# Audi S2 Project



## Sonic (Jun 28, 2007)

I thought some of you may be interested in my Audi S2 project, so figured id post some of my project thread from the s2forum up here. I'm half way into the project...

IMO the S2 is all about the 3-400 bhp range, any more and you ruin the low down surge of torque, less and you feel like your missing out.

So, now that the cosmetics and handling of the car are complete - power becomes top of the list. The plan is, and has always been, to bring the power up to around 360bhp with lots of torque, to provide that extra "you know who's the daddy" feeling.

I want the car to be capable of producing this kind of power without any real bottle necks and with everything running comfortably within its performance range. Ultimately i want a reliable porno looking car (which i have) that is capable of keeping up with those 911's.

Currently i have a pretty standard ABY, in terms of engine spec, homefried with a forge DV, bilsteins with H&R's, RS2 FARB, whiteline RARB, milltek turbo-back, samco's, 996's up front, some S4/S6 rear upgrade, re-built gearbox with new synchro's.

As for the new parts, im in love with the Wagner reverse IM and IC combination and to compliment this im thinking the Wagner EM also. An RS2 airbox, turbo and injectors should finish this off.

Comments and tips welcome - also, what have i missed or not thought about?

As for a timeframe, im in no rush as i love the car at the moment and am enjoying it after a lot of time and money having been pumped into it... that said id love to have this underway by the end of the 2009.

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The car is no longer a daily driver, hardly a garage queen and it gets thrashed on weekends, but the bilstein suspenion and fuel costs make it very impractical day-to-day. The main purpose of it is as a toy and weekend car.

The final aim for the project would be to have a completely re-built engine with new rods, turbo, reverse inlet manifold, intercooler and custom map, but this isnt acheivable all in one go for £££ reasons.

What ive done is divided the project into 2 stages.

*Phase 1:*

Wagner EM, IC, IM, RS2 airbox, injectors, turbo and exhaust cam, Bosch 044 fuel pump, remap + MAP sensor, further front and rear brake upgrades

*Phase 2:*

Engine rebuild with forged rods, custom remap, clutch, single mass flywheel along with balancing.

phase 1 is quick turn around, with a planned completion date around the beginning of march 2009.

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Front brake upgrade 




























Just to give you an idea how frickin huge these things are:










Rear brakes:




























You dont see these new very often:



















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The rear 280x22mm coupe brake kit went on today









Turns out i already had the correct callipers with some old-skool 248x12mm solid disc setup on the car, with the calliper pistons wound right out.

We fitted the new carriers, machined discs and pads - leaving on the existing calliper. I guess ive got some brand new callipers for sale now!

The kit really is pretty bolt-on, so a massive







to s2central for the work he did to find this out for everyone!

Bring on the fronts as soon as i get the carriers









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Another weekend... another batch of upgrades









Today the front brake upgrade, RS2 airbox and MAF went on.

The brake kit went on in just under 2 relaxed hours, which has to be some kind of record for doing anything on an S2! Everything is completely bolt-on with no modification required at all, and the 1-piece carriers are a real work of art









The ABY airbox and MAF were removed pretty quickly with a couple of pieces being re-used with the RS2 airbox and MAF, id say replacing this took about an hour.

I can do write up's for the rear brake upgrade, front brake upgrade and airbox replacement if anyone wants - i made sure i got plenty of pics!









Initial thoughts from the 20 mile drive home -

WOOOOW - why the heck hadn't i upgraded the airbox before?!?! What a difference, the car feels as if it can breath properly, not that it didnt before, but its such a noticeable change. Whether my MAF could have been a bit dodgy before i dont know, i guess this could have amplified the difference.

Any element of lag that the k24 has seems to have been completely removed, and the only other thing i can compare it to is going from a stock exhaust to my turbo-back milltek. Its THAT big of a difference!

As for the brakes, obviously i was taking it easy as they need to bed in. I was a little worried that, having got what i thought was the perfect setup with the rear brake upgrade, i was going to mess up the balance again by upgrading the fronts further. This doesnt seem the case at all, and whilst there is certainly a lot more braking force upfront it doesnt feel unbalanced.

The only other thing that stood out was the pedal travel. In comparison with the 996's on before it felt as if i had to really push the pedal down to apply the same braking force, which caught me out coming to a junction! But after a couple of minutes removing the initial disc surface things settled down, and i realised that infact the car was slowing down as quickly as it was before with the same pedal force applied, the pedal just isnt as firm.

I cant wait to use more than 20% braking force when they're bedded in
















First off, this was parked up in the 'hospital corner' of the workshop under dust sheets. Bonus points to anyone who can tell me what it is


















A few pics from last week's rear upgrade:
































































Airbox / MAF (Cheers Alex







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Front brakes:



























































































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Quote:
Originally Posted by *David in Dublin*  
_but what are your impressions ofd the new brakes and the old brakes?

