AMG’s ‘6.0 Hammer’ Is So Much More than Just a Faster V8
AMG went to great lengths to make the AMG Hammer 6.0 engine a beast. Including re-engineering it.
When it comes to Mercedes V8’s, The M117 gets largely ignored. It’s in some pretty lazy cars, after all. The R107 generation 560 SL isn’t known as a road scorcher. The SEC that is the basis for this Hammer was decent, but it wouldn’t scare a Camaro. But then AMG got ahold of the M117.
In 1986, the horsepower measure you’d get from a “560” Mercedes stands at 239 horsepower. AMG found an additional 139 horsepower. Out of an N/A engine, that’s almost unheard of. While most companies will tune a car using existing hardware, or add a blower, Erhard Melcher decided to totally re-engineer the M117. And in the era, it created a legend as we see from this car on RM Sotheby’s.
By 1986, the M117 had aged 15 years. But Melcher didn’t see it as a lost cause. In his eyes, a breath of fresh air is all it nees, literally. Designing the cylinder heads to be DOHC and 4 valve instead of 2 valve increased air flow.
Brand new cylinder heads were developed, taking the car up to DOHC status. But lets not rest on just that anecdote. AMG created cylinder heads from essentially scratch. Granted, they could tap into their motorsport knowledge, but to make it work, there’s a number of hurdles to overcome first.
Power is a top priority, but so is reliability. If these heads fail, the AMG name is impacted directly. So oiling, cooling, and vibrations all were ironed out. Then on top of that, there’s packaging. The M117 isn’t exactly a small engine and putting a pair of camshafts on the top of each cylinder head takes up a lot of room.
Then, route the exhaust (the one with higher flow rate) around this new, wider cylinder head. And do the same with the intake manifold, too. Then make sure the timing chain is the correct length, and can accomodate any difference in angle on the chain tensioner. Porting and polishing the 2-valve cylinder head would have been way easier. But that’s not the AMG way.
Breathing apparently really wakes up the M117, as the new heads, coupled with a displacement of 6.0 liters created the legendary “Hammer.” Faster than any Ferrari or Lamborghini at the time, it put AMG on the map. More importantly, the M119 V8 is directly influenced by Melcher’s DOHC work.
Photos: RM Sotheby’s
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