isaac2238

I have begun the journey to increase my CLK320 performance
Before you all groan (again), at this stage my goal is to upgrade only the intake, ecu, and exhaust. After lots of reading I'll give the K a miss.

I have a couple of questions about this
1) Will the 55 AMG airbox fit over the v6 (with use of the 430/55 MAF mounting)? If not, how about the SLK320 airbox?
VIPclk320 and Williams707 your knowledge would be much appreciated
2) Is there an advantage of using the 430/55 MAF sensor?
3) Has anyone tried running the intake ducting to where the fog lights are normally located on the AMG bumper?

Also, I'm looking at an Eisenmann 2x83mm exhaust, what is the general opinion on race vs sport options? This is still going to be my daily driver, so a) it has to be street legal noise and b) not wild about a super loud drone for long drives

Lastly, is there much difference in the ecu tunes available, as long as the shop is reputable?

Aside from all this any other tips for increasing performance is much appreciated (minus superchargers). It doesn't seem pulley kits are available anymore...

buffyclk500

Headers
Turbo
Or drop some lb from the car

isaac2238

Turbos seem a ridiculous waste of time and money from what I have read. What are my options for headers? Are Kleemann headers any good, and can they still be sourced, or am I looking at custom fabrication?

Josh K

Forced induction is actually the best way to add noticeable power on these cars.

Headers are great if you have an engine moving enough air for the OEM ones to be a significant bottleneck (which isn't really the case here). Headers are very expensive for the small performance increase they might offer a stock motor. Last I saw on here was around 1500 bucks for the parts and no dyno numbers to actually show the header only gain.

Cat back exhaust will net you sound improvement only (especially on a stock car).

Don't waste money on a tune until you've done all of your other work, and when you get that tune, get a real tune that is done with datalogging and a tuner tuning your actual car, not a canned chiptune.

As for the 55 intake, no idea whether or not it will fit a 320 motor, but that's the only mod I did before supercharging my car that I actually saw real dyno gains from (my car is a 430).

Might want to look more closely at weight reduction/handling/braking mods. By the time you've finished all of the few, expensive bolt-ons for the 320, you'll probably have spent what a forced induction costs and will have a much slower car than one with FI.

isaac2238

Thanks for the info Josh, yes supercharged is definitely the ultimate but at this stage it's off the plan, aside from cost & time New Zealand has very few Mercedes specialists, and of those I doubt they would have experience with that level of modification.

That was the plan with the ECU tune, I'll get all of the airflow stuff dealt with first.

My brake mods will be limited at this stage to EBC Redstuff pads & USR rotors

With regard to handling I have another couple of questions then. I have measured my current/stock sway bars which seem to be 28mm front & 18mm rear, this is the same diameter of the H&R sway bars available. Is there a difference? Does H&R use a different grade of steel or something? And are the 55 AMG sway bars different again?

For suspension upgrade the plan was to get the Bilstein B6 shocks. I am also considering the KW V2 kit, but I only want minimal lowering (< 1") so are they worth it for a daily driver?
Since I only want minimal lowering I have also thought of a couple of options
1) get smaller spring shims
2) get a spring kit (about 30mm drop) and use bigger spring shims
So I guess I have the question is the progressive spring rate on the H&R or Eibach worth it over the stock springs?