I really did buy the cheapest D2 S8 in Canada, sight unseen. The YouTube trope come to life.

Introducing my first gen 2001 Audi S8 4.2 V8 that will become an all season daily. I show off a few cool features about the infamous "Ronin" car and perform a compression test and Liqui Moly engine flush.
Featured tools:
Mityvac Compression Testing Kit - geni.us/mityvac-compression
Deep Well Compression Test Connector - geni.us/otc-comp-extension
Chapters:
00:00 - A masterpiece
01:48 - Purpose of the S8
03:38 - D2 background
05:52 - The pros
10:46 - The cons
13:54 - A really well done compression test
19:52 - Engine flush
21:42 - What's next

[@SCARSORGofficial]

Nice to see another Ming S8. Have owned an '03 since about 2015 that has been undergoing rehab of it's own after an unplanned meeting with a teenager in a Jeep. ;-) Will be following your journey. Good luck!

[@tomasmizerak8395]

I was a D2 owner. Looking forward to your work. Brings back great memories that i have with this car.

[@16Angelo10]

the ronin s8 is a delight of a car. i'm happy i found the channel, can't wait for more videos

[@t16incho]

Loved this project. Keep pushing.

[@A4orce84]

S8! I was close! Congrats sir, awesome car!

[@WEARES0BACK]

Good Luck! Such an awesome platform to work on. I've just bought an A8 D2 3.7L in the UK with 77,000 miles, drives like a dream and has a well documented and full service history, feel like I've hit the jackpot, only thing wrong with it (so far...) was a blown alternator.

[@highlandmalt6368]

Almost identical to mine, here in the UK, Scottish Highlands (apart from colour). One of the best looking 4 door saloons ever made. Same for me with the aluminium body, a steel bodied car if the same age could be challenging...great you have the original wheels, I have these too. And I'm on almost identical mileage (175,000 miles). I've owned/known this car for 10 years - they have a propensity to leak into the cabin, check the drains over the front arches and also where the HVAC passes through the firewall.

[@macthemec]

Fanciest car in the Hebrides i bet

[@davidferreira7243]

Looking forward tp watching you work on the S8. I've owned my 2001 S8 since 2020 and have been doing some of the maintenance repairs on your list. You might consider the Gruven aluminum intake manifold arms over the stock plastic ones. Also, the split armrest has two advantages; 1) the passenger armrest was used for the factory Motorola phone and 2) by having it split, both the driver and passenger can set the armrest to different heights for comfort.

[@FigureItAudi]

Hey David, thanks for watching and the info. Already have my little stash of Gruven parts ready to go :)

[@johngaffigan3003]

Is changing out the plastic intake manifold arms a tough repair? Audi seems to make most every repair very complex. On my 2001 D2, these aren’t moving freely.

[@davidferreira7243]

@@johngaffigan3003 Removing the plastic intake arms is pretty straight forward.

[@jfl-0]

Nice vidéo ! I hope that there will be a whole set of videos on this S8 🙏

[@ValentinEbert]

im so happy that i found one more Audi D2 lover

[@unprofessionalmechanic8466]

Hi thanks for the video. I absolutely love how clean and orginized your garage is. Not to hold anything against LM engine flush, but it does not have enough magic to cean up that varnish, not in single application anyway .

[@macthemec]

I use LM engine flush but I’m always open to try new products, is there one you can recommend me trying out?

[@klosar80]

Looking forward seeing work you do.I got 2001 s8 d2 silver

[@Jmoraa]

If you want better braking performance get you some D3 S8 or A8 front calipers🙂. Those original brembos aren’t the best

[@efradiesel]

Hi! The D2 S8 with 345mm brembos, come with a spindle for radial calipers (the bolt attaches de spindle from back to the front insted from inside to outside) and they are not compatible with any other D2 or D3 calipers. Every other D2 (any without brembos) is compatible with the mods you mention without replacing the spindle. In fact my Facelift S8 (European version, produced in July 1999) that comes from factory with the HP2 calipers with 323mm discs (instead of the brembos), already has the 360mm from the D3.

[@jouleskelvin]

That a VW sign? Nice car! Looking forward to seeing you refurbishing the engine. 👍🏁

[@auditech73]

Really enjoying your content. I’ve been watching for a while. Just a little info. The right side or passenger side is bank one. The left or drivers side is bank two. Starting at the front of the engine, bank one is cylinders, 1 2 3 4 and bank two is 5 6 7 8.

[@jdmimportlogistics]

Wow great channel very organized! Will need to check out your earlier videos. 93' UrS4 and 87' 4Kq CS here.

