a S8 followed me home on St. paddys ........... mild s8 build
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heading over to Stuttgart Germany in the morning but couldn't walk away from the shop not knowing what is going on with the S8 suspension. :beer:
A. - strut swaps on an S8 are surprisingly easy
B - struts swaps on an S8 are surprisingly not budget friendly (okay not a big shocker)
C - the issues of the low low car appears to be fixed but...............
D - the dash is still a xmas tree and it seems i somehow managed to create a leak at the coolant tank while swapping struts
no idea/time to work up a game plan for the xmas tree dash till i am back in the shop but did setup to get a new coolant tank in bound.
oh oh.......... forgot the most painful part of all this. per the norm for us we ordered a suspension arm kit from ECS. turns out somehow a lot of wires got crossed and ended up with a lower arm in the wrong bag/part number and 2 left upper front arms...... so basically ecs sent about 50% the correct parts but not enough to service one side of the car completely. so be warned that having your part # match the order isn't enough, you need to physically verify each part as this kind of stuff can make a project much less fun.
with luck we will get the mixed up parts corrected and the other issues taken care of in time to make a few drylake passes in the next round as its the last one for the year.
A. - strut swaps on an S8 are surprisingly easy
B - struts swaps on an S8 are surprisingly not budget friendly (okay not a big shocker)
C - the issues of the low low car appears to be fixed but...............
D - the dash is still a xmas tree and it seems i somehow managed to create a leak at the coolant tank while swapping struts
no idea/time to work up a game plan for the xmas tree dash till i am back in the shop but did setup to get a new coolant tank in bound.
oh oh.......... forgot the most painful part of all this. per the norm for us we ordered a suspension arm kit from ECS. turns out somehow a lot of wires got crossed and ended up with a lower arm in the wrong bag/part number and 2 left upper front arms...... so basically ecs sent about 50% the correct parts but not enough to service one side of the car completely. so be warned that having your part # match the order isn't enough, you need to physically verify each part as this kind of stuff can make a project much less fun.
with luck we will get the mixed up parts corrected and the other issues taken care of in time to make a few drylake passes in the next round as its the last one for the year.
couple pics ............
grabbed a quick photo of the car with zero air in the front struts......
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this had to be one of the easiest strut swaps i have ever done..........
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kind of funny how this worked out........ 3 of 1 style arm and 1 of another........ needed 2 of each. all kinds of things went wrong with this order and its ongoing. hope to have things corrected any day now
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came back to the shop with inspiration to get back into some projects after a visit to a few places a touch into car stuff
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grabbed a quick photo of the car with zero air in the front struts......
this had to be one of the easiest strut swaps i have ever done..........
kind of funny how this worked out........ 3 of 1 style arm and 1 of another........ needed 2 of each. all kinds of things went wrong with this order and its ongoing. hope to have things corrected any day now
came back to the shop with inspiration to get back into some projects after a visit to a few places a touch into car stuff
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Nice find.
time has come to get under way with addressing a few issues........ first an oil leak, 2nd vacuum leaks and 3rd...... a few mods.
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getting the front off was quick and easy aside from a need for about 4 extra hands
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this was the hardest part of getting the bumper front end into "service mode"...... it holds the corner of the core support to the fender and the nut is on the inner wheel well side and not so easy to access
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once the core support was moved forward all the sensors on the front of the manifold can be reached, note there are 2 bolts holding the knock sensors to the manifold that need to be removed before you can lift the manifold off the motor.
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with the manifold out..... its starting to reveal just how long/bad the oil leak is
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looks like a classic case of the seal for the oil filter housing to motor leak...... all this work to access/replace 20 buks in seals
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since the intake had to be removed, it will get a full cleaning along with the heads. the carbon buildup is lower than i had expected but more than acceptable.
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getting the front off was quick and easy aside from a need for about 4 extra hands
this was the hardest part of getting the bumper front end into "service mode"...... it holds the corner of the core support to the fender and the nut is on the inner wheel well side and not so easy to access
once the core support was moved forward all the sensors on the front of the manifold can be reached, note there are 2 bolts holding the knock sensors to the manifold that need to be removed before you can lift the manifold off the motor.
with the manifold out..... its starting to reveal just how long/bad the oil leak is
looks like a classic case of the seal for the oil filter housing to motor leak...... all this work to access/replace 20 buks in seals
since the intake had to be removed, it will get a full cleaning along with the heads. the carbon buildup is lower than i had expected but more than acceptable.
not easy using a potato-phone to get detailed photos but the idea is there........... lots of carbon build up. id guess each intake runner was about .250" smaller in DIA due to carbon build up.
