fambino

Hello Audi community,

Haven't been on here in a while, it's nice to see everyone still alive and rippin' up the streets of Canada.

I need your help! I have a 2001 Stage I B5 S4 (chip, intake, cat-back exhaust) with 181k and one of my turbos is leaking oil - a.k.a dying. I'm satisfied with how fast the stage I is, so I'm not necessarily looking to upgrade to stage 3 or anything complicated.

Consquently, I looked at both k03 and k04 kits online and they all cost pretty much the same: 1500$ give or take a few hundred.

I keep reading that k03s are unreliable and can "die" unpredictably. Of course, driver error and habits contribute greatly to the lifespan of the turbos, but if I am to spend a few thousand on swapping mine out, I'd like to know whether or not getting another set of k03s is wortwhile or if I am better off with supposedly more reliable, better built k04s. So, I basically have two questions which I'd like some feedback/responses to:

1) If I upgrade to k04s, am I able to simply swap out the old turbos and put in the new ones (with appropriate kits, i.e. gasket, pipes, seals, etc) while running my stage I tuning?

2) If I simply stick with k03s, do I need to buy a full kit or can my mechanic simply swap out the turbos and replace whatever needs to be replaced while re-using whatever is still in good shape? I can get my hands on slightly used turbos (under 10k kms) so feedback on new vs used would be appreciated.

As my turbo(s) are nearing the end of their lifecycle, I'm hoping to at least have a plan laid out by the time they go. Your feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance whomever is able and willing to help me out.

Fab

K04-S4

Are you sure it is one of the Turbo's leaking oil? Generally if a Turbo oil seal fails then you see burnt oil out the exhaust. Sometimes a leaking Cam Seal / Cam Adjuster Gasket / Valve Cover Gasket drips oil onto the Turbo and makes it look like a Turbo oil leak.

If your pulling the engine then I would not hesitate to install K04's. They will run just fine on your current Stage 1 and give you the headroom to go to Stage 3. You should get a ~20HP power increase without doing anything else. While the engine is out, it is also the perfect time to mod up a pair of piggie pipes and get another crank 20HP - 30HP.

My .02

fambino

Thanks for the response, much appreciated! Is there an easy way to diagnose the seal leak??
When i was getting my spark plugs n coils changed + oil change done, i asked my mechanic why i kept seeing a drop of oil every now and then. It smells slightly too at times. He said it looked like the left turbo was leaking; its been whistling for a lil while now too... A few months back i changed both my front cam seals and the crankshaft seal/bolt. I blew it half an inch out of place lol.

Im tempted to put piggy pipes regardless of whether i put k04s on but doesnt seem worthwhile to me... Any recommendations?? I have a borla exhaust on but i heard nhp was the way to go.

Supastar

In general the oil seals on turbos leak towards the hotside aka down the downpipe.

The oil you may find at your lower intercooler hoses (in small amounts 1-2oz) is generally caused by blowby, or over-pressurization of the crankcase.

Putting in a less restrictive exhaust is always worth it when dealing with a turbo car, in fact it may actually extend the life of your turbos. By removing the precats you are allowing the hot air out of the bottleneck at the top of your downpipes, this moves the heat down and out of the exhaust system, allowing your turbos to breathe better. It also helps a little in spool up.

fambino

Thanks Supastar and all the others who helped! I got frankenturbos installed instead without modifying anything else; i might still go get it re-tuned though.

I barely enjoyed my turbos, though, as after 30km, i had white smoke coming from my engine bay near the turbo area. Took about an hour to stop after shutting the car off and it left me a little pile of brown ash. Any clue what this could be ??? Trying to gauge the immediacy of the issue and have no clue where to begin... Doesnt smell like oil or coolant burning, more like plastic/rubber.

Should i keep it parked or try diving it again?

Supastar

Get that figured out quick, it is most likely the RPM sensor wiring getting fried on the exhaust manifold.

You should most definitely get the car retuned for the Frankenturbo's. The wastegates are set differently and spool rate is also different, thus you can easily run into rich/lean conditions. Please for all that it is worth, get a tune

fambino

Not sure if its wiring given that there was a little ash pile left... But i def agree that it must be something touching up against exhaust/manifold. Gotta wait till monday... Test drove the car twice today on 5 km runs incl. one stretch of highway. My goal was to get car to proper operating temperature and no more smoke is coming out of the engine bay... I think what's fried is fried... I just dont know. I just know its got a metal-like stink to it.

Speaking of exhaust manifolds, i keep hearing a rattling. Its especially noticeable when i take my foot off the throttle. Think they could be the culprits??

I emailed the shop that flashed my ECU to stage 1 a few yrs back to see if i nee a reflash given the new turbos and that my actuator setting is at 12. My buddy mentioned boost control too.. Think its worthwhile ?!

Not sure if i wanna sink more cash after this bs...

Supastar

I may happen that if you don't sink a little more cash, it will cost a "bunch more" cash

fambino

Couldnt have said it better myself - i meant beyond the tune, i hope i dont have anything significant to change. Since i got my flexpipes rebuilt from the cats to the turbos, im hopin that the small rattle/ticking sound is just a small leak from the sodering.

Goin back to the turbos and tune, id def like to hear your thoughts on a box tune vs a custom dyno tune given the frankens. Since i already got the stage 1, how would reflashing it do anything ? I wasnt looking to upgrade tothe big turbo tune and i didnt upgrade my exhaust manifolds to high-flows nor did i upgrade the downpipes... As for the custom dyno tune, im not lookin to max out the performance and was happy with my stage 1. What to do, what to do... Theres never a simple answer lol.

If only there was a chip/program optimized for the stage 1 + frankens...