Siliconeintakes Triple Grip Design

April 14, 2014 Jeffrey Jones

Run, don’t walk, away from the Siliconeintakes.com AN adapter using their “Triple Grip” design. What an abomination. I bought some braided stainless line to use for measuring exhaust gas pressure pre-turbo and grabbed a couple of AN fittings in the process from Siliconeintakes.

This was my first experience putting together an AN fitting on a stainless line and after about 30 minutes I had what I thought to be a proper setup. Then I realized that when I had put the ferrule on the PTFE hose I had put the PTFE outside the ferrule. So I took the line apart, trimmed back a little of the hose to get a clean edge and set about trying to put the PTFE hose through the ferrule, I guess this is the piece that makes it a Triple grip design, but as far as I’m concerned it’s the piece that makes the Triple grip a PITA and a complete disaster.

An hour later I was not closer to having a completed coupling but I had a disfigured hose ending and a wish that I had purchased a name brand fitting.

Siliconeintakes.com AN adapater — What a mess.

Testing

Innovate LMA-3 (Aux Box)

April 13, 2014 Jeffrey Jones

Been working on setting up an Innovate LMA-3 Aux Box on the S4 to add in some additional sensors and to complement the Innovate LM-1 that I already have. The Aux Box has a number of options for using internal and external sensors. Today I was able to get the RPM input connected and configured as well as the 3 BAR MAP sensor.

The LMA-3 MAP sensor is tied into the wastegate signal line which is fed from the compressor housing, I’m very interested to compare the pressure at the turbo compressor housing with that at the intake manifold, where pressure is measured by the vehicle MAP sensor.

For kicks I loaded up a couple of tunes that run more boost than the stock profile, one targeted around 16 psi and the other just passing 20 psi. Two of the more interesting results from this new configuration are displayed below.

BW K03 Boost profile recorded at the compressor housing and intake manifold

The chart above is the most relevant to the new capabilities offered by the LMA-3, it shows how at lower rpm the pressure losses from the turbo compressor housing outlet to the intake manifold are minimal, but around 4000 rpm at 16 psi the pressure at the intake manifold is beginning to drop below the level at the turbocharger.

The car is presently equipped with stock intercoolers which during the Intercooler Faceoff flow testing were shown to lag most aftermarket options with regard to pressure drop across the core.

Boost rise comparison between Borg-Warner K03 and FrankenTurbo F4H-BT

The next chart is one that I was interested in just for baseline comparison purposes, to be able to assess some of the larger turbocharger options against the smaller K03’s in the one area that a K03 should have an advantage, that is in spool up at lower rpms. The F4H-BT tune was set to hold 21 psi so as that boost level is approached the boost rise rate slows. If the boost level for the F4H was left higher the rate would have continued along the path it was taking prior to reaching 21 psi.

Turbocharger

Contender Dyno Comparison

April 6, 2014 Jeffrey Jones

The current contenders consist of the Project B5 RS6-X, FrankenTurbo F21 or Project B5 RS4-X, and Borg-Warner K04. These three options span the range near the stock motor limit with the K04 filling the lower end, F21/RS4-X the middle, and RS6-X the upper end of Horsepower potential. The RS6-X could be considered crossing over into the “upgraded rods needed” region if tuned accordingly, but for the purposes of my intended use I would have them operating below that threshold.

To better assess the tradeoffs that each makes I collected a half dozen dyno charts for Borg-Warner RS6 turbo’s and determined the median value for the set.

A few shortcomings to keep in mind; the six RS6 dyno’s are for a turbo design that is different from the RS6-X, the RS6-X uses a different compressor wheel from the Borg-Warner design. I do not have a dyno chart for the RS6-X so I am using the BW RS6 as a substitute. Another shortcoming is that the F21 dyno chart is for a setup that falls short of what the F21 is capable of past 5000 rpm – a better optimized F21 car would likely have greater torque output past 4000 rpm than what is shown below. Lastly, more data to compare is always better and in this instance there is only one K04 car and one F21 car, though they were both tuned by EPL so hopefully they are somewhat illustrative of what a car equivalently equipped and tuned by EPL would put down on a dyno.

I am only interested in comparing torque at this point, I expect the top end horsepower results to follow along with the increasing dimensions of each turbo – K04 followed by F21/RS4-X, and then RS6-X, subject to pressure drop variations in supporting components such as downpipes, exhaust, and intercoolers

The turbochargers compared:

Comments: There are definite trade-offs arising from the turbocharger selected from these three choices.

Audi B5 S4 Information and Testing