Custom Tuned the Beast!

[sx3mac]

So yesterday I was excited to take my beast to a buddies shop of mine down in Jacksonville, FL. Finally the beast is about to get tuned professionally. Previously I have gutted the DP and installed test pipes in replace of my cats.
Well first off the professional tuner and YES I mean professional is Steve "MASE" Mason of MASE Engineering. This endeavor started late on Tuesday evening with this being Mase's first RS6. He was truly excited because he knew how rare it is to come across these machines. Well after about 5 long hours numerous pulls on the dyno and a nice break at chick-fil-a we were finally done and happy with our results.
The average of the first couple of baseline pulls were a little disheartening when she only made about 315hp/320ftlbs, but he stated that his DYNO Dynamics Dynometer ran a little low. Anyways from what I have read about 30% was lost through the driveline, so that put my numbers close to the money. Again we ran a couple of pulls to get a baseline.
After a bunch of logs we were finished around 1030. We decided to go with a conservative tune and left the PSI at 12 pounds of boost, leaving room for me to come back later and turn her up a little more if I wanted to. With this and a combination of other aspects changed to the tune, the finally results were 395hp/425ftlbs. That was an increase to the wheels of 80hp and over 100ftlbs of torque. A test drive followed and it was like an all new animal now. I want to say again this was with a conservative tune, not trying to push it to the max.
Mase is a phenomenal tuning mastermind, from spending time to educate me on the steps of what he was engineering to the time and dedication he takes to have perfection with every tune is what sets him apart from the rest. If anyone else is interested in a truly custom tune to their RS6 I have attached a link below to his site. Not only does he have a facility in Northern Florida to tune, but he also will travel around the world to do custom tunes to multiple vehicles. He has been mentioned in many Magazine articles around the world. I will post pictures later of the tune, if you want your vehicle to be MASED the link is below.

http://maseengineering.com/

[ttboost]

Congrats. I think your tune and dyno numbers are right in line with the majority. I seem to recall my car making 317/360 on a Mustang dyno, bone stock. And my tuner has quite a few RS6 dyno's and they are all in this area. My stage 1 flash has me at 400/460 currently on the same dyno, but I don't seem to be holding boost throughout my range, so I know I need wastegates. But feel good about your car, it runs well!!!

[alrightroad]

Your beast is famous now...
https://twitter.com/#!/maseengineering/media/slideshow?url=http%3A%2F%2Finstagr.am%2Fp%2FII-SoOSBr2%2F

[sx3mac]

I was trying to find out, do you know what boost your tune is pushing you at, because when comparing tunes I would like to be able to compare something similar.

[ttboost]

Supposed to be a 1bar tune. Will peak at 1.1 bar or so for about 1000rpm, then start dropping off significantly...down to almost stock at redline...again, this is caused by the stock (weak) waste gates...not the tune.

[kday]

Can you elaborate on the wastegate problem? If they were too small I'd expect problems with too much boost, not an unwanted tapering off.

How are we for fuel at high RPMs and high boost? Could that be the limit?

[ttboost]

Not too small...springs get weak. At higher RPM's the wastegate springs are not strong enough to keep them shut, thus the flapper is kind of fluttering. Some are better than others. At .8 or .9 bar, they are OK, at higher boost levels they won't stay shut all the way. A stronger spring will help you maintain steady boost over a longer period.

[JCviggen]

Not too small...springs get weak. At higher RPM's the wastegate springs are not strong enough to keep them shut, thus the flapper is kind of fluttering. Some are better than others. At .8 or .9 bar, they are OK, at higher boost levels they won't stay shut all the way. A stronger spring will help you maintain steady boost over a longer period.

A tiny bit stronger would be OK but don't go and double the actuator's strength. Spiking becomes an issue pretty quickly, and the turbos only live for a long time if you don't over-spin them by a large amount on a daily basis. From what I've been told by one of the biggest experts on these cars in Europe a flat 1.0 bar tune is about ideal for stock turbos. You can wring more torque out of them by spiking higher but it's not good for anything and doesn't make the car faster as a whole.

Dyno-ing stock boost vs tuned it quickly became apparent to me that the power drop at high rpm sets in mostly because of temperature not so much the actual boost level. At 6K+ the stock map had more power than remapped even though boost was lower. This was on a proper dyno with very strong cooling, but I expect this to be less relevant on the street where cooling is more plentiful (assuming you're not in a hot climate)

[ttboost]

I agree that heat soak is a big issue with these cars and due to that, you will see a significant power loss. I want stronger springs, not so I can make 1.5bar, but only so I can maintain boost all the way past 4500-5k where my boost starts to fall off. And when I add Meth, I can add more timing and get more power with the same 1 bar of boost...all the way to 6k...

[JCviggen]

I'd guesstimate a 2psi stronger actuator (than new...not the old tired ones) would go a long way, but very important is the way the boost curve is programmed. If it's more linear and "gentle" it'll hold better than when boost comes in hard and high. Once the gates are wide open it's not easy getting them closed again. (probably they don't need to fully close actually but at least a bit more than what the stock actuators will manage) It's just easy to overdo these things and shoot past your target. Doesn't help that our turbos are buried under the engine - trial and error isn't a good way in this case.