Tipcke Repair & Performance

02/15/2026

I havent melted stainless together since April of 2023 and let me tell ya, It felt good to be back! Was also the first time I got to truly fabricate something at the new fab shop too. I cannot tell you how rewarding it was to finally start using this equipment and space that I have spent countless hours on getting setup and feel the relief of realizing it was all worth it. From being able to comfortably cut, flatten, and deburr pipes in one fluid motion, spinning up some simple trans mount spacers on the lathe, making slots in some 1/8 stainless flat stock for an adjustable support rod on the bridgeport, using the welding table for what it was actually purchased for (instead of just modifying my ice fishing sled), to even retiring the original vice that came with the bridgeport into one absolute unit of a tubing vice holder, it all really came together on this first project and i cannot even begin to tell you how much im looking forwards to starting to put some effort into the race car soon.

This C5 RS6 swapped S6 Avant came to me with an unbelievable amount of issues from the multiple hands it went though during its swap. Im happy to say they are all ironed out now and once the fresh clutch is broken in itll get switched to E85 and then these pipes can really sing.

Couple pics in the album of the journey.

Shared album · Tap to view!

06/06/2025

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted about this car and even longer since it’s been running but I promise everyone it’s not because I’m not doing anything with it.

Last post was about the head inserts/head lifting issue. This post is about more custom parts.

Finally have in my hands some end game rotating assm parts that took what felt like forever to produce. Custom spec pauter rods with 3/8 arp 625 bolts (have only ran 5/16 arp 2ks previously), small end of the rods have 22mm pin bushings as well as several mm wider, AMD pistons went through some final revisions to accommodate the 22mm pins and went all out with getting them anodized as well as DLC coated beef cake pins.

During a health check of the last engine I found the AZR block cracked, I bent almost every wrist pin, and the pin bushings were shot. Also for the first time ever the rod bearings were showing signs of contact.

I believe we are getting to the point that 70-80 psi of oil pressure isn’t enough so I have a very nice Dailey Engineering dry sump pump on the shelf to address this.

Ontop of all of this i have a nexus R5 and a next gen 7680 ready to go on as well as many other parts.

To add to all of this delay. Early last year i bought a garage condo and absolutely worked my ass off getting it setup. This will be solely used for fabrication on my car as well as customers cars when the time comes.

Long story short even though the car hasn’t ran for a couple years just know things are getting done in the background and this round of revisions should be an interesting one to say the least 😂

Vid of the first test fit in the comments.

01/13/2024

**GOOGLE ALBUM AT THE BOTTOM**

Once in a lifetime build/opportunity left the shop today after nearly 2 years of both physical and mental dedication. Was a massive learning experience for myself doing this type of work for a customer. Not many average people or repair shops realize what it takes behind the scenes to plan, organize, and facilitate a project like this and I feel like that is the reason many dont always succeed.

I am thankful the customer had the means to see this project through. He truly did not cut any corners and trusted me to do things my way even though the internet often times said other wise...

Here is a rundown of the build: Genuine B5 RS4. Girdled and stroked AZR with 10:1 pistons and pauter rods. Built 2.8 heads/cams with mild bowl blend and performance valve job. Custom from the ground up g25-550 mirrored kit with absolutely every aspect designed around proper volumetric efficiency. Torque factory y pipe and 4.5" intake, custom 3" upper to 2.75" lower inlets. Custom lower charge pipes. THE tuner intake with rs6 TB/TBB and the tuner charge pipes. SRM v4 intercoolers. CM850 clutch. SRM brushless pump and controller. 1300cc injectors.

My hands have touched every bolt holding this car together. Every component from suspension, braking, engine, drivetrain, turbo/exhaust system, etc was removed, cleaned, coated, replaced, or repaired on this thing. I even got to sort out some chewed electrical wires and lock pump hoses as well as some very interesting AC system issues that i had never seen before. This thing needed a ton of love and it got every bit of it.

All fab work and engine/trans building done in house. Head work done by Janderson Heads. Tuning done by Jordan @ Custom Performance Solutions.

Car ended up making 883awhp/771awtq right off the street. Would have been fun to make 900 but we are fuel limited now as the goal for this car was 800 "all in" for a glory pull. It is amazing what we achieved was by no means a glory pull and everything is perfectly happy at only 32psi. In a few years the car will be back for some cooling and fuel upgrades and we may see what it can really do then. For now its heading to Denver which is kind of a bummer but also a blessing as the drivetrain should last considerably longer and owner will still get to enjoy it.

