A few weeks ago I had flow tested the White Dog Racing side mount intercoolers and found them to perform very well.

Today I worked on installing the intercoolers on my B5 S4 so that I could take some temperature measurements.

I figured the installation should be relatively quick seeing as how they are very similar in size to the Silly Rabbit Motorsport intercoolers, but I was wrong.

What should have been about a 90 minute project stretched out to almost four hours.

The problems I ran into are attributed to the height of the end tanks, just a bit more than the SRM ICs.  Also the tabs that are welded onto the end tanks to help hold them in place are not long enough.  The result is that the highest point of the end tank causes interference when reinstalling the headlights.

As a reminder, you’re probably reinstalling the headlights as the LAST step of putting everything back together.

My first mitigation effort centered on filing down the corner slightly where the interference was occurring.  When that failed to completely resolve the issue I pulled the bumper back off and removed the bolts that were holding the IC end tank tabs and then pushed the IC down as much as I could and then reattached the bolt without passing through the end tank tab.

The frame rail is right below the upper end tank outlet pipe and doesn’t allow for much downward movement, but at this point every millimeter I could get was worth trying for.

Parts were reinstalled and I was able to get the headlights in, but it was a tight fit.

As I went to reinstall the belly pan I found another issue.

The bottoms also extend down further than what I had with the SRM IC’s, to the point that re-installing the belly pan was not possible.

I set the belly pan aside and finished replacing the lower bumper grills then drove the car off the ramps.

In the coming days I plan to begin recording intake temperatures produced by the White Dog Racing side mount intercoolers.

The Silver S4 I have worked on has the Brake Booster hose arrangement that joins the Accordion Hose, Intake Manifold, and Brake Booster by a 3-way junction.

The new intake setup consists of the 034 silicone hose to replace the stock accordion hose thus doing away with the grommet that allows for the connection to the accordion hose.  Like most places inside the engine compartment space is tight around where this hose is located so that leaving capped off parts is undesirable, as well as a potential source for leaks.

I set about modifying the hose to run direct from the intake manifold to the brake booster connection at the firewall.

Using a knife I removed the connecter that attaches one end of the stock line to the intake manifold, intending to reuse this part.  The stock part that connects the line to the brake booster is not a check valve, but one is needed so that boost does not reach the Brake Booster.

The connector that goes to the Accordion Hose is a check valve and it could be re-used, but in this case the car has 150k miles on it and I prefer to put a new check valve in place.

The other part needed for this job is some hose.  I felt the best option was this stuff as it consists of an interior rubber lining, a metal mesh wrap, and a fabric covering.  Air tight and strong to withstand vacuum.

The part numbers are:

• Brake Booster Check Valve –191611933F (Comes up as a part for a Porsche)
• Brake Booster Hose – N0203901

The check valve goes in one end of the hose, to attach to the firewall, and the other has the connector for the intake manifold.

The Silver B5 S4 that I’ve been working on, referred to as “pig pen” on account of the extensive covering of sandy oil that nearly every surface in and around the engine compartment has, arrived with a few new parts to be installed from XS-Power.

Starting off was the XS-Power Diverter Valves.  They’re shiny but not confidence inspiring.  With the separable components and multiple spring options they struck me as an opportunity for failure compared to the tried and true 710N.

These stayed in the box and a pair of 710N’s went onto the S4.

The next part was the XS-Power bipipe.  I had hopes this part would work out, but the fit was not good.  With the part not fully seated on the throttle body the pipes were contacting the cam covers.

The separation beneath on the bottom side was greater.

Not only did the pipe not fit against the cam covers, the 3 Bar MAP sensor adapter sleeve would not fit into the hole in the XS-Power bipipe.

There was going to be no playing around to try to bend the pipes to make them work, straight to the classified listings I went in search of a used APR Bipipe.  A week later I had an APR bipipe installed and the MAP sensor adapter fit into it as expected – hooray for APR.

XS-Power turbo inlet pipes were next.  A quick test fit onto the compressor housing, with o-rings installed, showed that there was a little side to side play in the pipe.  I saw an intake air leak coming if they were installed as delivered, so out came the saw and off went the ends of the inlet pipes.  A silicone adapter was used to join the inlet pipe to the turbocharger.

At the other end I found that if the support bracket was bolted to the valve cover that on the driver side the inlet sat too low, causing the Y-pipe to also sit low.  So I did away with the bolt and adjusted the inlet pipe as needed.

While the inlet pipes required some work, they were usable.

The last of the XS-Power parts was the full exhaust.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the downpipes fit well, although they are not a full 3″ design but a tapered design so there’s some more room to work with around the transmission mount brackets.

The rest of the exhaust was less pleasant to install.  The rear parts of the exhaust pipe slide over each other which is an okay concept but hard to implement.  The alignment has to be spot on and there is not a whole lot of overlap available.  The outer pipe does not have any relief cuts in it, so the front and back halves fit together very tightly.  So tightly that I was afraid to pound them together for fear of not being able to separate them later if needed.

So the exhaust will need more attention, most likely from a shop specializing in exhausts with the tools to make corrections to this system.

Overall I wasn’t particularly impressed with the XS-Power products.