First Mods installed

[Citizen.Z]

Hey guys. First time posting but I am long time lurker and avid follower here. This is a great place for research and sharing experiences and just thought i'd share my build... a little BG on how I got the car and what my plans so far include in case anyone is on the fence about mods for this platform.

Car is a '15 ZL1 A6 and is my daily driver (30-35mi) round trip daily Mon-Fri.
Immediately when I got the car I knew I wanted to mod away but not get too carried away in the form of larger displacement and/or nitrous.

I purchased the car in Feb 16' bone stock with 5.8kmi on the ODO
First thing I did was change the engine oil, drop in CAI inc. CAI and a EE E2 CC. Car currently has 58k miles.

Saved up some money and patience and in glorious 2020, I began to mod away with what I call the pandemic itch. Car was built by S2S speed and tuned by Lashway on pump 93 Octane. Car runs like an absolute dream and I am so excited with how the car turned out. What started out as a simple headers/exhaust mod turned into the following:

102mm NW boosted TB
Kong Ported LSA Snout and Supercharger w/ 2.55 griptech pulley
FED Stage2 LSA ported/polished heads w/ Manley SS valves and ARP head studs
BTR Stage3 PDS LSA Cam + supporting mods
Melling High volume oil pump
ID 850CC injectors
MSD BAP
Aeroforce Interceptor + AEM Wideband gauges
IW Balancer + 9.1" metco SC ring
Kooks ceramic coated (BLACK) 2" headers + off road pipes
Corsa 3" catback exhaust
Weapon X HE w/ fans
Custom SC HE res (powder black) + -10AN lines and fittings
Jabsco 50840 HE pump
NGK TR7IX plugs
Taylor Plug wires
Gates HD belt
Stock idlers

The car put down 688hp/608tq on a mustang dyno thru the A6 stock converter. Idling around parking lots and low speeds are not a problem given the size of the cam + stock converter so fear not. Its all in the tune as they say. Cam really wakes up at 2500+ RPM and absolutely screams thru the Corsa mufflers under WOT. NO DRONE WHATSOEVER AT CRUISING SPEEDS. You can have a conversation in the car with the windows up and still handle your business if you can take clients out to eat.

Shortly after getting the car back I drove it from S FL to Orlando/Apopka to visit family for the holidays. In case for anyone wondering, MPG is at 18-19 MPG@ 75-80MPH on turnpike with cruise control on. Left with a full tank of gas of pump 93 and arrived at my destination nearly 260mi away with a smidge less than half tank remaining. Pretty badass IMO. City driving with the occasional spirited pull is about 14.5-15.5 for those wondering.

I am in the process of uploading and hosting pictures and videos. My lovely wife gifted me a GoPro Hero9 for the holidays so I will be sharing tons of photos and videos here in the next few days after I figure out the hosting aspect of uploading them while keeping the file sizes adequate to showcase the details.

Future mods:

I plan on doing the E85 flex conversion to run both pump 93/pump E85 since my local gas station closest to the house carries it and the convenience factor is already there. At nearly $2.10 a gallon for it (hopefully it goes down), it is not for the faint of heart given it is less energy dense compared to conventional pump gas... on a daily application like mine, I expect to make more trips to the pump but a small price to pay in exchange for breaking necks every time it pulls up to the pump. The evaporative cooling alone from the fuel to me is worth the upgrade when compared to pump 93. Given that I am on a relatively "high"-ish pulley ratio on the LSA setup (2.55/9.1) dishing out 15psi and 16psi in some cases... E85 will only bring positives to the table for my case scenario and add that safety pump 93 is currently lacking. This includes but not limited to:

Fore Innovations dual pump return system specd for E85
Fore Innovations LSA fuel rails
ID1300X injectors
Roto Fab Big gulp 102-103mm CAI for LSA
Custom mounting for E2X catch can
BMR Rear Toe rods
BMR Trailing arms
BMR Adjustable LCAs
BMR Rear Cradle bushing kit

I consider myself somewhat tech savvy and want to get my feet wet with HP Tuners... specifically the VCM scanner tool to monitor the cars vitals. I feel that once we begin to mod our cars having a close eye on these vital parms is relatively cheap insurance given how much we've already thrown at these cars.

I have not taken the car yet to the track since putting the power down is huge problem now.

Car is still rolling on the stock 20x10 fronts and 20x11 rears wrapped in Continental ExtremeContact Sport (fantastic daily tire for those horrendous Florida rain downpours and excellent treadwear but absolutely useless in first second and third gears even when warmed up at the current power level).

[JB'sZL1]

Welcome to the Forum!

That's an aggressive build. I have virtually everything you posted sans the heads and BMR's. You will definitely want 17's...check that...15's w/ all that power if you want to come close to hooking. Otherwise you can't put down all the power! Sounds like a fantastic build and hopefully the tune with it.

