zejj

hey everybody! ive had my CLK350 since january 2011 and the power always felt fine but recently i raced my buddies mazdaspeed 3 and he DUSTED ME!! i know the clk350 will never be as fast as speed3 but i wanna get the ponies up on my car just a little bit! whats the best tune out there to get the car a little fast while maintaining/improving fuel economy and keeping the cars overall reliabiltiy? i saw renntech has a tune to get the car to about 290HP but its FKN 1000 DOLLARS for just the tune! any cheaper alternatives out there? i also want to make the car a little throatier and louder my friend who has a G35 told me i should X-Pipe the car and delete the 2nd cat and resonator, now i have a single exhaust outlet, can i still have a X pipe on my car? ideally id like it to sound something like a x piped g35 or like this vid Thanks for the advice fellas hope to hear from yall soon!

gaazmon

the m272 clk350 does not have secondary cats. it has 2 primary cats -> 2 bubble resonators -> 1 mid resonator -> 1 muffler. I would remove the 1 mid resonator, see how you like it, then remove the 2 bubble ones if you want more sound. definitely leave the muffler on. I heard a buddies clk350 with muffler delete but wasn't a fan honestly

tw2

I don't want to sound discouraging but you will have a lot of trouble getting any decent power from the 350 without going insane with custom turbocharging etc ie several thousand $$. I would look for a CLK55 or CLK550 for reliable power if you are really keen on going faster. Otherwise don't sweat it, there will always be something faster around.

zejj

Then lets forget power and tuning it then... what would give my car the best sound? X pipe? h pipe? Any other suggestions for sound would greatly be appreciated

tw2

Longtube headers and xpipe would be the way to go.

zejj

any sound clips of a 350 engine with long tube headers and a x pipe? ive searched but catn find any.. also can a muffler shop weld some long tube headers for cheap? i dont wanna spend alot on an exhaust that i want just for sound

zejj

any idea how much a muffler shop would charge for that?

gaazmon

i'm pretty sure i paid a $100 bucks to have all 3 removed. Straight pips put in place so I have now: 2 primary cats -> 1 muffler

ya as stated by tw2, performance mods will yield little results. your intake setup is pretty much maxed out minus K&N filters (I just stick to the oem Maan filters, heard some bad stories about greens and bmc). you could do an ecu tune to get some better throttle response and few more ponies. if you looking for big numbers, trade up to a 500, 55, or 550 then

tw2

Headers are not cheap I am afraid. Cheap ones crack, look like crap and don't seal properly. A nice set of custom made ones are going to be at least US$1000+ I would think considering I would pay around $2000 here for a professional to do a very good job. MBH etc can charge up to $5000 for their V8 ones.

Bear in mind you can easily pay that sort of money for a rubbish set, you have to check out what they can do very carefully. In my experience they will promise you the world especially if they think you don't really know much about exhausts and welding.

This is outside the abilities of the majority of muffler shops. Most muffler shops do just that, mash a new muffler on with a MIG welder with snotty welds and replace rusted sections. You will most likely have to find a professional header/exhaust fabricator that specialize in just that and have lots of awsome examples of their work. Another tip, ignore the outside, even the chinese factories have nailed the external appearance ie they look nice a shiny with good looking welds. Look on the inside, bits of metal flaking off, burnt metal, pipes are not flush the flanges, abysmal merge collectors etc. They should be TIG welded with argon back purging to prevent oxidization inside.

Or just be happy with the stock ones, honestly despite being an inanimate piece of metal, headers are not a walk in the park compared to other mods. They are a PITA to install/remove when something goes wrong. Hope that helps. Read the whole header thread on the W204 C63 forum stickies if you want to know more. Oh an I only know of 55 AMG exhaust clips with headers, there are occasional 500 and 550 clips but not so many 350 I know of.

Greg Northcott

Ive replaced both filters with K&Ns, run a GAN performace module and run on 95 octane fuel and my car flies. Very impressed