now i love it...

[ghoonk]

Does anyone have the part number for the intake manifold? I have a mate who works with race teams in the US who might be able to get a couple of pieces properly ported and polished on a flow bench, and have ready units for direct sale or upgrade with a trade-in of the unmodified manifold.

I wonder what the dealerships do with the intake manifolds that they replace under warranty

[pippyrips]

So do you think you'll have Thorney do the work? It would be great to see how they approach the work. I will be ordering a spare manifold and doing the work myself. I've done quite a bit of gas flowing for various race heads and manifolds with good results and I have the tools (and time at the moment - which is helpful). The RS4 intake is a great piece to start with. I will perform a before/after dyno pull, and at the same time do a before/after mass-air flow in gram/sec using VAGCOM. This will help correlate the improved air-flow capacity to any power gains (hopefully).

Hard to say at the moment, whether I go ahead with this full stop will depend on overall price. What I do know is I would rather give someone my car for them to do the work from start to finish including the stripping out and re-installation.

I know someone very capable of doing as AntoRS4 has done himself, though the hassle factor of stripping the engine down & possibly cocking it up isn't that appealing.

Btw has anyone got an exploded diagram of the B7 RS4 engine?


John mentioned a figure if around £1500-£1800 off the top of his head ad around 7-10 days from start to finish, though I’m in the process of clarifying if this is for just for manifold or manifold and cylinder head. (I'm on the back end of man-flu which no voice so could hardly talk on the phone to do it at the time!)

Another thing he said was to get the gains quoted here would be very unusual, he would expect +10/15 on both measurements tops, that said he also said that if you could see a lip (which clearly we can) it would be shocking manufacturing work so who knows.

Am I right in thinking there are two stages to this?
1) Just sort the intake manifold
2) Sort the intake manifold and cylinder head?

2 Is obviously going to be considerably more expensive than 1 though who knows what the results could be...


What is clear is there are a few of us who would seriously consider going down this route, let’s all do a bit of research and share finds as the potential is there to save a fair bit of cash by grouping together, be it on the full work or just ordering intake manifolds!

[pippyrips]

I wonder what the dealerships do with the intake manifolds that they replace under warranty

Not too sure but why are them replacing them?

[ghoonk]

Mine couldn't figure out that the EPC light was coming on due to the intake manifold runners that I told them about and replaced the entire intake manifold altogether

[sonny]

Mine couldn't figure out that the EPC light was coming on due to the intake manifold runners that I told them about and replaced the entire intake manifold altogether

Are you using a aftermarket induction system like a K+N or GruppM?

[hogster]

I had my intake manifold replaced a few weeks ago after the EPC light coming on a couple of times. On a previous visit to Audi I had mentioned the car not feeling 100% and i was told they could find nothing wrong with the way it went, however once the new manifold was on it was like driving a diffrent car reminded me of the first time I drove it

[ghoonk]

Nope. Stock panel filter. I'm wondering if an aftermarket panel filter like the K&N would let more of the dust/sand into the system, considering that I'm based in Dubai

[SimonC]

These people have been playing with Rover V8's for a long time. They might be interested.

http://www.jeengineering.co.uk/engine_other_ser.htm

[Lancia]

Im going to look into the full flow bench side of things.

Love when people go back to basics.

Great find.

[pippyrips]

So do you think you'll have Thorney do the work? It would be great to see how they approach the work. I will be ordering a spare manifold and doing the work myself. I've done quite a bit of gas flowing for various race heads and manifolds with good results and I have the tools (and time at the moment - which is helpful). The RS4 intake is a great piece to start with. I will perform a before/after dyno pull, and at the same time do a before/after mass-air flow in gram/sec using VAGCOM. This will help correlate the improved air-flow capacity to any power gains (hopefully).

Hard to say at the moment, whether I go ahead with this full stop will depend on overall price. What I do know is I would rather give someone my car for them to do the work from start to finish including the stripping out and re-installation.

