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Old Sep 16, 2007 | 04:10 AM
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Hi all,
I have a 99 A4 coupe with the following mods:
Vararam, smooth air coupler, power duct, larger MAF housing, Nology racing wires with Beru plugs, 160 deg t-stat, ssautochrome(ebay) headers, thunderbolt high flow cats, WCC x-pipe, B&B triflo prt exhuast, and 3.42 gears.
Tuning was done by a local LS1 specialty shop. I am currently making 311 rwhp and 321 rwtq and running 12.82 @ 109. Do these numbers seem a little low to anyone? Was expecting a little more power when i installed the headers and had it tuned. Was running 13.4's before the headers and tune. Could the cheap high flow cats be robbing power? Should I fork out the money for random tech cats? I am planning on doing heads/cam in december.
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Old Sep 16, 2007 | 10:40 AM
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Was this on a Mustang dyno or Dynojet? Mustangs usually read lower.

Did you dyno it before any mods?

What is the AFR at WOT? If it is around 13-13.1 on the dyno, you may be running too lean with the Vararam, since it doesn't have the ram effect on the dyno.

With pretty much the same setup (see sig) and my PE set at 12.8:1, my car made 340 rwhp/346 rwtq, this was before the LS6 intake. Mine is a M6 and the manuals tend to make a little more than an A4.
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Old Sep 16, 2007 | 02:15 PM
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This was on a dynajet. A/F ratio mid 12's.
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Old Sep 16, 2007 | 11:33 PM
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It does seem a little low. That would mean you gained like 20RWHP or something like that.
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Old Sep 17, 2007 | 12:02 AM
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Yeah, kinda disappointing considering all the money i spent. The track numbers seem to be close to what they should be though. Ran 13.4's with a 2.2 60' with vararam, x pipe,cat back, plugs, wires and t-stat on street tires with stock tune. Ran 12.8's with a 2.0 60' with headers, cats and tune also on street tires. Anyone out there running a similar set up? If so, what are your times and HP/TQ numbers?
Thanks for the feedback
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Old Sep 17, 2007 | 09:52 AM
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I ran a 12.7 @ 108.98 1.937 60' with Callaway Honker, and Dynatech long tubes with high flow cats, Corsa cat back, magnaflow x pipe, no tune, stock run flats, OEM plugs and wires and A4 with a 3.15 rear. That set up got 340 HP and 344 ft-lb to the rear wheels.
You could have saved money on the wires, expensive plugs and mass air, I don't see any gain with them over OEM.
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Old Sep 17, 2007 | 02:43 PM
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thats really low.I dyno'd at 302 with a vararam,high flow bridge and a magnaflow exhaust with xpipe.
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Old Sep 17, 2007 | 07:46 PM
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The headers are the only mod you have that will give you any noticable gains. I thought the A4 only dyno's around 290 at the wheels. You should have seen around 320rwhp with your mods but that's about it. Without a set of good heads and a cam, a NA car is not going to see great gains from bolt ons.

Thermostat will keep you running cool, exhaust is good for noise, stock Z06 wires are better than aftermarket and your bigger TB housing isn't going to make much of a difference without heads and manifold upgrade. The Vararam does not show gains on a dyno. Other than that, your 1/4 mile time is pretty good.
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Old Sep 17, 2007 | 10:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Johnny Hardcore
The headers are the only mod you have that will give you any noticable gains. I thought the A4 only dyno's around 290 at the wheels. You should have seen around 320rwhp with your mods but that's about it. Without a set of good heads and a cam, a NA car is not going to see great gains from bolt ons.
Really? Maybe you need to get in touch with this guy and find out what his secret was:

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Mine ran 13.1's pretty much stock on 2.73's. added headers, x-pipe, 3500 converter and 3.42's along with a tune and dropped it into the 11.8 range.


Don't need no steenkin' heads and a cam, heh, heh, heh.
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