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the tools i found best to work on getting the carbon out
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spent a lot of time looking like this.......
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one big problem for this service was moving the motor to close cylinders for the service. solution our team came up with was to make a custom strap wrench to move the crank safely.
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hard to see but the tool fits in the limited space and is easy to use
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this is the seal for the oil filter housing to the top of the crank case......... it was the main reason for taking the motor apart due to the annoying leak it had become.
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once the cylinders were cleaned focused on a few other items like plugs, new coils and some other tweaks.....
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while waiting for the chems to soak on the carbon i popped out the HVLP gun and did this since i cant find real OE euro bumper inserts.
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final part of the SAI update was to cap the air box.......... turns out a 16oz coors cap fits perfectly...... and its aluminum so the cars keeping true to its roots.
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after the test drive last night i cant quiet explain how the car drives aside from its a whole new beast...... this carbon issue really kills these motors performance. car was fast before but now its wild fast..... wish we had dyno time before doing this service as the butt dyno says big change. at some point we will get this car on rollers and see how the Malone Tuning software is doing but i am going to guess its doing well.
cars off to SEMA in a few hours, maybe some of the guys around here will recognize the car and come say hello.
the tools i found best to work on getting the carbon out
spent a lot of time looking like this.......
one big problem for this service was moving the motor to close cylinders for the service. solution our team came up with was to make a custom strap wrench to move the crank safely.
hard to see but the tool fits in the limited space and is easy to use
this is the seal for the oil filter housing to the top of the crank case......... it was the main reason for taking the motor apart due to the annoying leak it had become.
once the cylinders were cleaned focused on a few other items like plugs, new coils and some other tweaks.....
while waiting for the chems to soak on the carbon i popped out the HVLP gun and did this since i cant find real OE euro bumper inserts.
final part of the SAI update was to cap the air box.......... turns out a 16oz coors cap fits perfectly...... and its aluminum so the cars keeping true to its roots.
after the test drive last night i cant quiet explain how the car drives aside from its a whole new beast...... this carbon issue really kills these motors performance. car was fast before but now its wild fast..... wish we had dyno time before doing this service as the butt dyno says big change. at some point we will get this car on rollers and see how the Malone Tuning software is doing but i am going to guess its doing well.
cars off to SEMA in a few hours, maybe some of the guys around here will recognize the car and come say hello.
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741 Posts
That’s excellent. What mods did you do?
over 2 weeks we took the car from LA to Vegas to Phoenix. zero issues and an overall average of 20.2 mpg........... cant call that bad for a v10. :beer:
the car has made a few solid dry lake passes and has proven rock solid around 140mph.... after the next round of work the car will be going back to the dry lake/track for more runs. there is a ton of power yet to be let loose.
the car has made a few solid dry lake passes and has proven rock solid around 140mph.... after the next round of work the car will be going back to the dry lake/track for more runs. there is a ton of power yet to be let loose.
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741 Posts
Have you done a tune to the car?
Hello 0-60, yes we are working with Malone tuning post #15 talked about getting tuning going. have you dealt with tuning these 5.2 ltr motors?
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No but i have heard good things about them. I love what you have done with the car so far. I was going to buy one locally but when i saw the prices for the front replacement struts i was like no thanks lol.
eh......... everything has a cost. the struts are cake to change and really not that much vs. performance struts/springs cost. more a mild sticker shock. our shop truck costs a ton more to keep on the road and its just a big diesel tow rig. struts last what.... 70-120k miles of use.... math says per mile vs. cost no so bad. now the biggest cost so far is me flipping about dings......... that aluminum body isn't going to protect itself! :beer:
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I understand, but personally I would rather have a 08 E60 M5
you had me at m5!......... actually Ive have had a few........ they are great cars! just wanted to do something a bit different this time around. either way your winning! are you finding cars locally in Bahrain or getting them shipped in?
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Locally bud, cant import vehicles older than 5 years any more. the S8 came up as there is one for sale with less than 50k miles on the clock for a very cheap price, Something like 12-13k USD. That made me look into maintenance items and mods etc before considering the car.
really, 5 year cap on import. i helped with sending 2x mk2 golf's to dhahran a while back, i know its not the same area but close. maybe laws are different there. also sold a car/shipped to dubui with zero issues but i really don't know how/if it was setup for street use upon arrival. either way ......... a really neat area to get out and drive!
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Dubai you can send any more year car, mk2 is more than 25-30 years old so that is allowed to be imported.
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