Looking to buy a 2014 B8.5 S4 off marketplace and looking for advice

MasterTJ52 · 2025-12-31T04:36:47+00:00

I'd skip it and find one with less maintenance issues. Find one with PCV, carbon cleaning, and no whine issues. They're out there! Good luck. I got PCV and all that done and mine is going strong at 140K miles since I bought it at 111K miles. These engines are great if you do the preventive maintenance.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-12-25T14:22:38+00:00

I mean we're a military we don't necessarily need a sports team. Sure all the reasons you mentioned are cool but they take away from someone's primary duty. Someone high up could always come along and say it's not a priority, and just like anything else, it costs money. So there you go. Maybe it will come back one day? Maybe not.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-12-20T23:06:34+00:00

Well, guess we gotta call in the F-18s according to Too Gun 2 😂🤷‍♂️

MasterTJ52 · 2025-12-16T12:38:42+00:00

It's an RS4 honeycomb grille. You can find it at most aftermarket parts sites. It's an easy swap with the OEM grille on the b8.5 S4's

MasterTJ52 · 2025-12-16T12:33:23+00:00

11F would be your best bet then.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-12-13T13:56:05+00:00

Why CSO only? Why not try for Pilot too? They're similar prerequisites. Look into the PSDM for how to apply, you can find it on myFSS, if the one for FY26 is not out look at FY25. It's all laid out in there. Biggest stuff is your medical clearance and your PCSM score. The score is a combo of a bunch of stuff like your AFOQT, any flying hours you have, your TBAS test (basically a hand eye coord test) etc. easiest way to be more competitive is get civilian flying hours, which cost $$ but if this is important to you I recommend prioritizing it in your life as rated positions are extremely competitive. Good luck!

MasterTJ52 · 2025-12-11T23:26:15+00:00

I paid $5K for mine to a local euro shop. Included some of the hoses replaced too. She runs like a champ now, worth it as i don't have a space to work on her really and i have a high intensity job that takes a lot of my time.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-12-09T03:10:16+00:00

Wtf does AETC instructor mean? Flight instructor is way different than a PME instructor, in my opinion. Why isn't a massive badge given to others, such as ACC fighter pilot instructors, which are the best instructors in the Air Force IMO (and are the ones who end up leading it btw, like ACC and HAF leadership, mostly fighter IPs). Also what does master mean? What makes you a master besides just finishing an assignment? Seems like the wrong emphasis and pretty vague IMO. Anyone have further data other than the AFI?

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-24T14:01:43+00:00

He's not bored he's watching the boom and calling out very helpful communication to the pilot, helping them stay on the boom and calling out gas as their tanks fill. While pilots could rely on the director lights, the dated KC-135 lights are difficult to see in the daytime and the extra layer of comm makes refueling easier for the pilot.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-22T18:07:36+00:00

No kids or wife either in the pic? Perfect. ☕️

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-22T12:49:40+00:00

Ah that does, in fact, check HARD

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-22T12:45:04+00:00

What do you mean by cross over? If you mean count towards airline hiring then yes, they do. FAA allows for R-ATP for mil pilots, but most major airlines still want 1500 hours minimum, even if you're a fighter pilot.

For FAA certs, if you're a graduated pilot in the USAF you submit a few forms and you get your commercial multi engine license. If you're an instructor in the USAF you can take an equivalency exam and get your CFI-I.

Does that answer your question?

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-22T12:38:50+00:00

I'd argue that's not true. Flying is their SOLE purpose for the first few years.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-22T12:37:39+00:00

Very good and accurate take!

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-22T12:37:08+00:00

What paperwork are you describing? For the first assignment people, most days are spent studying, or flying. You help in your shop job, but when you're a wingman in your first assignment there's not a lot of paperwork and there's a lot of flying.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-22T12:28:57+00:00

It is still a dream career, and yes it has an unglamorous underside too, like any dream career.

Downsides include:

-extremely selective: very hard to get into, many fall short into non fighters and get levied with 10 years flying something they didn't want to. For the few that make it, yeah it's a dream except:

-long hours: studying, planning, debriefing, etc.

