Audi 80 Avant

[A80Avant]

thanks for the comments

For VEMS, i had a base map from Marc and a lot of help thereafter from him explaining various areas of the settings. I bought myself a book describing the basics of tuning and engine and read all the info about megatune i could find on the net. After that i tuned the car after lots of practice and everyday experience, to an extent that now i just turn the key and go.

The reason i didnt want a tuner to come and tune it for me again was the experience i have of lack of communication and aftersales backup once they have done their job. Many times the car wont perform accurately and it is not down to a tune but something mechanical, but you can never be sure about that. Vems esp, has areas that need to be tailored to the specific engine after lots of attempts and it is not something that can be tuned within a few hours. Sure, basic maps, perfomance etc is easy to do and a tuner gets payed mainly for that, but all the little things such, cold starts, warm starts, carefull acceleration enrichments, idle on all occasions(under high voltage load, under low voltage load), are areas that no tuner will spend time looking into while being with you tuning the car, and basically you will end up fine tuning yourself.
Motronic saves you this trouble as tuners only have to deal with the basic maps and the rest are already there. So having an aftermarket ECU and having someone tune it for me would probably leave me unsatisfied.

on the other hand, if you like to be a perfectionist, you are not easily satisfied!

Powerwise, im happy.As time goes by, im not sure if i want to try a 0.63AR on the turbo, and i feel that the powerband is quite good. I might get a turbo blanket for the hotside to see if it can allow for a bit faster spool and higher temps on cruising as well, since im within limits at the moment, but i dont plan to make any big changes anymore.

Besides, there are still things that need tackling, such as aircon pipe, airbag light for passenger side igniter .. etc.

[Bram]

Almost done with you project then. Will you buy another car to start working on?

[A80Avant]

haha, naaah

hopefully the next car will be for the wife a tiguan or something.

for me, my dream would be an rs2 sedan, but i dont see it happening.

[s2_wot]

The reason i didnt want a tuner to come and tune it for me again was the experience i have of lack of communication and aftersales backup once they have done their job. Many times the car wont perform accurately and it is not down to a tune but something mechanical, but you can never be sure about that. Vems esp, has areas that need to be tailored to the specific engine after lots of attempts and it is not something that can be tuned within a few hours. Sure, basic maps, perfomance etc is easy to do and a tuner gets payed mainly for that, but all the little things such, cold starts, warm starts, carefull acceleration enrichments, idle on all occasions(under high voltage load, under low voltage load), are areas that no tuner will spend time looking into while being with you tuning the car, and basically you will end up fine tuning yourself.
Motronic saves you this trouble as tuners only have to deal with the basic maps and the rest are already there. So having an aftermarket ECU and having someone tune it for me would probably leave me unsatisfied.

I'll have to consider this because it looks like even if i could find the perfectly experienced tuner I'd have to pay him €000's to do the work to a very high standard. In truth if I decide to do this big power I think I'll have to learn about VEMS too, so I can make the small changes that I want.

Besides, there are still things that need tackling, such as aircon pipe, airbag light for passenger side igniter .. etc.

I think every project car will always have these things to keep your mind occupied.

for me, my dream would be an rs2 sedan, but i dont see it happening.

me too, the coupe isn't practical enough for me to use everyday and the prospect of an avant strikes me as somewhat too practical.

Again thanks for posting I've a good idea for a A-Y of what to do. (A-Y because Z is possibly not ever achieveable).

Shane

[Jamo]

I'll have to consider this because it looks like even if i could find the perfectly experienced tuner I'd have to pay him €000's to do the work to a very high standard. In truth if I decide to do this big power I think I'll have to learn about VEMS too, so I can make the small changes that I want.
Shane

Yes you must learn about VEMS, there is no point having it if you don't learn how to tweak and modify it yourself.

However you can't beat some tuners experience, there are things and tweaks in my map that i would never known about as they aren't in the public domain and i'm happy I paid for my initial tune as the car was up and running in 2 days and from there i could learn and play at my leisure knowing the safety margins were set.

[A80Avant]

No problem Shane

the Z i believe is achieveable if you come back down to reality! The Avant has been for me a very good solution even though i hated the looks at the beginning. However it would not have been possible to fill it up with loads of stuff all these years for the trips i have done.

[A80Avant]

i would go for a tuner only if i wanted to have the car at the edge of it's perfomance map wise or timing wise. Having a few hp more or less is no bother. Having it safe is!

[GazzaG60]

the best service tuners can provide in my opinion is basemaps. saves lots of time. safety is not the holy grail. its figures and feedback from gauges and the like.
potential aftermarket ECU buyers dont fear them embrace them. the uk has a whole host of tuners with scare stories top try to take some of your cash.

there are a fair few vems users who used to say i was mad not sticking with motonic for its drivability. then they bought vems.


glad your happy with it vas.

[A80Avant]

APR R1s now fitted.

havent tasted them yet but the forge units are now for sale.

50GBP each + shipping

[A80Avant]

right,
did a few tests yesterday with the apr dvs

the apr seems to be slightly stiffer than the 006 with the blue spring in.

Both are open on idle and shut on pedal depressions. With the TPS being closed, there is air coming out of the valve instead of being sucked in (i suppose that can be slightly reversed when moving at slow speeds or under vaccum.

I did notice that with the gear in and at overrun, i dont get as low with the vaccum as before. Minor differences, such as instead of 16kpa it goes to 18-20kpa. Would that be consistent with the stiffer springs of the APR units?

Finally for some reason my idle was acting up yesterday as well so i dont know if it is related to the valves or high electical load(wipers/heater/lights/rear wiper on etc). I have rectified that sort of, and im also going to test the engine with only one DV now.

The other thought was to get a hose closer to the air filter from the DV so as to take a small advantage of the air being lost when the DV is open.Probably wont have much significance, but hey...

[GazzaG60]

my guess is a leaky valve.

[A80Avant]

i have tested both apr units and they are not leaking. Could they not be sealing properly at specific vaccum levels? under boost they dont seem to have any issues.Boost is easily reached.

by the way, which is the most respected DV one can use? APR where supposed to be that according to some posts here not a while ago.

[GazzaG60]

yes.

a big issue in the old days was leaking at idle with forge and bailey. or high boost. we all have opinion. id say mines opinion based on fact.

when my mate did lots of subarus you could hear the tweet of crap valves coming a mile off. they are the first that people see in tweeks, halfords etc. being in excess of 50 quid they are presumed ok.

my view is spend over 100 per valve and use the big boys for them. hks,blitz,Greddy, turbosmart, GFB. they were the usual ones. my mate was a super dealer for the first 2 though and the last 2 also.

i have had the same single GFB valve on since just after i got the car.

have you tried tightening the valve a little on the spring.

[A80Avant]

APR does not have that option. its as it comes with.

[A80Avant]

hks super sequencial says that it can stay shut on idle, but i dont want to spend 300GBP just to test it!

does your GFB stay closed gary?