[@Kyle900t]

Hi, looking forward to this! I've always liked that S8, very sleek. Hopefully the project doesn't drain the wallet too much.

[@FigureItAudi]

Lol, as a small fry youtuber like me, the wallet is already pre-drained. I definitely need to get resourceful and be pragmatic about this car. I'm breaking parts (unavoidably) every day already in the tear down. But, I am enjoying getting into it so far.

[@jenny80myles]

What a beautiful car!

[@andywhipp]

Thank you for yoru B6S4 video. Mine was leaking every fluid but brake fluid. I intregrated many of you suggestions and modifications for reliabilty. My big surprise was the D2 S8. That is my other car! Have had it for 12 years and 360,000 km now at 520,000. Perhaps we are related somehow (lol). The S8 structure and build quality have the b6s4 beat by a mile.I believe it is more reliable and much easier to work on. The only let down is that transmission. My A-drum let go at 320, complete rebuid and now at 520 acting up again. If you do an O1E swap , so will I ! As for rust , check those subframes! Keep posting great stuff!

[@FigureItAudi]

Thanks Andy, and yeah what a coincidence. Money definitely IS an object so the 01E suggestion is certainly top of mind but some pragmatic decisions will need to be made that will pit fun vs. purpose. We'll see pretty soon.

[@J0SH1213]

I have a 2001 A8 L, and to say the least my engine bay looked the same as yours granted I only paid $3000 for it at a local auction, but it is at 200k miles. the coolant leak issue was from the OE plastic pipe going to the oil cooler and had to use a long allen key to remove the whole assembly (sockets would not fit). it took me about 4 months of work and research but finally got that sorted out along with the timing and lots of cleaning. It has treated me very well since literally new years eve lol. Anyways hoping to use this build series as a point of reference.

[@Maver1cks]

That is not leather stiching on the dashboard. Its just a softer plastic. There are 3 lederpaket that you could buy along with this car as new, this one has lederpaket 1. Just a simple search on the google would help you understand. Lederpaket 3 was installed on maybe 1% of the cars. Yep, its rare…

[@sylvainr.399]

Regarding your #7 oil on the plug, it most likely is the plug tube gasket that would be hard as a rock -and you’ll be replacing it when you replace your valve cover gaskets. Did mine, problem gone! Good luck!

[@sylvainr.399]

Sorry, had not heard you point it out later in the video!!!

[@tommygogh4243]

I really look forward to this project, I own a d2 S8 from 2000. Have done many mechanical work on it, will help if needed. There are some case reports, and it also happened to me while driving on the highway, is that one of the valve springs just broke out of nowhere when flooring it.

[@FigureItAudi]

Cool, thanks for tuning in Tommy. I'm still going through the engine and trans pull as we speak so we'll see what mysteries lurk within the long block soon.

[@tommygogh4243]

You mentioned you got the car also for being aluminium and the winter months. The subframes are however made out of steel and they tend to rust, especially the rear subframe. If you go all out on this project, I would recommend getting the subframes out and coat with fresh paint 👍 I also don’t think the mirrors are original, because original mirrors have plastic around the glass and have a dimming system at night. The rear shades are not standard, all options. Without option there would be a cupholder at the dash instead. Have you tried whether the windshield fluidspray works? They tend to fail and you have to get the bumper away to replace it And also, very pitty, at the local junkyard here we have a s8 sitting around with very nice black sportseats in mint condition. You could just swap them for the comfort seats, unfortunately the junkyard is here in the Netherlands 😅 Can’t wait for a new video 😁

[@FigureItAudi]

@@tommygogh4243 You're a mind reader, is all I'll say for now. You'll see more about it in the next instalment.

[@WarheadBMW]

Nice numbers! I am still waiting to hear what the S4 has for compression.

[@FigureItAudi]

Me too, but I won't be touching the S4 till February or later, depending on how the S8 progresses. I have a strict new "1 car must be drivable at all times" rule.

[@WarheadBMW]

@@FigureItAudi that's a good rule and my wife appreciates me following something similar. I hope you do a leak down test too at some point. On both the S4 and S8.

[@bryanlynch2556]

I bought an 01 S8 black on black from the same gentleman in NB in 2020 for $2500.