Were the old disks 323mm?

Thanks._

I was running 996's with 323mm discs and the 280x22 rear upgrade for a week or so prior to the 8-pot upgrade.

Id say the initial setup was almost perfect in terms of balance. The 996's provide plenty of braking force and having used them round the 'ring had little problem of brake fade, and the larger rear setup kept the back end in check and stopped most of the dive.

The 8-pot setup at the front doesnt unbalance the car as much as i thought it might, but its obviously noticeable that you have 16 pistons ready to stop you at the front, and only 2 at the back









Id say the 996/rear setup is spot on for daily driving and fast road use, and i guess even on track, which for £1200-1500 for both complete kits is fantastic. The 8-pot setup is for those that want that extra edge and comfort of knowing that you're only going to use 30% of your braking force 99% of the time, and have the extra money lying around. Another thing is that you need alloys at a minimum of 18" for the 8-pots.

Ive got bilsteins with H&R's on the car also, and i imagine you'd practically flip with car if you locked on with 8-pots with anything less!

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Few updates -

Ive had a couple of RS2 turbo's in my hands - both sent back due to cracks in the hot side. Ive got a reconditioned one from AET with 360 bearing on the way now, which should set me right!

All the other gear has arrived and ive bought some siemens 650cc injectors to use instead of the bosch green tops.

As a product of this evening, the intercooler and XM are off and the new wagner XM fitted. The brakes are off so the carriers can be anodized and the front bumper is in pieces so the grills can be sand blasted and painted.

The plan now is to get the reverse IM/IC sorted, leaving the stock k24 with RS2 airbox/maf, wagner reverse IM, IC and XM homefried. Should be perfect for the ring in 2 and a bit weeks









The wagner EM, RS2 turbo, exhaust cam, injectors, fuel pump, engine rebuild and remap will be done upon my return!

My only problem now is that the f***ing speedo stopped working again on the way to the garage















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Quote:
Originally Posted by *S2central.net*  
_SOnic - Bosch 650 is way overkill for RS2 setup my man... Maybe you are thinking beyond that spec already, but its a no brainer to just fit them when you need them._

Ive got that set of RS2 injectors that have been refurbished, but are pretty crusty on the outside.

I remember you saying to get some of the 650cc ones when we were talkinga about 2871, so i figured id get some when they became available









But you recon stick with the RS2 ones for now?

Quote:
Originally Posted by *S2central.net*  
_Have you bought a 3bar MAP sensor yet ?_

Not yet, you dont happen to have any do you









Quote:
Originally Posted by *S2central.net*  
_Are you ready for some Beta testing on the hi-boost RS2 fries or what ?_

The RS2 spec will be happening when i get back from the ring, the stock rods will take ~500-550Nm so we could do it prior to the engine rebuild unless you think its a bit risky? Also what additional gauges should i be buying?

As for the V-stream homefry, ill have my ECU in the post to you tomorrow
















The car is on axle stands now until everything is fitted and i head off to the ring, so no need for the donor ECU.

Cheers Paul!

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Everything is coming together now, should have all the parts, audio, mechanical and electrical by this weekend ready to complete the install - but this is how she is at the moment, after this evening antics pulling out cables that have been massacred by the alarm people






















































This is the only one that got me - the blue cable coming out of the connector block ran behind the dash and down the passenger side towards the rear, at which point it was cut.

The other end out of the connector block goes into the key barrel, and the yellow/black wire to some relay mounted just under the barrel.

I also pulled out that wierd amp and it appears to be a stock 2-channel amplifier. Could this be the mysterious rear amp?!



























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Well, quick update, 48 hours before the ring trip.

Been working late hours on the car over the last couple of weeks - all the interior is back in along with the new hifi. Sounds awesome.

The instrument cluster etc is all back in, with working temp gauge and diff lock switch thanks to Jas11n









The front suspension and brakes are back on along with topmounts (thanks to Andy Casey) and the wagner inlet manifold and intercooler fitted - however its been ALOT of trouble to fit, and after tonight im pretty fed up with it









The RS2 bumper had to be trimmed to stop it pushing the intercooler back into the crank pulley which wasn't fun and when i went to drive it home this evening i got all of 20 metres down the road before the throttle stuck open at WOT









This is after the plastic under the bonnet has been removed AND the metal beaten back. The only thing left to do is either cut the bonnet or lower the engine - and for the record my engine is stock i.e stock engine mounts.

To add to that, i got it back to Rich's place (the mate who's working on it) for the alarm to go mental and not shut off - waking up everyone withing a square mile no doubt, and more important Rich's kids.

Ended up disconnecting the battery.

Not happy









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Bagsie a pax lap in the Clio!









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Actually you'll be pleased to know its all working now









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Where are these Damn pics?










