. As i type this, i am still sitting here with a giant boot on my leg. Believe me, the ladies love it. So for the last three months the car has pretty much sat at Autosport Werks. Little items were buttoned up in preparation for Tonys arrival. Now, keep in mind that none of us really had any idea on how this would run. The turbos i purchased from Mike were never able to be tuned correctly. It all sounded great on paper, but like we all know, sounding great and running great are two very different things.
Tony from EPL arrived Wednesday. I had heard great things about Tony from many members on these forums but the extent of my interactions were email and a few phone calls. Orginally we had hoped that there would be more cars to tune, when it looked like it was going to be just mine i was bit worried tony wouldn't be interested. But no need to fear, Tony had made a comitment to tune my car and here he was. Wednesday was to be comprised of street tuning, followed by dyno tuning thursday. Even though we had one of his files for months, there had been very little logging so tony didn't have any idea on what to expect. After just a few logs it was apparent that EPL delivers a stellar product. Fuel trims, ignition timing, and so on were all perfect. This is an off the shelf file. I am sure Tony would be willing to share logs for those that are interested.
Now the car feels fast, at least from the passenger seat but we are having difficulty building and holding any more than 20 lbs of boost. This goes on for what seems like hrs. It looks as though the compressor wheels may be too large, and there is not enough air to move them. Great. I mean seriously, i have x amount of dollars in this thing, a great deal of expectation, Tony here, and these turbos appear to be not at all what i had thought. We end up back at my house with the understanding that Tonys here and we might as well make the best of it. But there is definately the possibility that these turbos may need to come out and something else put in. Fantastic right? So we decide to take the car to ASW in the morning before dyno time and do a leak down. Bryan is kind enough to meet us there at 6:15 and help us determine the deal.
Leak down test shows a small leak, but not enough to be causing the problems we are having. Tony suggests the waste gate cracking pressure may be set wrong. We test, and sure enough the drivers side is cracking at less than 2psi. Bryan some how manages to adjust while in place, both turbos are now set correctly. We still have no idea if thats the fix, but at least we are hopeful. Its off to the dyno.
Dyno is a dyno dynamics, and the first thing the dyno shop says to me is that this is known as the heart breaker. Supposedly reading even lower than a mustang. First pull on 91 nets about 400 whp. For comparison, we did dyno a stock S4 though Tony feels like it may not be accurate due to ramp rate or something. Apparently stock car was ramping up as fast as a stage 3 car. He can elaborate. But a stock car did about 185 whp. Now, a stage 3 dahlback car on race gas did about 320 whp. So 400 on pump is not looking so bad. To speed this up, with a correction rate of 1.15, we ended up with 467 whp on pump and about 495 whp on race. If we compare this to the dahlback car, we are looking at gains of about 170 whp on race. Car feels strong, really strong. I have yet to drive it, and won't have the opportunity for about another 3 weeks. But the thing is all business.
Sorry, had know idea how long this would end up being. To summarize, i am thrilled with ASW and EPL. They were just awesome to deal with. Tonys **** rocks, straight out of the box. For those looking for software, he is it. His customer service is top notch, and he is really interested in this market. ASW of course, enough said. They will be working directly with EPL, so give them a chance. For everyone else, Avalon, Apikol, SVE, etc. thanks so much for helping this become a reality. Soon as i am driving i will be making it to some of the meets.