[@WhoooshS4]

Hello, I just stumbled on your video while researching something else! I look forward to watching other videos on your channel. I'm a 2003 Ming Blue S8 owner. All options except the solar sunroof, I'm jealous! I haven't watched everything, so I'm not sure how far you've gotten, but have you considered tasteful mods? I have a Unitronic Stage 1 ECU Tune, K&N Intake, Custom Perf Exhaust, and the car dynos in at about 390hp currently. I have a Tweetler Performance Throttle body in mind as soon as it's available, so that should add another 20-25hp (so they say). I've been owning/driving various Audi Models since '93, so I have a bit of experience with them. I owned a UrS6, 550ish hp that I never should have gotten rid of. I regret it every day (long story). You're probably aware, but being in Canada, you can order almost anything for the car from Audi Heritage in Europe. They'll ship to Canada/Mexico, but not to the USA. It would be great to catch up offline somehow. I also enjoy my 60s muscle cars, Audis are my daily drivers!

[@FigureItAudi]

Hey, thanks for checking in. My S8 project is about to begin filming again now that the S4 is parked for this winter, if you can call it that. There's still much more tear down and inspection to go, even with the engine and trans already pulled. I plan to go a bit more the restomod route and hopefully won't need to depend on Audi Tradition too much. Sounds like you've had and have some great cars - we all regret the ones we let go early on and I've got one (not an Audi, actually) that I'm determined to get back into the stable in the future. All a part of the enthusiast journey.

[@donnys2965]

hi from saskatchewan, im surprised the rust isnt worse. Great car!

[@FigureItAudi]

Thanks for checkin' in! Yeah, from what I can see, the car travelled from Alberta to Ontario for a number of years (and I hear their roads are REALLY bad) before spending more time out east. A real testament to the construction of these cars. That said, the subframes are no bueno. This project will turn into more of a restoration in the coming months.

[@donnys2965]

@@FigureItAudi i bought an 2010 wrx about 10 years ago. It spent 2 years in Quebec and the rust was horrible (subaru paint sucks). My 2006 A3 (2.0T manual) is amazing, I'm an audi fan boy now. Can't wait to see more of the channel. Stay warm!

[@Kiss__Kiss]

RONIN Baby!!!!!

[@Pitman556]

This engine is almost identical to the 4.2 bfm from the 2004 a8. Tweetler performance knows a mod to get these to 8500rpm

[@carlmillis9522]

I have two of these

[@sergeihanush2262]

quick jack has extension for longer cars. Double check it

[@FigureItAudi]

Yeah, it's no good. That extension only provides 3 extra inches per side, which is kind of a joke. All good, I've got a solution in the works.

[@Akilois1001gs]

I got myself an 02 in July. The timing chain is now making a horrendous noise since it has gotten cold. Someone help

[@FigureItAudi]

Hey Billy - It's a belt on both the accessory pulleys and the timing gears but technically the cams are joined by chains. Are you positive where the noise is coming from? I have a new video on the S8 coming out this weekend that will help you see what might be going on. But you know...be careful if you suspect the timing is in jeopardy.

[@Akilois1001gs]

@@FigureItAudi thanks man. I really think it’s the guides. I’m stoked I found your channel though thank you so much for doing all of this and taking the time to reply!!

[@bapr3887]

First in my life i see S8 D2 with these seats. Somebody stole your recaros mate.

[@FigureItAudi]

Recaro also manufactured these comfort seats but you're right, I do feel robbed of how sweet the interior would be with the sports. My only guess is that the original buyer spec'd out of them after opting in to more of the comfort options. Who knows though - one day I could swap in a set.

[@bapr3887]

@@FigureItAudi In EU S8 D2 had only sport recaros option but with variety of colours and upholstery. S8 D2 in EU = sport recaros. Myself i have black full leather recaros in my beloved oem S8 d2 Fl with 6 gear manual getrag. :P

[@artokamppi8233]

Chek oilpump bearing.

[@Pitman556]

I have a supercharger kit for this car using a procharger d1sc. If you are interested let me know

[@FigureItAudi]

DM me @figureitaudi on IG please

[@corbettgeldart3207]

G'Day Mate, I am also in Alberta, just SE of Edmonton and I also just resurrected a 2003 A8L. I've had it 1 year, it is currently down for some more maintenance work. Mine now has 128000kms. I would Love to connect, share resources if possible. Send me a message ! Cheers -Corbett-

[@shelbymccaul6505]

O1E…

[@Kiss__Kiss]

Exactly... With the Diesel gearing(If that can be mated, to the naturally aspirated engines).

[@jessergarcia7325]

Do u still have the s4 25q.?

[@FigureItAudi]

Yeah man, it's the thing under the cover in the back.

[@MD-gk4uh]

So you learned the hard way not to trash your "good" cars by modding them, just for youtube. Buy a cheap "project car" and you get a plenty "projects" and you don't have to worry bout trashing it with some "chip" modes.