Alright, I was reading on the FAQ forum about the air pump removal. I hollowed out my cats, and therefore removed my airpump. Does that mean that my 5th and 6th ports aren't opening now? If so, is there an instruction page so I can remove or wire those suckers open?

You have a S4, they open with backpressure. I don't know if you have enough backpressure to open them.

So, should I just get to them and find out?

if they are moving freely you should have enough backpressure to open them, if they are dirty and binding up then they might not be opening correctly



mike

What about when I put a straight pipe on it. Then would I need to wire them open?

how about this, what I am gonna do: put on whatever I'm gonna put on, then see if they work...if it doesn't, take necessary steps at that point...unless someone has specific specs on how much backpressure is needed, and how much backpressure is reduced by certain exhaust components

you need about 2psi of back pressure to open properly working 6 ports, any of the racing beat systems have enough back pressure to open the ports if they work properly



mike

Assuming the sleeves rotate freely,

you can put some grease on the actuator rods, take the car for a drive, and see if the grease has been disturbed. If the grease appears to be intact, there is not enough exhaust pressure to move them.



hugues -

or they are stuck



mike

would it work just as good to see the ports actuating from standing outside the car while someone revs it?

I believe the auxiliary ports open only under heavy load (kinda like the secondary injectors), so I am not sure they open when you are standing still. Maybe if you unplug the boost sensor, the ECU may be fooled and think it's under heavy load.



I am not sure about this at all.



hugues -

sorry, mine's an N/A

The boost sensor is on the NA (I don't know why it's called that way, maybe it would be better if it was called a pressure sensor, anyway it's intake manifold pressure)



BALDY:



Are the sleeves (auxiliary port valves) rotating freely (when you move the actuator rods by hand) ?

If they are not, then you'll have to "unstuck" them before anything else



If they are not stuck, then they probably work (a muffler should give you enough backpressure), but you can know for sure by putting stuff on the rods and see if the stuff got moved when you take a quick drive around



hugues -

mine work, I'm pretty sure I saw them moving when I had my wife sit in it and rev it high, and it runs great...after doing some reading, I am now confident that they will continue to work after adding a rb header, and hopefully aftermarket mufflers later



(anything work as good as rb mufflers, that cost less? I don't want to spend more on mufflers than on a header...)

For $289, you can get a Dynomax dual kit or Corksport stainless single kit and I don't think it would be that much less power than the RB. Most of your power will come from the mods to the cats (header).