I finally got some time to pull the bulk of the parts off the CL-S. All I have left for the SC portion is the fuel pump, coolant hose, FPR and gauges. I hope to have that done tomorrow night. The next night I'll pull the headers and all of the other misc. parts on the car.

The car will then be left as a nearly stock CL-S6. The only remaining items are the springs and sway, Type-S pedals and the short shift adapter with a MOMO Combat (silver) knob.

I did get the car back to driving status before I quite and I did tale it for a quick drive. The thing I initially noticed was how much quieter it was. The full stock intake is back on and there is no longer the blower sound so it was quiet. I went out on the road and under light throttle driving; there was no difference in power. But open it up and the power reduction was quite noticeable. But that is to be expected when well over 100 WHP is dropped. However, it wasn’t weak by any mean. It was what I remembered and pulled great for being NA. But what struck me was something I forgot about, the WOT intake howl. That was great and something I lost with the blower. That reminded me that this is one of the best sounding engines I have been around.

It will be fun driving this car for the next few days in nearly stock and then completely stock set ups.

I’m going to do a compression test in the next couple of days to be sure everything is right. This will be done when I change out the plugs back to IK20’s. I expect it to come in the same, essentially new, values in the 220 PSI range.

Below are some pictures I snapped tonight, more to follow.

 

 

the humanity

 

what a sad day

 

is your headers up for sale?

 

never made it to the track.

 

Man... sorry to see it go!!

However, it is fun to drive the car stock - it is still a very nice car!! on all your work on the CL-S!!

 

m5 time or what??

 

oh fudge.. I almost threw up..

 

Yea, I already bought 'em awhile ago.

Sad day for A-CL Steve....

Your Audi will be a pleaser though...........

 

So soory to see such a wonderful project dismantled Good luck w/ the S4. I know it's gonna be a beast!!

pm me on the tb as soon as u are ready, cause I'm ready

 

oh, the pain....

 

 

Steve,

Off topic but:

How much did blower whine increase when you bumped it up to 9psi?

 

Another OT: I remember you had a source to make the SC pulleys - could you please give me that contact? Also, would you know what size SC pulley I'd have to get (using the stock CT alt pulley) to get 5 PSI Boost? (I'd like to go a little higher, but not all the way to the CT HiBoost as being in Cali w/ only 91 octane and Auto Trans)

 

Already sold...

 

Very true, now would be the time too.

 

It certainly is. I can actually get on it now in 1st and suprisingly, it broke loose at about 6k RPM. This definitely is a nice stock engine. Driving it this morning in mid 50 F temps and it was pulling very well. And once again, the sound was intoxicating.

I recalled when you pulled the first turbo kit off and went back to NA and how you found it to be better than you were expecting; I couldn't agree more. This car drives very well and has great power even without forced induction.

 

It really didn't change much, maye a little but not enough to really notice.

 

Read the other thread.

 

It would be interesting to see what a 3.5 inch SC pulley would do. The base SC pulley if 3.8 inches. I can certainly get the pulley for you if you would like.

 

 

Not as fun takin it apart, is it?

 

Not at all...

 

I got quite a bit more done today. The entire SC/IC kit is off the car and will be shipping to its new home tomorrow.

I pulled the swapped the stock fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator back in. I also pulled the Mugen cooling mods off the car as well and in went the factory T-Stat, fan switch and rad cap. The Mugen pieces will be up for sale in the black market section.

I also pulled the IK22 plugs, which only had about 1k miles on them, and put in fresh IK20's. BTW, it helps to make sure all of the coil pack connectors are seated. I started the car and it was running a bit rough. I jabbed the throttle and it wasn't smooth and then the CEL started flashing at me. So I fired up the laptop and as expected, P1399, multiple random misfires. I shut the engine off and started to pull the front plugs and that was when I noticed one of the connectors wasn't seated. A quick snap, twist of the key and it was running exceptionally smooth.

While I had the plug out I went ahead and did another compression test. Previous times I did this were on a cold engine which is not the way it is supposed to be done but certainly easier. This time it was on a fully warmed engine, with the factory T-Stat, etc. The numbers came out better than I expected and shows why it should be done on a warm engine.

Three cylinders were at 240 PSI, one was at 235 PSI and two were at 250 PSI. In other words, the internal health of the engine is behaving just like new. For perspective, the factory minimum is 135 PSI and the maximum variance is about 30 PSI. I had a minimum 100 PSI greater and the variance was within 6%. That is as good as anyone could hope for even on a fresh engine. This is a true testament to Honda's ability to build engines, proper maintenance (good lubrication and changing intervals) and attention to tuning. The engine was able to make nearly 450 HP and do it without a problem or degradation.

 

Steve,

How do you seat the coil packs? I just thought that they were pressed in and screwed down.

 

They are, the electrical connector needs to be fully plugged in though.

 

Gotcha

I agree with everyone. This is a sad day for us SC people. Your information on these boards was a big factor in me making the decision to go with the SC. Thanks for all of your work and your willingness to help us all. You're in my book.

 

I see you decided on an S4 .. a new one with the V8 or an older V6TT model?

EDIT: Disregard, I read the thread ...

 

Now after driving the car again this morning, I really believe that it has more power now than prior to installing the blower. I guess it is possible since I put the blower on at about 8k miles and now the engine has been broken in.

 

I am pretty much done, just a few minor items to get done. But the engine is now 100% stock. A far cry from just one week ago. Below are a couple of pictures I took which the later is the headers with the electric cut-out:

 

weird to see your engine compartment looking like that .. sad sad thing

 

Yea, I just need to get the correct battery in there and then put the strut tower bar back in place and it will be ready to go. I need to detail it well and it should be look close to new.

That is except for a few scratches on the engine cover. That just happened while it was sitting in my garage!!!

 

On another note, boy did I tear up my finger. I was taking the A-Pipe out while pulling it off the hanger it slipped sending my hand into the heat shield for the catalytic converter. The edge torn into my finger even slicing through the finger nail.

I actually think it would have been much worse had the finger nail not absorbed some of the force. Otherwise it probably would have cut down deeper.

This is on the verge of needing stiches, but not deep enough to warrant the trip and waiting though. I think it is time to pick up a pair of Mechanix Gloves.

 

Oh yea, one more thing. I have a personal best now for header swaps. This one only took 1.5 hours and could have been less if I hadn't sliced into my finger.

 

Best of luck with the Audi steve... its a sad day to see a car with so much history into go... but all the best in your next project. Good Luck

 

A good Mechanic always leaves a little blood.

 

i really wish you video tape the header swap because i am so curious how you are able to do it so fast

the front bank was easy to remove the rear bank removal and install is the hardest for me as well as bolting up the banks to the down pipe

steve, what is your method for removing the rear header bank?

sidemarker

 

i can also do it in about an hours time, with hand tools. there rear is so easy if you do it from above(removel of strut bar necessary)

 

The removal of the Comptech systems and the installation of the stock system is easier than the reverse. Those bolts for the header to A-Pipe connections make it more difficult. Plus, learning to work by feel is very important.

Also, having done this five times helps.