honki24

I have a V6 2.8L 12V and I want to add timing. Is there a cam angle sensor or crank angle sensor that I can turn back to get more timing? The car requires 91 octane but I have 93 here and so if I'm paying for the extra octane I'd like to make use of it by bumping up timing to get a bit more pep. This car isn't supposed to be "fast" but I find it to be painfully slow. Thought this might be an easy option. I've already put on an exhaust and done a tune up so I'm not really going to get anything more out of this car with bolt-ons. (car came with an intake cone too... for what that's worth - nothing)

Kris Hansen

There is no way. If you start messing with the cam position sensors, you'll get errors as they relate to the crank sensor. It only takes about 8 degrees of timing change to trigger an error..

4Driver4

What you might do instead is to check cam timing to make sure it is set correctly. If your cam timing is off a few degrees it makes a huge different.

eightrac

Check and see if your manifold tuning valve is actually working. I bought my car and it wasn't opening fully causing the car to feel like it was gutless after 3K rpm. I freed up the linkage and now I get good power up to 6k+ rpm.

Here's some stuff I did over a weekend and got a few more ponies out of it when I changed the timing belt.

1. Port match your intake to the throttle body and to the heads.
2. Replace your AFC heads with AAH ones from any pre-1996 2.8L.
3. Replace all the stock leaky vacuum lines.
4. Pocket port the heads and enlarge the exhaust ports to match the manifolds.
5. Seafoam the hell out of it.

If you are really desperate and just can acquire a 1.8T trans (DJJ), swap that in. It's a huge gear reduction. I have one behind my 2.8 and it improved the acceleration by leaps and bounds. You'll be snapping you tach quick as **** in first and second.

honki24

Thanks for the input, guys. However, I'd still like to try the cam angle sensor, if I can. If I get an error I'll just clear the code and move it back, assuming it's easy enough. Anyone able to help locate it? (I don't think I'll adjust it 8 degrees... I was thinking more like 3 degrees)

As for the dual intake runner thing, that sounds good, what am I looking for to see if it's working? What do you mean by "freed up the linkage"? It does seem to die after 3K.

Side note, what do you guys gap at? Plugs said to gap at .41 but I didn't believe it so I gapped at .35... but then again I'm used to high boost cars that require less gap, so maybe I've gone in the wrong direction?

Kris Hansen

The gap out of the box should be fine. If you're used to high boost cars, that alone could be your problem. After spending a week with an R8 5.2, it took me 3 weeks to get re-adjusted to my A6 2.8.. Part of it is that they are so smooth. Part of it is that they just don't make all that much power, and the car is heavy.

I really don't think adjusting the timing will work, the ECU will think somehting is wrong, and compensate. Having said that, the 12v is known to respond well to traditional hot rod tricks.

honki24

Well, I'm used to high boost cars when it comes to plug gap. I'm in no way comparing this A4 to my Lancer. I don't expect the Audi to be NEARLY as fast. The boosted car comparison had nothing to do with power level. I suppose I'll increase the plug gap.

I am interested in learning more about the dual runner control. I assume there's some butterfly valve somewhere that swiches which set of runners is used? Where/how do I check this to be sure it's functioning?

mtroxel

Look on the back of the intake manifold. You'll see a diaphram and a little rod to the butterfly valve. Crank the throttle till you hit 4,700 RPM and you should see the diaphram contract. Make sure it's actually moving the butterfly valve, sometimes that rod can just come off.

honki24

Thanks man. I actually went out and poked around this weekend to fix some things I did run across the variable intake runner actuator thing. I noticed that it doesn't hold vacuum. Is it supposed to? If I put a vacuum pump on it and put some vacuum, the thing should pull the rod in and switch over, correct? I think that's the case and I think the diaphragm in mine is bad so it was essentially just a big vacuum leak. I yanked it out and basically set the variable intake runner linkage to somewhere in the middle for now. I'll see if I can grab a replacment. Anyone have any ideas on how to get a new carbon socket piece onto that linkage? I snapped the one that was on there, I thought it was plastic but now I think it's actually carbon. I don't know how to get a new one on there without breaking it too.

honki24

Now I've got to figure out if I can use VAG-COM to adjust my fuel or timing. I've got it fully installed and registered but this program is quite hard to use! Especially coming from the Japanese tuning market software that I'm more used to.

I read the manual but I'm not sure I'm much wiser for it.