Got a sports cam into the 2.6
05-09-2013, 06:50 PM
#1
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Thread Starter
Got a sports cam into the 2.6
It's completely transformed, I was hopeful for a nice gain but I really wasn't expecting quite so much from a single mod. My current feeling is the M103 is a terrific engine.
I noticed there's always a few threads asking about what cost effective enhancement mods can be made for various models and it's hard to find bolt ons for the M103 in the W201, most performance builders for the 190E concentrate on the Cosworth engines and suggest an engine swap to the 3.0 litre or the M104 in the six cylinder version.
I was fairly happy with the 2.6, I just felt it could use 20hp more or so and was hoping to get this without the expense and trouble of an engine swap. I'd already tried a bigger guage exhaust (not loud, just subtle), and installed race plugs and filters. Being a bit old school I asked around about typical mods like headwork, injector upsizing and cams. It was hard to source sports aftermarket cam grinds but I found a German tune shop called DBilas Dynamik who ships a variety of grind options online for the M103, everything from a tow-grind to a race application. They must be one of the only places around that has off the shelf performance cams for this engine, it was a great find and not expensive (about 350 euro).
After talking to some local Mercedes specialist workshops, the word was flow rates on the stock head leave nothing to improve for a street-performance application. The valves are already as big as the bores will allow. The injection is common with the 3.0 litre and feeds far more than the 2.6 can ever use bar supercharging. The exhaust headers have the steering box in the way on our right-hand drive deliveries so a tubular manifold requires custom fabrication and runs into the thousands for any gains, but the stock split-manifold isn't too bad with a larger guage piping on the underfloor system and a sports baffled-muffler.
On the one hand this is all good news because it means most performance mods are already latently achieved on the stock engine, that would be where it gets a high class rating at 160-165PS versus a more typical 120-130PS in its capacity. In fact in a local 80s model you'd want the 4.2 litre V8 Commodore to match it as a contemporary and of course would get nothing like the economy, flexibility or handling. So in a sense, good news.
But on the other hand it left me feeling any further gains naturally aspirated would be uphill and minor, despite any expense. Essentially that the 2.6 was already taken near to its limits out of the box and you just won't get much more without an engine change or forced induction. A bigger project than I had in mind.
I figured even if I do a 3.0 litre M103 swap I'd still want a custom cam grind, and they're interchangeable between these engines so either way I'll start with putting a cam into the 2.6 in the meantime and later can rebuild a 3.0 litre with new bearings and reconditioning at my leisure. Then just swap them out and change the cam over.
So I ordered the cam, waited weeks and had it installed a couple of days ago, then took a 500km drive to run it in.
It's just a little more duration and lift, usable with the stock ignition setup but the difference is phenomenal. At idle it has just a slight rumble, not very loud and in normal driving it has just a little extra, not very different. Economy is still good, the 500km drive took 3/4 of a tank on 95 octane. With the radio on and the windows up you don't hear anything from outside the car which is nice, but if you stop and put the window down like I had to at a breathalyzer traffic stop there's a definite rumble that had the cop smiling at me.
But at hard acceleration it's a totally different car. It starts growling at about 3200rpm and by 4200rpm it roars and takes off like a slingshot, laying down more power the more you let the tacho climb. We have a lot of 90s to early-2000s V8 sedans in the injected-5.0 litre class around here and it's got a lot more pickup than a stock one of those, given they have conservative gearing from the factory for economy so usually need longer roads to get their power down.
Still, this means in suburban driving I can be quicker than some quite fast cars. It has a terrific sound and a ton more power, it's heaps more fun to drive.
Can't wait until the offstreet racing season is up again, so I can test it on the track for the quarter mile improvement. I don't want to make wild claims without a time card, but the 16.7sec stock specs makes me giggle. It is much, much quicker than that.
Finally the main point of the thread. Some 2.6 owners post in here and as I said it isn't uncommon for members to ask about performance improvements.
I wanted to express how impressed I am with a simple cam change, and offer this as the most cost effective, significant improvement. You won't believe the difference, this is a great engine.