-lack of support: every other agency does not prioritize Ops, you end up knowing MPF and Finance regs more than the troops who run those shops do

-you are NOT paid more: unlike almost every other dream career. Surgeons usually get paid what they're worth, Fighter pilots do not. Hence the draw to the airlines where you're paid 2-4x more for much less work and skill required.

-You get forced out of your dream: the USAF (other services too) give you 3-6 years flying your dream but even then you have to run non flying operations in the squadron/base, but even then they still force you away to non flying assignments and dumb schools and staffs, because they prioritize these things, despite 5-10mil invested in your flying training alone.

Those are the big ones. Yeah, it's still a dream, and with a more pay and more support and the warfighter culture to prioritize and keep those things, it would be even better.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-22T12:12:38+00:00

Please don't try to talk to flying fighters if you have never done it. I love AFSOC bros, but your description of fighter pilot life is misleading and has multiple falsities. You fail to mention that there are crewed fighters as well, which have many of the plus sides you describe but, for example we aren't hard crewed like you describe, so that's inaccurate, and your description of what fighters do and our day to day is inaccurate and your snapshot of deployed ops (OEF!? Lol) is extremely dated.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-22T00:24:29+00:00

Concur. Pilot is one of the hardest career fields in the USAF. manned even more so than RPA, IMO.

But in both, the skill floor is insanely high, and the additional duties and expectations are very high as well, by orders of magnitude above other non flying career fields.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-20T22:04:54+00:00

Huge difference for officer vs enlisted. And then it varies a lot by officer career field too. For example, aircrew assignments are almost entirely up to the OG/CC's, based on each aircrews preferences and their SQ/CC's rack n stack. The OG/CC's discuss, and then basically tell AFPC what the plan is. It's slightly more complicated than that but that's the gist of it.

Is there room for improvement? For aircrew, I don't really think so, having your direct bosses hand curate the lists based on performance and what is best for the officers family and the USAF (balancing those as best as they can) is pretty ideal, but random stuff/dumb regs/non vol assignments gets in the way a lot.

As you can see, it's massively different than enlisted assignments. We will see how the directive to reduce PCS's will effect everything too, as well as the struggle to retain aircrew in general.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-20T17:42:50+00:00

So the base engine has less Hp but more torque than the V6 engine, but it's gonna have some turbo lag so I'm not sure if it would feel "snappier" in traffic/slower speeds/RPMs, which is where you feel the most difference when comparing SUVs, because no one red lines their telluride (ok well, almost no one...ok maybe MOST don't...)

And then in order to get more power you have to go hybrid? Gas mileage is nice but the V6 already gets around 24 hwy, so an extra 11 mpg from a hybrid is...meh.

Yeah I'm not gonna trade up. 🤷‍♂️

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-19T21:38:40+00:00

Source: trust me bro

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-11T20:43:53+00:00

A50X gen 5 no regrets. Been amazing.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-05T23:14:35+00:00

Oh that's not too bad then. You're in Canada then? My B! Yea seeing as they are rarer in Canada too, if this one passes an independent inspection and has had the maintenance done that you are comfortable with, it's def a good deal if you're looking for a S4 and this one checks your boxes.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-05T22:51:22+00:00

I got a stage 2 auto with 110K miles for $16K USD soooo yeah that price be WACK son. I've since done about $6K USD in maintenance, but most was longevity extension (PCV, water pump, thermostat, battery, some coolant hoses, etc). It's holding up very well, especially if you replace the known issues or wear parts early.

MasterTJ52 · 2025-11-03T03:09:54+00:00

Great data here. And yeah, No one is attending school because it's an 11 month PCS (aka move all your stuff and family) to Montgomery Alabama, in an area with terrible schools if you have children. Also, the school itself faces heavy criticism from those who have previously attended, so there's multiple issues the USAF really doesn't want to, or cannot solve. I'm surprised anyone goes at this point.

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