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JohnInNH build: Pure Stage 2, RS-R DDS Coilovers

28K views 361 replies 28 participants last post by  JohnInNH 
#1 ·
My latest upgrades.

After 1.5 years EcuTec tuned and 32,000 miles I have decided to upgrade. I waited for the AMS RS600 upgrade to become available but got tired of waiting. Their RS600 kit will be more involved than the Pure turbos. The AMS kit may be better but the Pure Stage 2 meets my goal of 500 or more HP with pump gas.

Below is my list of parts & links, and the work requested. Go Auto Performance in Nashua NH will be doing the work and initial retune.

2018 Q50RS AWD build parts:

Change spark plugs: OEM?

Install Gates belt. P/N K060766A It's in my trunk

Install Pure upgraded turbos:


Install front Helical LSD:


Install RS-R DDS compatible coilovers:


HPFP ..AMS RA338:


LPFP. .. AMS:


One piece driveshaft:


Urethane Motor mounts:

 
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#213 ·
Nope only 90 no ethanol and some other lower octane. 90 was the highest. Uggg. All the local Mobile stations are now Irving stations. 2 a mile apart? I'll try to find another Mobile station that hasn't changed to an Irving station.
 
#215 ·
Ordered a new set of Pilot Sport 4S's today and will have the front end re-aligned as it drifts to the left a tad.

Sent an email to FI telling them i didn't get the X-pipe welded to fix the broken welds. Kevin is OK with that.

Sent an email to AMS to the tuner, Jake, introducing myself and gave him my contact info.

I'm running my 93 map now since I filled up with 16 gal of 93. I just need the starting to catch better, idle smoothed out, and a rough spot from 2850-3300 checked. I didn't expect the maps to be dialed in 100% on the road.

This thing is an absolute blast to drive. I need to be careful..the speed creeps up on me if I don't use CC. This baby wants to go. 😳😎
 
#216 ·
What happened to the FI welds? Broken at the x pipe?
 
#221 ·
FI has excellent customer service. It's drivable so no rush. But absolutely needs to be replaced. It may change my data logs as no 2 flow the same.
 
#222 ·
That's a bummer John, but at least they stand behind their product, which is one of the things I love about FI. Hopefully they can't get you in the build queue quickly and get it shipped out to you.

How are you liking your RS-R active coilovers? If I want a leisurely drive, the standard setting is pretty comfy, but I usually end up driving in Sport+ mode. It's good, but obviously, I wish it was a little bit tighter and stiffer. Does the normal setting with RS-R stay close to the factory normal or is it also stiffened up a good deal?
 
#224 ·
How are you liking your RS-R active coilovers? If I want a leisurely drive, the standard setting is pretty comfy, but I usually end up driving in Sport+ mode. It's good, but obviously, I wish it was a little bit tighter and stiffer. Does the normal setting with RS-R stay close to the factory normal or is it also stiffened up a good deal?
I'll chime in, since I have the RS-R C/Os on my AWD Q60 Red Sport since May 2020. Note: I lowered my Q's ride height one (1) inch. The RS-R C/Os have a manual dampener adjustment, and I have both front and rear settings @ 8/36, which is eight (8) clicks from "Full Soft". As for ride quality, in "Standard" mode, the suspension response is firmer than the stock Monroe DDS suspension, but still quite comfortable, which was also helped with changing from the Dumflats to Michelin A/S 3+'s. In "Sport" mode, the response is firmer still, but certainly not interlorable.

IMO, RS-R hit it "out of the park" with their choice of spring rates and dampener design.
 
#223 ·
Did you hear the leak or was that discovered while the car was on the lift?
 
#227 ·
Discovered on the lift. No sound or smell. From the looks, not a lot of exhaust is leaking from the splits.

It's drivable and can wait until they can get a replacement. I did tell Kevin it's not a rush. "At your earliest convenience" was how I worded it.

They are flat out filling customer orders. So I don't need it B4 inspection which is next year.
 
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#225 ·
I will probably go for the RS-R coilovers assuming I buy my car out at the end of the lease, but if I upgrade to them, it will be after the factory dampers wear out. They seem like a great upgrade. How does it align with the factory DDS setup? I'm guessing that we don't have 36 levels of adjustment from inside the car. Do you manually set what your base setting is and the DDS presets adjust from the base? Thanks for your review! I think it's going to be a great upgrade when I get to that point.