I noticed there's always a few threads asking about what cost effective enhancement mods can be made for various models and it's hard to find bolt ons for the M103 in the W201, most performance builders for the 190E concentrate on the Cosworth engines and suggest an engine swap to the 3.0 litre or the M104 in the six cylinder version.
I was fairly happy with the 2.6, I just felt it could use 20hp more or so and was hoping to get this without the expense and trouble of an engine swap. I'd already tried a bigger guage exhaust (not loud, just subtle), and installed race plugs and filters. Being a bit old school I asked around about typical mods like headwork, injector upsizing and cams. It was hard to source sports aftermarket cam grinds but I found a German tune shop called DBilas Dynamik who ships a variety of grind options online for the M103, everything from a tow-grind to a race application. They must be one of the only places around that has off the shelf performance cams for this engine, it was a great find and not expensive (about 350 euro).
After talking to some local Mercedes specialist workshops, the word was flow rates on the stock head leave nothing to improve for a street-performance application. The valves are already as big as the bores will allow. The injection is common with the 3.0 litre and feeds far more than the 2.6 can ever use bar supercharging. The exhaust headers have the steering box in the way on our right-hand drive deliveries so a tubular manifold requires custom fabrication and runs into the thousands for any gains, but the stock split-manifold isn't too bad with a larger guage piping on the underfloor system and a sports baffled-muffler.
On the one hand this is all good news because it means most performance mods are already latently achieved on the stock engine, that would be where it gets a high class rating at 160-165PS versus a more typical 120-130PS in its capacity. In fact in a local 80s model you'd want the 4.2 litre V8 Commodore to match it as a contemporary and of course would get nothing like the economy, flexibility or handling. So in a sense, good news.
But on the other hand it left me feeling any further gains naturally aspirated would be uphill and minor, despite any expense. Essentially that the 2.6 was already taken near to its limits out of the box and you just won't get much more without an engine change or forced induction. A bigger project than I had in mind.
I figured even if I do a 3.0 litre M103 swap I'd still want a custom cam grind, and they're interchangeable between these engines so either way I'll start with putting a cam into the 2.6 in the meantime and later can rebuild a 3.0 litre with new bearings and reconditioning at my leisure. Then just swap them out and change the cam over.
So I ordered the cam, waited weeks and had it installed a couple of days ago, then took a 500km drive to run it in.
It's just a little more duration and lift, usable with the stock ignition setup but the difference is phenomenal. At idle it has just a slight rumble, not very loud and in normal driving it has just a little extra, not very different. Economy is still good, the 500km drive took 3/4 of a tank on 95 octane. With the radio on and the windows up you don't hear anything from outside the car which is nice, but if you stop and put the window down like I had to at a breathalyzer traffic stop there's a definite rumble that had the cop smiling at me.
But at hard acceleration it's a totally different car. It starts growling at about 3200rpm and by 4200rpm it roars and takes off like a slingshot, laying down more power the more you let the tacho climb. We have a lot of 90s to early-2000s V8 sedans in the injected-5.0 litre class around here and it's got a lot more pickup than a stock one of those, given they have conservative gearing from the factory for economy so usually need longer roads to get their power down.
Still, this means in suburban driving I can be quicker than some quite fast cars. It has a terrific sound and a ton more power, it's heaps more fun to drive.
Can't wait until the offstreet racing season is up again, so I can test it on the track for the quarter mile improvement. I don't want to make wild claims without a time card, but the 16.7sec stock specs makes me giggle. It is much, much quicker than that.
Finally the main point of the thread. Some 2.6 owners post in here and as I said it isn't uncommon for members to ask about performance improvements.
I wanted to express how impressed I am with a simple cam change, and offer this as the most cost effective, significant improvement. You won't believe the difference, this is a great engine.
05-10-2013, 10:43 AM
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190e 2.6 Sportline
Wow, please keep us posted on any changes and some more information on this would be great. I have been looking for something like this as I really dont want to go through the headache of switching all the electronics for the M104 swap.
05-10-2013, 09:25 PM
#3
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Thread Starter
Here is a link to the place I got the cam: dbilas dynamic
Prices vary at ordering times so I think I got mine on sale at 100-euro off.
