With some unseasonably warm weather today I took the S4 out to log some boost onset data with the Turbo Concepts Stage 1 turbochargers.

I did some extensive driving around beforehand and then stopped to  ship out a car part before I returned to take the reading shown above.  What is noteworthy about the chart is the intake air temperature, beginning around 100 degF.  It was warm today, but still only 66 degF, hardly like the temperature on a hot summer day.  Boost onset was a bit slow.

I drove for a while allowing the temperatures to stabilize and then took a number of additional readings, shown in the chart below as red.

It is clear that the warmer temperature is adversely affecting the initial boost rise of the Turbo Concepts turbo’s – as warm temperatures have done with all the turbochargers I have measured.

Note that one red dot  way up high, just past 2000 rpm, that’s the high temperature pull.  I’m very interested in seeing how these turbochargers perform in hot weather, but I’ll have to settle for the Turbo Concepts Stage 2H turbochargers for that effort as I plan to swap out the turbo’s in the coming weeks.

Today I also took delivery of the tools that I hoped would break the axle bolt free on my front passenger side.  As mentioned previously, my 1/2″ drive socket extension had snapped trying to get the axle bolt out.

I used the last couple of days while awaiting the arrival of a 3/4″ drive breaker bar and six-point socket to apply Kroil to the stubborn bolt.  Today the reinforcements showed up.  Upon seeing these tools my optimism rose:

My old standard breaker bar looks like a toy next to the new behemoth.

And then, ready to give it a go.

As a keen eyed observer will have noted, that’s not the position the bar would be in if trying to loosen the passenger side axle.  The picture is the victory shot after the Titan made that bolt it’s bitch.  Actually the bolt put up a good fight, but thankfully it broke free without any excitement.

Not long after Fedex stopped by with some B5 S4 goodies.

034Motorsport’s downpipes with…

Flanges for the RS6 turbine housing.

Also tucked in the box were these guys;

A pair of Audi RS6/K04 turbochargers that have been modified to fit on the 2.7T engine.

While I’m excited by the opportunity to begin evaluating RS6 size turbochargers I’m left debating if doing so now makes sense, or if I should complete my assessment of the Turbo Concepts Stage 2H.

The first order of business will be to stick these on the Flowbench and see how they compare with the RS4 turbine housings.

Finally, with all the work that is taking place on the Avant now seems like a good time to swap out the rear differential for the MFactory Helical LSD that I picked up a couple of months ago.

With that goal in mind I’ve pulled out the rear differential.

This evening I started exchanging the coilovers that I have between the Avant and Sedan.  Future plans are to downsize to having a single S4 and the Avant will be the car that I retain.  While the Avant has a few nice aftermarket components that make it a good Stage 2 car, I plan to bring over the parts that the Sedan has which are better suited to the Stage 3 power goals that I have.

The sedan has a set of Stasis Ohlin Motorsports and the avant a set of Stasis Streetsports.  The Streetsports are a nice setup, but I like the Motorsports more, and so they will be what the avant rides on in the future.

This evening I completed the swap of the rear driver’s side:

The Ohlin in its new home on the Avant.

The Streetsport installed on the Sedan.

I decided to make an effort to save the pinch welds on the Avant.  With the S4 routinely being jacked up I want to use something better than a piece of 2×4 to blunt the contact between the jack and the car.

The ECS Tuning Jack Pad kit looked like something that would help with protecting the car.  I installed the grommet’s and the companion snubber’s.

There are four locations underneath the vehicle for installing these pieces.

The jack pad adapter seats in the center of the snubber, although I’ve found the adapter isn’t needed with my floor jack.

I’ve used the jack pad kit a few times now and have found it easy to use and successful at achieving it’s purpose of safely lifting the car while protecting the underbody.

The instructions ECS Tuning supplies states to put the snubber into the grommet and then push into place.  I don’t recommend following these procedures as it’s more likely that the snubber will be pushed into the grommet BEFORE the grommet is seated in the hole it’s to fit into.  If that happens it becomes more difficult to get the parts into place.

I found it worked better to use a wide socket along with the floor jack to push the grommet into its hole, at least partly, and then to put the snubber into place and use the adapter to push it into its final position.