How's everyone doing? Holy crap, It's been awhile. This place still rocks. :)

Adjuster

Adjuster

Supramania Contributor
Apr 8, 2005
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Meridian, Idaho, United States
www.adjusteridaho.com
So, parted off my MK3 after reaching the zenith of what I could get out of it, and finding as I've become an over 40ish dude, that I like stealth, AWD and comfortable rides along with the ability to throw my two kids in the back without sending them to the chriopractor after a short ride... :)

The Supra was/is an excellent sports car, and I might build another one of these days, but for now, I've been smitten by powerful, yet plebian looking sedans...

And I'm on my third A8 based car. :)

The first round...
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I had this 1998 A8 from 92,000 miles, and enjoyed it even with the failing transmission. (Just needed to shift it in tiptronic, and it worked fine.) Sold it at about 140k, when I got this replacement....
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Oh, this one was hard to let go! Bought it with ONLY 13,700 miles on it in Portland, OR... 2004 A8L, put 20x10 wheels on it, you will see them on my current S8... Drove it for years, mostly was on the road flying places, so did not put many miles on it, but spent my weeks in rental cars! (Trust me, at the airport, getting into my own nice, NON RENTAL was one of the best parts of every week.) Sold it with just over 35,000 miles to nuke my car payments, and ended up with this 2001 S8, my current ride, and third big alloy Audi.
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This guy I bought for 7000.00. Yep, it's a repaired prior total loss, so the prior owner was not happy to find that out, and I was plesantly supprised, as he was asking 14,700 for it, and ended up selling it to me for less than 1/2 that. :) (Pays to run that VIN folks, I did it just to check that this was indeed an S8, and get the history, and found out it was a prior total/salvage vehicle.... A huge difference in what it's worth.)
Anway, I've already put the 20's on there from my last A8L, and they are for sale.. Why? Well, I can't leave that part alone, so have put some black chrome, BremmerKraft wheels, 20/8.5 with 255/30 20 Conti DW tires on there. (The 20x10 with 275/30 20 Pilot Sport AS Plus tires fit, but with a silver car, I wanted the black chrome, and new tires, and just replacing the Pilot Sport tires was over 1200.00... So might as well sell them as a set, get new rims/tires for the "new" car.)

I will get some photos of the new rims on the car eventually.

So, besides changing cars around, I've been busy. I've started my own company, Adjuster Idaho that is a independent insurance claims adjusting company, and I do some subrosa work as well. (And I'm developing a training class for CE credit here in Idaho, so I can do training as well for insurance folks.)

I miss my Supra every now and then, but just have to throw a leg over my new "toy" and the need for speed is fed. :)
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Adjuster

Adjuster

Supramania Contributor
Apr 8, 2005
1,166
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0
Meridian, Idaho, United States
www.adjusteridaho.com
I was tempted by other AWD vehicles, but I'm getting too old for the STI/Evo ride quality, and while I love the turbo power, you can't discount the instant response of a nice V8. :)

Nearly bought an RS6 twice now, but the price/value/reliability just does not add up. (They are 30k for a nice one, have a history of transmission failure, shock failure and while they are amazing vehicles when it's running right, guys are spending 5k to upgrade to custom tourqe converters, and still having them fail.)

Of course, those guys are pushing 600 or more at the wheels, and "stock" they are only rated at 450....

My ride now is billed at 360hp, about 320 tourqe and with the slightly higher final drive, tends to have less transmisison problems I think because the additional RPM supplies more pressure to to the transmisison all the time, and it is programed to slip less.

In any case, at 75k, I've decided to replace the transmission filter/oil and I was very happy to see it nearly clean of debris/metal shavings when the pan was dropped. (Has 3 magnets in there to catch stuff, and they were nearly black with very fine powdered metal, but no shavings, and that's fine, since the steels do wear on all automatics, it's when you start to see massive "fuzz bunnies" on the magnets that you need to worry.)

Looked at a Stealth RT AWD with some mods, but it was running like crap, the guy had a laundry list of things done, and to be done, and I decided that I wanted nothing to do with another project car at the moment.
 
te72

te72

Classifieds Moderator
Staff member
Mar 26, 2006
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Long time no see... you know, there is a nice thing that makes v8's better... boost. Get to it, start scaring some AMG's. ;)
 
Adjuster

Adjuster

Supramania Contributor
Apr 8, 2005
1,166
1
0
Meridian, Idaho, United States
www.adjusteridaho.com
Yep, adding a turbo or two to the S8 sounds like fun, and who knows?

Perhaps one of these days I'll create my own setup. (I think the best option is a rear mounted turbo, replacing a muffler, using a modern turbo with no pressureized oil supply needed, and the intercooling needs would be minimal as the run from the rear turbo to the engine would cool the boosted charge considerably too. (Especially if an extruded boxed alloy with cooling fins was used for the longer, straight runs under the floor pan, much like some snowmobile systems do today.)

Keep boost to 6 or 7 psi for a solid and reliable amount of power. (I would expect 400 to 450hp easy, but tourqe would improve even more, going from 315 rated now, to 425 or 450 that is common on the RS6, the factory 4.2 V8 twin turbo that Audi brought into the USA in 2003. It's tourqe was limited by the ECU to keep the transmission working during the warrenty period, so you see a flat tourqe output from 1800rpm to nearly redline.. Remove the electronic nanny, and it destroys stock transmissions with glee.)

Then again, the responsive 360hp this S8 is rated at now does not suck at all. :)

And I was very happy to find the transmission pan free of metal slivers, and with very little wear indications. It might supprise me, and go 100k+ before it needs to be re-built. (The S8 has a higher final drive, so the rpm is always slightly higher than the stock A8, and I think that extra engine speed, produces higher pump pressures in the transmission, so while it's chugging along in 5th gear at 40mph, the line pressure is always higher in the trans, and that results in less slipping, and less wear than the standard A8. Slipping is wear in any transmisison, and I'd rather have the slight loss in fuel economy, to enjoy the boost in response and transmission life it seems to bring along.)

Especially now with the synthetic fluid, and new filter it's enjoying. :) (Cut the filter pick up point by 1/2", so it's not so close to the pan, as many have talked of the nearly lack of clearance on the stock system, the fluid pick up point is 2.5mm from the pan, and any bend in the pan from say hitting a speed bump, would further constrict that space, starving the pump/transmission from fluid. The filter is fully immersed in oil constantly, so the point of pickup does not need to be that low. (It's actually in a few inches of fluid at all times, so .5 of an inch change on the point of pick up is a risk I'm willing to take v/s lack of flow due to it being too close to the pan.)

The 7MGTE oil pick up has a similar problem and solution. :) (But it's easy to change, just bend the oil pickup tube towards the crank about 1/2" and you solve the problem, run 6 or 7 quarts of oil in your 7MGTE, and you further reduce the chance of oil starvation. And with that amount of oil, you run little or no risk of having it whipped up by the crank or rotating assy.)
 
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te72

te72

Classifieds Moderator
Staff member
Mar 26, 2006
6,607
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WHYoming
If you value and appreciate the response of a naturally aspirated engine, I wouldn't recommend rear mounted turbo systems. That is a LONG way (especially on a car that big) for exhaust to travel. Plus, where do they get the intake air from? Under the car is nice and away from engine heat, BUT... how likely would you be to pick up grime, or even worse, water?

However, if you have some room where the engine exhaust runs near the firewall... that might be a good place for such a system.
 
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