Here is a google album of this car from the day it arrived till the day it left. Enjoy!

604 new items · Album by Levi Tipcke

12/08/2023

Huge development for the race car program! After lifting heads twice during the 22 season it was clear that something needed to be done. Either turn the car down and be happy with 1000whp or find a solution and keep pushing the platform. Guess what direction we decided to go 😂

The 2.7 has an incredible factory head bolt fastening design. Making nearly 1200whp on factory inserts with just arp 2000s is already extremely impressive compared to what some other platforms have to do by this point. That being said we are well into uncharted territory and it was time for a solution.

In other platforms the common thing to do is press fit some form of a tool steal "hat" into the head. With the 5v heads this is not possible due to spacial constraints between the intake valve springs along with needing a larger hole that starts eating away at the lifter bores.

The only logical solution was a harder material (through hardened tool steel), with a slightly larger OD than stock, along with a taller shoulder to help support the load. We also decided to remove the factory style octagon drive provisions and just have it be a straight through hole. Now there is a full 2.28mm contact area vs 1.7-1.9mm. It appears to have worked during this initial test fit!

Attached are various pictures to show old and new inserts as well as the machine work needed to be done to the head. Note the material starting to get removed from the lifter bores and just how tight everything is stacked together with these heads.
*Video of the official test fit will be in comments since Facebook sucks*

08/11/2023

Janderson Heads with the 💎💎 as per usual. Thank you as always.

07/25/2023

Officially stocked up on this stuff. Have 2 cases if DT40 not pictured.

07/17/2023

If anyone is looking for DRIVEN racing oil locally I am now a dealer. Will be stocking BR30/40, DT40, and XP7. Placing my first stock order this week. Pm me if you would like to save a couple bucks on a case or 2 compared to summit! The race car only gets XP7 and I've been extremely happy with how things have looked after 1100whp of abuse.

Picture of house built G25-550 kit going into a very special b5 soon (that will forsure be running driven racing oils).

06/05/2023

As much as I do not need or want to advertise I just wanted to let everyone know I have now made the investment to be able to service R-1234yf AC systems. Most dealerships charge $500-600 depending on refrigerant amount. I will be able to save a MINIMUM of $100 over that cost but likely more depending on the situation.

06/23/2022

Bit of an interesting job for anyone wondering if you can make a Mercracing heat exchanger fit on a 3.0T c6 a6. On these the factory heat exchanger sits behind the ac condenser. So condenser had to have the mounting tabs cut off, custom tabs bent up, and welded back on almost flush with the radiator. It didn't help that there car had been in a front end hit and the condenser was a bit twisted up. Brackets that came with the kit had to be modified. Overall very happy with the final fit as the bumper only took mild trimming and only the horns had to be relocated. There was great care and planning taken to ensure nothing would be rubbing together causing future issues. Factory coolant lines and power steering cooler went right back into place.

06/07/2022

That's a wrap on the full custom drag rear end! Even with having every single bushing being a track density poly last year I was still not happy with how it behaved. The rear lower control arm and knuckle bushings articulate quite a bit and I always felt like the poly bushings started to bind throughout the travel. While the poly was absolutely necessary over the factory rubber I just knew there had to be a better alternative. It was also very evident the old shock setup was never going to work at the track.

I ordered a JXB spherical control arm kit designed for the FRONT of the B5 S4 suspension figuring if I couldn't make it work I'd just use it on the front. Well with the help of my local machinist who I've used to make hundreds of one off miscellaneous things for this car we made it work! I paired the spherical bushing upgrade with a set of custom chromoly upper control arms and toe links all made by myself ofcourse. This car will still see as much street use as possible so every joint is sealed to hopefully give them some longevity.

The icing on the cake is a set of triple adjustable Viking performance coilovers. These are custom valved for my cars given corner weights and suspension motion ratio and designed for the drag strip. So awesome these guys are local and were extremely easy to work with.

There's some serious time involved with all of this and I have no doubt it will be one of the biggest changes that will help me reach my goals this year.

10/18/2021

last video for awhile!

Some tech talk about the car for those interested.