What I'm thinking about your plans for the car is this: you mention the intent to put the car into shape for SCCA competition. Are you thinking dedicated circuit track work or autocross? If it's track work you look to be in good shape with your setup plus the cams. I'm betting that you're looking at beefing up the valvetrain with stronger springs and a port/polish job. You've got all the breathing mods and depending on boost levels, you've likely got some headroom with your injectors too (I'd figure you're not tuned to run the injectors static at WOT). If that's the case, I'd raise the redline as much as possible based on the limitations of your build so you can maximize the flow of the turbo. That's especially important for autocross, as due to the lower speeds, you're doing mainly 1st and 2nd gear work, and it'd be easy for that turbo to bog down. Kick up the redline and you may be able to stay in first, hard on the boost, in some areas where you'd otherwise have to upshift and fall out of the powerband. Those cams shouldn't make your car too peaky but every bit helps, and being able to hold the boost and gear a few extra seconds could mean the difference between winning and losing. A few hundred more RPM, which shouldn't cause those cams to strangle the turbo, may be the icing you need to win, whether it's SCCA or a stoplight drag.

 

52's for a street car or for road racing is a huge waste, really a huge waste at 5k feet if you are in fact in CO.

You are better off with much smaller cams, at 650whp I am still running Schrick 252/260 cams. There have been plenty of other A4 owners that have tried to run 52's and every single one of them have sold them. You will have very little vacuum on the street because they have too much over lap. Even BobQ has done engine dyno testing of all the Cat cams and there really wasn't a huge gain by running 52's on anything less then a full out drag or dyno queen. You just lose too much low/mid range tq.

you might want to look at the 58's or the custom set Bob tested.



BTW if you are at 5k+ ft elevation, our 2 setups will be completely different power wise. Your car will spool much later and make less peak power because the high DA will cause that turbo to move less air by the time you hit redline. This means those huge cams will make the turbo spool up even slower, this means less power and an even smaller power band. Build your car with the parts that work best for where you use your car.

 

mike i love how modest you are about your beastly 650hp XD

"**** yeah im mike. **** yeah i run 650hp in my a4. What?"

 

Mike, only 650whp?

thats weak...

 

Yeah I know, which is why I am looking to hit 700-750awhp next year.

 

lol and what exactly does that include?

 

Upgrading to the HTA3586r pushing 45+psi, tuned for Q16 and upgrading to a larger setup of cams so I hit peak power around 8k. Problem right now is just getting a 01A transmission to hold 600+whp.

 

thanks for the input guys. I definitly know what mike is talking about with the tranny...... I'll look into the those 58's cams. I assume they are a noticable difference? As for uping the red-line, I planned on maybe getting to ~10k when I do the head and the stand alone ecu along with the block. Soooo much tuning.......

Hey mike what was the custom bob tested? Do you like the 58's or the Schrick cams you have?

 

I haven't used anything but the Schricks, they are just a mild set of cams which seemed to work great till I started pushing over 570whp.