I know someone very capable of doing as AntoRS4 has done himself, though the hassle factor of stripping the engine down & possibly cocking it up isn't that appealing.

Btw has anyone got an exploded diagram of the B7 RS4 engine?


John mentioned a figure if around £1500-£1800 off the top of his head ad around 7-10 days from start to finish, though I’m in the process of clarifying if this is for just for manifold or manifold and cylinder head. (I'm on the back end of man-flu which no voice so could hardly talk on the phone to do it at the time!)

Another thing he said was to get the gains quoted here would be very unusual, he would expect +10/15 on both measurements tops, that said he also said that if you could see a lip (which clearly we can) it would be shocking manufacturing work so who knows.

Am I right in thinking there are two stages to this?
1) Just sort the intake manifold
2) Sort the intake manifold and cylinder head?

2 Is obviously going to be considerably more expensive than 1 though who knows what the results could be...


What is clear is there are a few of us who would seriously consider going down this route, let’s all do a bit of research and share finds as the potential is there to save a fair bit of cash by grouping together, be it on the full work or just ordering intake manifolds!

Quick update on the attached, though not much we didn't know before..

I spoke to John again today who had viewed the pics posted in this thread and a brief summary of our conversation is as follows:

- He was very surprised to see such lips on the intake manifold, almost to the point he couldn't believe it!

- If all engines were of similar condition; a fully ported & polished intake and cylinder head would deliver significant improvements and be his first port of call if looking to improve the engine

- the price would be in the region of £1500-£1800 for a fully ported & polished intake and manifold though he can't be exact as they have never done this on an RS before. I also asked what just the intake would cost. His opinion was if you were going to that much trouble in sorting the intake, you might as well do the head as well. The example given was you wouldn't fit just a centre section of an exhaust; you would do the whole system..

- The price is 'all in' so includes all labour etc and the work would take between 7-10 days

- He is open to running a group buy of sorts


So, I guess what would be great to establish is whether all engines are of similar quality (or lack of!). If it turns out they are then firstly I’m really pissed off with Audi, and secondly I’m seriously tempted to go down this route!

Silver RS4 – let us know what you find out

[SR71]

silverRS4,

Can you make sure you get some better pictures of the before and after work!

I'd really like to know if the standard manifolds are all produced to such a diabolical standard and if so, whether owners think there is any mileage in taking this up with Audi...

What with the DRC failing left right and centre, the car failing to produce 414bhp (now we know why) and smoking akin to an oil burner, Audi workmanship on one of their flagship products is taking a beating...

[bn8959]

I dont even own an RS4 (yet...... *might* do by tomorrow ) and im finding this really interesting. If it was clear that all (or a majority) of the engines could be significently improved by this process, then I would certainly be interested in spending 1.5k-ish on it. Although I guess you really have no idea what difference to your particular engine its going to make.

Taking it up with Audi is also an interesting point. If, for example, it was shown that standards have slipped in new models, there would be a point to raise - although Im sure it would be one of the most difficult ones!

I am not up on the performance differences of B7 RS4's. Ive heard that power outputs do differ, but I have not idea how different it is from one car to the next. Having said that, ive test driven 4 so far, and they all felt 'unique' in some way!

[silverRS4]

The manifold should show up later this week. So I'll post a few "before" photos. I'd like to get a baseline dyno as well. I am currently having a potential injector and/or coil pack issue, so I want to be sure thats fixed before I start any before/after power comparison.

[pippyrips]

The manifold should show up later this week. So I'll post a few "before" photos.

Excellent - have your ordered a new one? it will be very interesting to see the condition of it.....

[PetrolDave]

and smoking akin to an oil burner

I think the two (currently known) causes of that have been posted here (and on several other Audi related web sites) several times:

1) over-fuelling on cold starts with 0080 ECU SW, which can be fixed by requesting a free upgrade to 0090.

2) particulate production is an inherent feature of a direct inject lean burn engine.