Pick it up Friday!!!

[webbah]

My long wait has almost ended! I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas and it has been agonizing. Ordered on November 17th.

Got the call today that it is en route via train from Germany to Switzerland now, and delivery on Friday to me is probable. Apparently the PDI will take place in the Swiss German part before they send it to my dealer (Auto Dynamics in Gland) and this should happen on Wednesday.

Already on the agenda:

Thursday: Tacot-Net will do Teflon treatment before I take delivery on Friday

Friday: Pick her up in the AM. Drive directly to Digit-Power and have Milltek cat back resonated valved exhaust fitted between 3-5PM. Then leave directly for a drive to Paris. Actually, not directly in Paris but on the outskirts. I wouldn't want to drive her in downtown Paris... hehe.

Sunday: Return to Geneva. Total Km should be around 1,500 at this point.

Monday: Change oil and send factory oil for analysis.

Pics to come!!!

Cheers,

Webbah

[GlynRS2]

It will quite a while before you will be able to stop smiling - enjoy it.

Let us all know the results of the oil analysis

[webbah]

Will do. I'll post a full report on the exhaust and oil. I know quite a few people are also interested in the Milltek as well. It seems the issue we all face with these RS4's is fuel/oil dilution from what I've been reading. I'm going to do a rather aggressive break in, while staying within the guidelines of the manual for RPM's and will keep you all posted on the results.

[LegalEagle]

I did exactly this. Engine is wonderful as a result.

[DIE-M3]

Congrats - dream machine. Seem you could have saved a few quid and some by just doing the collection and PDI in Germany .... from there the autobahn awaits ....

[webbah]

Yeah, probably could have done that, but doubt it would have saved me any money. Besides, the Autobahn is only a few hours away anyway! Going to drive to Hanover for Cebit in March which should be a load of fun.

[webbah]

I did exactly this. Engine is wonderful as a result.

Are you using the dealer supplied oil? Or Motul or something else? Trying to decide that right now.

[LegalEagle]

Dealer supplied. The car is pulling so hard now its incredible. Hard and fast breaking in method is essential too.

[webbah]

Totally agree on the break in! Going to follow this method below. Credits to RI RS4 from audiworld forums:

But it is an aggressive break-in, and if the motor breaks, it's still under warranty. Which can't be said for the MotoMan method.


-------------------------------------------------

Manual page 251

Up to 600 miles
- do not use full throttle
- the engine speed is not allowed to exceed a maximum of 6000 rpm

From 600 to 1200 miles
- do not use full throttle
- the engine speed is not allowed to exceed a maximum of 7000 rpm

From 1200 to 1500 miles
- Slowly and briefly increase the engine speed to 8250 rpm

Over 1500 miles
- you may now drive with an engine speed of 8250 rpm

___________________________________
Now read my break-in recommendations, and you'll see that the fall within the letter of the Audi requirements.

The owner's manual contains some hard RPM and throttle position limits up to 1200 miles. (6000 rpm up to 600 miles, 7000 rpm up to 1200 miles, no full throttle until 1200 miles, and then only occasionally until 1500 miles) Within those limits the engine can still be wrung out pretty hard. (Torque peaks at 5500 rpm.) This type of engine, with Alusil cylinder walls, needs to have some serious power applied to the rings in hard acceleration and deceleration, in order to properly seat the rings in their grooves and against the cylinder walls. Deceleration using compression breaking is extremely helpful during the process, since it reverses the loads on the pistons and rings and allows all surfaces to wear-in well.

WOT is also very bad for this engine when it's not broken in. Mixture enrichment during WOT will blow-by into the oil and contaminate it. I generally recommend 3/4 throttle maximum until 1200 miles.

Remember, also, that this engine, by design, is not fully broken in until between 7K and 15K miles, due to the hard silicon cylinder walls.

I will point out that maximum piston ring forces occur at maximum engine torque, which is about 5500 rpm. This falls within even the early < 600 mile break-in RPM limit. You just aren't supposed to go to full throttle yet ... but, nothing in the manual says you can't get damn close.

The key is to run the engine up hard, to maximize the ring/cylinder wall forces under acceleration, and then to allow the engine to use full compression breaking, to reverse those forces. This allows the rings to fully wear into the piston grooves and to lap themselves against the cylinder walls. This is much easier to do when the engine is young. As it gets older, deposits in the ring grooves can prevent full seating.

I broke in my engine fast and hard, within the RPM and throttle guidelines in the manual, with 2nd and 3rd gear hard acceleration and engine compression deceleration, after complete engine warmup, followed by cooldown, constant cruising in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gears, and then repeating the hard acceleration. I did this every time I took the car out during the break in period, to seat the rings and wear-in the cylinder walls, which are hard silicon. At 1800 miles I changed the oil and filter.

Here are my oil consumption results:

1.5 Qts/1800 miles -- factory oil

Zero Qts/(1800 to 5000 miles) -- Elf Excellium LDX 5W-40

Zero Qts/(5000 to 6400 miles) -- Motul E-tech 8100 0W-40

Using an aggressive break-in regime will reduce oil consumption over the life of the engine, and increase maximum power output. I have had no oil consumption since changing out the factory oil at 1800 miles.

BTW, unless you over rev the engine, the most violent time your engine ever sees is those first few seconds after cold start. This is when wear is at it's highest. This is also why you want to start her, and drive her away, so that the engine and oil can warm as quickly as possible. Racing engines have dry sump heaters and pumps to bring the oil up to operating temperature and pressure prior to starting.

I would add these additional steps to the method:

1) Change the oil and oil filter as soon after the 1st break-in stage (600 miles) as possible, to get rid of the broken down oil.

2) Do not go to WOT (Wide Open Throttle), until your next oil change after the 1500 mile 3rd stage of break-in. (Get used to just backing off from WOT, if you ever go there. There's still plenty of fun with this engine even if the accelerator is not floored.)

3) Change the oil again after 1500 miles.

4) Add a fuel additive like FP60 to every tank of gas.

All of the above has been verified through oil analysis. The metalurgy of this engine is exceptional, and UOA's bear this out, even under hard break-in. Every owner who has used this method has seen good results, including low oil consumption after break-in is over, and a strong engine. There is one owner that I know of who has had the opportunity to see the impact of this method on a new engine, after having previously driven an RS4 conservatively during break-in.

Other methods may also work. I lay no claim to the perfect method. I've just taken the best of several different concepts and methods on break-in, and added some oil analysis to back up the results. Had my results been crappy, I would have immediately notified owners on the forum, and modified my recommendations. Clearly, the biggest impact I've had is to identify fuel dilution as being the largest problem that we have to deal with, and to advocate for early oil changes during break-in, to remove contaminated oil that just wants to blow out the exhaust pipe.

Thus far, for those keeping score on the oil front, we have good analysis results on the following oils:

Amsoil Euro 5W-40
Motul 8100 E-tech 0W-40
Elf Excellium LDX 5W-40

The factory delivered oil sucks. Get it out at 600 miles. And no one has yet posted a UOA on any dealer supplied oil, or Mobil 1 0W-40. They may perform just fine, but we don't know. Pretty much any oil can tolerate a 3000 to 5000 mile change interval, after break-in.