I can't wait to dump the Dumflops and switch over to A/S 3+. Michelin really has tires nailed. I can't think of a better tire I would want to use. When you buy Michelin's you know you're getting consistency. I tried Nitto's once on my '04 G35 Coupe and the rear end felt floaty and squishy at 70mph on the highway. I took it back to Discount Tire and had them put Michelins back on and the floatiness disappeared.
 
#226 ·
I will probably go for the RS-R coilovers assuming I buy my car out at the end of the lease, but if I upgrade to them, it will be after the factory dampers wear out. They seem like a great upgrade. How does it align with the factory DDS setup? I'm guessing that we don't have 36 levels of adjustment from inside the car. Do you manually set what your base setting is and the DDS presets adjust from the base? Thanks for your review! I think it's going to be a great upgrade when I get to that point.
The 8/36 dampener setting is the baseline setting at the C/O level, and represents "Standard" mode (no magnetic fluid energized). When I switch to "Sport", "Sport+", or "Personal"("Sport" for Steering/Suspension), the RS-Rs firm up accordingly. Somewhere I read the RS-R magnetic fluid changes the dampener setting about 1/2 of full scale, so about +18 clicks, which would place the setting @ 26/36 clicks in "Sport" mode, when starting from an initial setting of 8/36 clicks.

The big motivation for me on my AWD Q60 was the desire to lower the ride height, and that could have been done with lowering springs or C/Os. I chose C/Os because I had negative experiences with lowering springs on other vehicles, and I wanted to maintain ride quality, which is helped by the C/O matched shocks and springs.
 
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#228 ·
I'll probably stick my head under the car and inspect those welds just to be prudent.
 
#230 ·
My non DDS compatible is set at full hard up front and 6 from full hard for the rear.

DDS and non DDS are valved and sprung the same, I believe.

Yes, firmer than factory with sport setting, but not enough for me.

I am just reluctant to spend a stupid amount of money at this stage of my life to get a better setup. This car will most likely never see a track day.
 
#231 ·
Have you considered tweaking the camber /toe or maybe have the car corner balanced instead? You may go through tires a bit faster but it would certainly
give you far more responsive and immediate handling for a lot less money.
 
#234 ·
It is definitely firmer than factory sport mode.

Just not firm enough.

Body feels tight. It is just the suspension.

You just swapped yours to the RSR. Give it a while and you may notice you want more.
 
#235 ·
New Pilot Sport 4S's and front alignment today. Also rev 2 map from AMS to upload and data log.

A few bugs like the wrong key dongle # in the map file from AMS yesterday. That's fixed (hopefully when I upload it later today.)

Hopefully it will be dialed in b4 winter.
 
#237 ·
They turn around tune updates quickly in most cases. Usually 24 hours or less has been my experience.
 
#236 ·
New map uploaded..out for some logs. Alignment was a good thing. It tracks perfectly streight now. Tires are SMOOTH. We will see how they feel at 125.😉

I'm still out of power 15 hrs now. Generator is rapping away. (Diesel) LOUD! I keep the garage door closed to keep most of the noise down.
 
#239 ·
Maps upload as Jake fixed it on his end.

I'm on the 4th map. Cold start is a mess, but a little better on the last update. Still takes 1600' to settle down. Pops etc.

WOT pulls pop ECU faults random misfires P0300-00. Flat spots etc. It will take some time. Downshift in automatic has a problem for the first downshift. 900 RPM give it what used to force the downshift..no da, a bunch more fuel and it downshifts hard followed by normal shifting up n down. It's just that one spot.

Weekend is coming up, so hopefully I get a new map b4 Saturday.
 
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#240 ·
John
Does AMS know what ther source of all this trouble is coming from? I would assume its the AMS injectors causing problems since I highly doubt its the turbos. My only other guess would be one of the fuel pumps but I doubt it.
 
#241 ·
John
I would assume its the AMS injectors causing problems since I highly doubt its the turbos.
I agree. Wouldn’t be the first time tuners have had issues with the AMS Injectors. Although, this would be a first - AMS themselves having some tuning issues with the AMS Injectors (note and forewarning: they won’t ever blame it on their products or tuning though).

@JohnInNH - Looking forward to your honest review, journey, and results.
 
#242 ·
Dang John sometimes I can't help but admire your patience with this build, understandably you are one of the first adopters so tweaks/calibrations
are expected but it's not something I could put up with myself. lol
 
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#243 ·
In all reality I just think the tuning doesn't have the required # of revisions to address it yet.

It's very early to think anything is "wrong" yet.

Go auto spent 99.9% of the time using 100 octane fuel when I wish they spent all that dyno time with 93.