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Sorry, i was getting an indian, and enjoying the new wagner kit and map en-route to the indian









Intercooler going on. Numbers on the pulleys are part numbers for the shorter belts.










IC on:










IC bracket to stop the bottom of the IC moving back into the pullets:










IC being bushed to close to the cam pulley by the bumper:










So trim back the "lip":










One of the holes on the wagner inlet manifold wasn't cut correctly:










Easily sorted:










Manifold in:










And vacuum hoses:



















Throttle body and hose routed round the front:










Extending the plugs:










Wired up the throttle body:




























Hole in the underside of the bonnet to stop the throttle body catching:










Rear speakers mounted:










Speaker kit going in:










Fronts in:



















Cables for the HU:










HU in:



















Stealth ECU switches - work a treat


















All done:




























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The throttle cable is a nifty trick









It doesnt seem that its feasible to fit a completely new one, so i bought a longer cable as recommended by Bo, and had it threaded through the existing cable - resulting in a 1-piece cable from pedal to throttle body, looking OEM









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Ive been to the ring now and driven the car for the week or so ive been back, so its about time for some comments!

The car was AWESOME at the ring. Very very different to last year as its had a heck of a lot of work since then, so i had to take it easy until id learned how she handled









I had a good play with all the different ECU settings. Highlight of the trip had to be the reaction of my passengers when i was in eco mode trundling along behind some grandad in the middle of oxfordshire, came round the corner onto a small straight, flicked eco mode off, full 1.4 bar during the overtake. Brake for the 30 limit, back into eco. Brilliant!









I initially ran with eco and v-steam (sport mode) but realised quickly its alot smoother in n-stream (normal homefry) with eco. I ran down to london with this @ ~80mph and im sure i got better economy. I think alot of this is down to the fact that i drove accordingly when in eco mode - i.e you know your doing an eco run so dont accelerate hard etc.

Round the ring i tried both v and n-stream. N-stream is good, smooth power delivery. V-stream is ****ing awesome on track - alot more aggressive, the power builds quicker and you can feel its taking full advantage of the inlet mods. Very impressed!

I ran v-stream back from germany to france, but knocked it into n-stream on the way back up the UK because i found v-stream a little to aggressive. economy improved slightly but it was alot smoother ride. Id never appreciated how smooth n-stream was before.

Personally i dont think i'll use eco that often, unless i was on a seriously eco-run down the motorway or wanted to restrict boost. Whilst it does its job, i think it takes away from what the car is and seemed more of a restriction. No doubt some would find it very useful though.

Its hard to say what is a result of the map and what is a result of the wagner mods, but the car feels fresher above 100mph, rev's more freely and picks up miles quicker. Also you get more induction noise and can hear the turbo more, the exhaust note has deffinetely increased as well which i wasn't expecting and can't really explain.


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## Alfa GTV (Apr 18, 2007)

WOW, I love Audi S2's :argie: That is some amazing work going on a fantastic car. I am currently looking for a Audi 80 Coupe/convertible.

Keep up the good work and updates.


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## Sonic (Jun 28, 2007)

Cheers, and good luck with the search!

Originally the project was just for the RS2 spec stuff, but somehow an RS6 front brake upgrade got added in addition to all the audio!


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## pangster (Mar 20, 2008)

looks like a good project!!


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## Nick F40 (Apr 13, 2009)

Love that Ferrari Dino, 246S? those are such beautiful cars. It's like that late 70's early 80's 911 Turbo I saw at the hospital.

I love Audis and this one has always been one of my favorites. I want one of these, especially an RS2, love the modifiactions.:thumb:Love the sound.


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## R32-Simon (May 27, 2009)

Very nice mate. Brakes look ace. I imagine your **** must overtake your face when you use them


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## Sonic (Jun 28, 2007)

R32-Simon said:


> Very nice mate. Brakes look ace. I imagine your **** must overtake your face when you use them


Yep 

Its actually dangeous to use them more than about 60% on the road! If there is anyone behind you, the road surface isnt so good or you're any kind of bend.

Awesome on track though :thumb:


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## R32-Simon (May 27, 2009)

I've been in a turbo'd R32 with them and can say that they are a fantastic kit.


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## Chris_R (Feb 3, 2008)

Man you where lucky with those rims and brakes. I have the 6 pot ECS which are about the same size, and had those wheels in 18" too...they wouldn't quite fit by a few MM


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## icedub (Nov 11, 2005)

I met Sonic today at a VW/ Audi show, what a nice guy and the car really looks the business! The work that has been done is really thorough and a credit to him. 
Pleasure to have met you mate, hope to see you at some othe shows soon.


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## Sonic (Jun 28, 2007)

Cheers mate, glad you liked the car :thumb:

Good to meet you also - always nice to see a friendly DW face amongst the VW masses!


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