[Bigtime53]

These cars are addictive if you own one! Sounds like you have done a ton of research on waking up your Z. I have to ask though with all that you have done the hp rating you stated I hope that was wheel hp and not motor hp. If it was wheel hp you are lacking some hp as it should be well over 700,like 800 at the motor and 740/750ish at the wheel. Let me know what you are thinking on this as I think you need to retune it because there is more there.

[tartagliazl1]

He was on a mustang dyno. They always read lower.

[JB'sZL1]

Originally Posted by Bigtime53

These cars are addictive if you own one! Sounds like you have done a ton of research on waking up your Z. I have to ask though with all that you have done the hp rating you stated I hope that was wheel hp and not motor hp. If it was wheel hp you are lacking some hp as it should be well over 700,like 800 at the motor and 740/750ish at the wheel. Let me know what you are thinking on this as I think you need to retune it because there is more there.

Yeah, he should be over 800 SAE corrected w/ corn...but who knows what Dyno it is and what the DA was.

[ZMEnow]

Originally Posted by tartagliazl1

He was on a mustang dyno. They always read lower.

I have always seen mustangs show more than you actually have. I guess it depends on who is running it and what they are trying to sell you while your at the car show.

[Citizen.Z]

Originally Posted by Bigtime53

These cars are addictive if you own one! Sounds like you have done a ton of research on waking up your Z. I have to ask though with all that you have done the hp rating you stated I hope that was wheel hp and not motor hp. If it was wheel hp you are lacking some hp as it should be well over 700,like 800 at the motor and 740/750ish at the wheel. Let me know what you are thinking on this as I think you need to retune it because there is more there.

Hey there... YES! The #s are at the rear wheels after confirming. Here's the dyno log:


I'd be bummed out too if those #s were crank HP. Its honestly ALOT more than I was expecting for an A6 running straight 93. No meth or mixed E just straight crap 93 from S FLs finest pumps. With the mods I was doing... I was hoping for 655 given the car is #655 for the given year and for now I am really content with the car and the current tune since my expectation was exceeded. Erik did a fantastic job building the car and was an absolute pleasure to work with. Josh has been nothing short of phenomenal in getting the car dialed in and is always there to answer any of my annoying questions.

You are correct that the car, given the mods, has some power left on table. It's still rocking the CAI Inc. unit even with the larger NW 102mm TB. The elbow that comes with that unit for our cars was designed for stock power levels and now at the current power level is choking the SC a bit. 4.5" OR 5" diameter is def needed! I simply cant justify the cost for a simple driveway mod right now especially since E85 is in my near future... I figured i'd wait, consolidate the mods, so I don't play for subsequent tunes each step of the way.

After some research and a few emails with Josh, we are pretty much knocking on the devils doorstep of "Detonation" with the current pulley setup with ONLY pump 93 (2.5/9.1). A lot of guys run at 2.5/8.6 since that is the "bees knees" or the sweet spot for pump 93. In order to safely extract that last ounce of available power, meth or E85 is necessary which is something my wallet cant really account for ATM but I am actively planning for in phase 2 of the E85 conversion.

In regards to the wheel/tire setup: I have some room in the garage (its only a 1 car btw) so maybe I'll have the stock wheels with the continentals for daily business and the 17" weld setup with ET Streets for the parties. Still need to do more research to see what exactly is required to rock the 17" setup all around but I have given it thought with either the 17 or 18 inch setup. If I had my way... I'd do 17s since the tires are much cheaper compared to the 18" variants from my research.

OMW home did two spirited pulls from 60-130. IAT2 hovers at around 85-95F once the HE coolant has reached operating temp. During the pull it climbed to 115-120 and topped at 122 the first time. Second pull it topped at 130. Temps quickly climb back down (5-7F roughly a minute) until they go back to operating temp range. Really only takes a few minutes as long as the car is moving and air is flowing thru the HE. Coolant and Oil temps were about 230ish and 250ish respectively after the second pull. I was also tinkering around with the aeroforce gauge annunciator feature and set up to light up when knock retard exceeds 1 DEG of timing prior to making the pulls. Towards the end of the pulls in 6th gear, it was starting to flicker sporadically but never really went full solid for an extended period of time or lit up at all at 4th or 5th. Really looking forward to diving in with HP Tuners and see in more detail and properly log the car to get a better idea of what areas need to be addressed.

[Bigtime53]

Your doing a very good job on what you have done and the plan you have laid out. If I ever get as far as you have on mine I want to do the 15 inch conversion on the rear. My last Z was 811hp at the motor and 756 at the rear and the drag radials would spin and my 60ft times sucked. I know a guy here where I am and he did the 15 inch on the rear and he is killin it with that setup. You might want to think about doing that if you plan on doing any kind of a timed event. The 17 inch weld drag setup is what I had on my car and it was a no prep track but if it was prepped the 17 inch drag radial would hook I believe. Keep posting what your doing here and how everything is working out. I probably will get a education!