The 100 map was incredible. So now we are building the 93 map. I have confidence it will get sorted out. It's a lot better than it was and a good part of the RPM and torque demand areas pull like crazy.

I had to wait until the roads dried off b4 logging hits, otherwise I'd spin like crazy.

I can tell the potential is there. I'm at the 3rd or 4th revision I believe w/o checking to be sure. Way to early to bitc$.

I was at 13 or 14 revisions with Sebastian b4 the new turbos.
 
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#244 ·
Maybe the Level 10 built trans is making it hard to tune as well?
 
#245 ·
My replacement non-resonated X-pipe arrived this afternoon. It goes in Tuesday PM. I expect it will have some effect on the tuning so I will do more logging AFTER I get it put in, and send them to AMS to look at.

The latest map resolved the idle and starting issues. Now to dial in the WOT performance.

Hopefully it's not to loud and doesn't drone on the highway.

More later.
 
#246 ·
Why non resonated this time?
 
#249 ·
I believe so.
 
#251 ·
The resonators should be straight thru flow. I have not seen any other kind.

For the X part of the pipe they showed a video on their Youtube channel or IG Channel that just showed the merge point as open between the sides. Not anything like a DR Gas X pipe. Very simple design but obviously effective.
 
#254 ·
I sent AMS my last resonated X-pipe logs. 7 logs. I am still getting soot on my back bumper so someplace it's to rich. I'm sure we will get it worked out in a few new tweaked revisions of the map.

I told Jacob those 7 logs will be the last before I get the new X-pipe installed. I'll probably get a new map from him before it goes up on the lift.

The 7 logs have a good mix of driving with the exception of 5500+ RPM.

After the new pipe is in I can get better logs. Time is running out before the snow hits. Winter is knocking on the door. I've already had two hard frosts. Still no ice on the pond which is still very low. The last rain only gave me 3" of water. I'm down about 20" from full. The most severe drought since I have lived here.

I'm looking forward to getting the map dialed in. Hopefully before I put my snow tires on. 😳 I don't feel good about going 100+ MPH with them on.

I'll post how the non-resonated X-pipe sounds after it's on.... more later.
 
#275 ·
I don't know about you in the NE, but this year's summer drought was real. Despite the warmer weather we had this fall in Michigan, the leaves have turned quicker than I can ever remember.
 
#255 ·
I thought I recall hearing you say that AMS was thinking that one of your converters may be faulty so this could be causing flow issues on one side. I was also thinking you had AMS full downpipes. Did this get resolved? Im still not sold in the X pipe causing such a huge issue...
 
#256 ·
The design is straight through. And again I am saying it's improbable it's the X-Pipe. But something caused both welds to fail on one side.

TIG welding it will give me one of each. If there is no change I'll just have a different sounding exhaust.

But on the slim chance it helps it's a win. I may even like the change in sound. Time will tell.
 
#257 ·
Non-resonated X-pipe is in and I have a few miles on it now (data logging).

I prefer it, and it's quieter in Sport mode except "on throttle" at certain RPM's.

It's both quieter and louder. With the resonated X-pipe Sport mode was pretty loud and droned at highway speeds cruising. Now it's pretty quiet unless I put my foot into it.

So I now find Sport and Sport + an option I will use more. No longer droning on the highway just cruising along. The resonated X-pipe got old FAST due to the drone in Sport mode on the highway.

Yes, it is pretty loud at times. At 2 different RPM's and TPS's it rasps. So when I'm on it hard in automatic shift mode it's mellow throaty till it hits the magic spots and rasps briefly till the RPM changes.

Low throttle in Standard mode is a tad louder but not enough to even notice, unless the windows are down.

Bottom line I prefer it to the resonated X-pipe and now use Sport+ more often.

I did notice AFR differences till the ECU corrected it. From off throttle to back on throttle the AFR would hit 11.* vs 12.* for a second. That's the time my AFR is the lowest (very briefly). (Sorta like an accelerator pump would act in a carburetor)

More as I get some decent miles on it.
 
#261 ·
I am interested more in how the resonated X-pipe is louder at times than the non-resonated variant. Any chance you have some videos of the previous setup versus the new, non-resonated one? I had pretty much settled on a non-resonated X-pipe, but now I'm not sure haha.
 
#258 ·
Nice glad you are enjoying the resonated setup, I love me an aftermarket exhaust but highway drone at my cruising RPMs can be pretty dang tedious.
 
#259 ·
John went to a non-resonated X-pipe.
 
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