TIP -> 6MT

Making progress again

I finally decided to abandon my efforts to track down the reason for the ignition switch not functioning correctly and have another set of eyes look at the problem.  Part of the process of getting the salvage title revised to read repaired and to get the car registered involves having the needed repairs made.  Luckily in my case there was almost no damage to the car so the repairs were very easy, the ignition lock cylinder was the only functional damage and I’d replaced that immediately with a replacement part I’d found in the glove box.  Still, I wanted a shop to look the car over so I’d have documentation to present to the DMV inspector showing that the car had been looked over by a mechanic.  I had the car towed to HB Motorwerks, which is where I routinely take the car when I need help with it, and Paul was able to quickly determine that I had been one wire off when hooking up the clutch position sensor.  In short order the wiring was done correctly and the car started with the ignition as it’s supposed to do.

With the car back at my garage I can now move on to some additional suspension work.

Stasis/Ohlins Motorsport Coilovers and Stern Adjustable Upper Control Arms

I’ll be swapping out the KW V3 coilovers for a set of Stasis/Ohlin Motorsports, and I have a set of Stern adjustable upper control arms to install.  First on the agenda will be to apply some Boeshield to the adjustment threads on the coilovers to protect them.  The coilovers just came back from a fresh rebuild at PSI.

PSI Servicing sticker on Stasis/Ohlin shock

Testing

SRM Modified Intake Manifold

After seeing the decent gains achieved through an extrude hone to the stock B5 S4 intake manifold I started to think about what I might do with my own Intake manifold.  I had recently acquired an RS4 throttle body, RS4 metal throttle body boot, and RS4 up-pipes, but my purchase came at the same time as the RS4 intake manifold jumped from approximately $500 to over $800.

The prospect of paying in excess of $800 for an RS4 intake manifold got me thinking about lower cost alternatives that might get close to RS4 performance levels at less of a cost.  A readily available option was the Silly Rabbit Motorsport modified Intake Manifold.  The catch was, as is the case with most aftermarket components, there wasn’t enough evidence to convince me that the product was worth the cost.

SRM offers to enlarge the stock B5 S4 intake manifold plenum and to do some porting of the internal surfaces for a cost of $300.  That seems reasonable if the product can deliver.  For an additional charge of $300 they will fit an adapter flange to the stock IM so that it can accept an RS4 throttle body and provide an RS4 throttle body to go on the intake manifold, now this is getting interesting.  How would a ported, enlarged plenum stock S4 intake manifold with an RS4 TB adapter flange fare against a full blown, $800+, RS4 intake manifold?

To answer the question I contacted SRM about doing a two stage test of their product.  First I would baseline an untouched stock B5 S4 intake manifold that I had on hand.  Then I would send it out to SRM for the plenum and porting work, but retain the stock throttle body size.  The intake manifold would be returned for flow testing, to assess the gains from the work a person could expect to get if they wanted to keep a stock throttle body.

Then the intake manifold would be sent to SRM again, this time to have the RS4 throttle body adapter flange mounted to it.  With that modification done the intake manifold would be sent to me again for final testing and comparison to the RS4 intake manifold that I’ve previously flow tested.

I wouldn’t be writing all of this if Silly Rabbit Motorsport had not been willing to participate in the testing, so as soon as I baseline this stock S4 intake manifold it will be off to SRM for some modifications.

Here are some pictures of the test article prior to undergoing the modifications.

Stock Audi B5 S4 intake manifold front view

Stock Audi B5 S4 intake manifold bottom view

Stock Audi B5 S4 intake manifold interior view

 

TIP -> 6MT

Problems? What problems.

If you read some of the comments on the car forums about doing the TIP swap you possibly could come to the conclusion that it is only slightly more involved than changing the S4’s oil filter.  As I am now at the shakedown phase of one of these projects it seems like the list of items for correction continues to grow.

After taking care of the coolant leak I was finally ready to fire it up.  Too bad the S4 wasn’t as ready to be fired up.  Getting the Software reprogramming done was the first hurdle.  More on that later, but in the end I took the nuclear option and swapped out the ABS module and used Nefmoto to completely write over the ECU program.

With power to the car I was hearing an odd mechanical sound that had a consistent rhythm to it.  It took a few moments but I realized that the windshield wiper stalk had been bumped up and the motors were operating, minus the wipers and arms.  Now, a couple of days later I’ve found that the wiper doesn’t want to work, nor do the directional signals, though when I activate the hazard flasher all the light outside and inside function.

What else is there; the 3.5″ single exhaust and single piece driveshaft are getting very cozy, so much so that the heatshield between the two is being squished against the exhaust pipe and I think the driveshaft is rubbing against some point of the heatshield.  So I’ll be heading back under to take the exhaust back off and try to form the heatshield to sit nicely between the two parts.

I’m getting an ABS/Brake fault code, implausible signal.  Finally, one of the most vexing problems, the wiring for the Clutch Pedal Position sensor.  I was following the TIP -> 6spd wiki for the project but when I got to the wire portion I discovered that the 6spd harness I was going to use did not have a blue connector on it which the Wiki guide refers to.  I went with plan B, a second write-up where one of the TIP car’s wires from the transmission is spliced into.  Problem is, the car won’t turn over.  The 12V that are supposed to go to the starter aren’t.  I can jump directly from the battery to the starter and get the car to start (hooray!) but using the key is not working.  Of course now would be the time that my Bentley manual would crap out so I don’t have it to use, but even with the wiring diagram I am basically on my own to try and figure out how to wire up the car since neither of the DIY options is working for me.

By the way, there is a free Bentley eBahn reader and content update available if you have a licensed copy.  I believe this was the first time I had ever gone to the Bentley website so who knows how long this update has been available and I’ve happily been tooling along with the older version of the software.

Audi B5 S4 Information and Testing