As per ordering guidelines, cam grinds marked "sport" and "rallye" require modified ignition systems and high stall converters if auto (track grinds require a manual), plus raising static compression ratio is a good idea because dynamic compression is lost with cam overlap, so this means pulling down the bottom end.
But the grinds marked "road" can bolt right into the stock engine/ignition, they're just tow-cams or mild cams.
The DOHC M104 is a great changeover engine for a 190E on paper but it's a lot of trouble unless you're very practised with homebuilds and have a well equipped garage/workshop and spares contacts. People who do this conversion come from the same group who put V8 mercedes engines in these cars, they're familiar with modifying the subframe, etc.
A far more realistic conversion and by far the most popular in Germany for performance tweaking the 190E six is the 3.0 litre M103. Only the ignition system controller (ezl/ecu) needs to come from the bigger engine, everything else bolts right up. And it's worth a straight, simple 20PS increase with a flatter torque band.
Venturing into the territory of gossip here, the M104 tends to blow head gaskets and gets fiddly with a multitude of factory versions and experimental anciliaries, whilst the M103 is a stronger and more straightforward engine that's hard to go wrong with. The only thing to watch for with the M103 is early production has single row timing chain, late production has double row, you want double row, meaning avoid earlier production years or have a double row installed with the cam change.
Since at some point I'd have to rebuild/recondition the engine due to age I'm planning this swap for the 3.0 litre at a future date and recondition that one, picking up another power gain for the bore/valve size increase.
In the meantime as mentioned earlier I'm really kind of preparing the car for this (basic) engine swap, gear I buy for the 2.6 is stuff I can transfer including the cam.
Total cost is foremost in my mind.
One more thing I'm planning is a custom fabricated tubular exhaust manifolding, there's a hotrod builder near me who will do a race quality job for a little over 2-grand, expensive but my goal is cracking 200PS using the auto with no high-stall converter and the stock ignition/injection.
Mine is a budget build and daily driver, it's only because it only owes me 4-grand so far including purchase price, with new brakes, steering, rebuilt injection, tyres and the cam installed...for that reason I'm okay with throwing a few more grand at it before I call it quits.
It's not even really an appropriate enthusiast rebuild, it's the cloth interior Japan delivery version (last owner brought it with him immigrating from India), the top of the door trims are split and frayed, some of the dash plastic and the wood trim has cracks, re-upolstering in Euro leather and renewing the interior would cost a bit. It needs a hood/trunk respray (clear coat is worn off). Just fixing up the paint is going to cost me another $1500 or so.
And age means I need to change all the bushes and refresh suspension but the bonus is I'll put in lowered springs in a sports setup, still that's another grand. Add yet another grand or so for high performance tyres on 16-17" rims.
Just those three things are $3500-4000 and the exhaust refinement another $2-2500.
One of the things you learn from experience pouring money into car projects is what you'll wind up with at the end of the day and how much the total cost set you back, then what is the final product really worth to you? Is it worth that much to you, or would you rather buy an older model Porsche 911 for a similar total price? And you keep in mind sometimes the change to different car at a similar final cost can come with all the things you wanted and more out of the box, a 70s 911 already has all the engine work I'd want to do on the 190E as bought, with the performance I want out of the box and a similar interior ergonomic.
One of the reasons I was a little high as a kite on the 190E as it is, was due to my favourite daily driver was a local 1971 muscle car I rebuilt. The amount of work and money I poured into that has essentially been delivered out of the box in the Mercedes for a fraction of the cost. As incredible as it sounds it's actually cheaper to get what you want in the car model selection rather than a car project that might blow out the cost for an end result no better or even worse as a choice.
So this is my cutoff point. I can find a Porsche for about 10-grand and largely what I'm trying to do with the Mercedes is make it drive like one. The only good thing about spending the amount of money I'm planning to on the 190E is that everything will wind up virtually new bar the transmission, which thankfully seems in perfect working order as it is.
Truth is it's probably smarter to think about resale value and cost recovery on the Mercedes and rather than act with an open cheque book just to wind up with basically the same thing as a 911 for approaching the same total cost (or a 928S4 at the same price). Could save myself a whole lot of time finding the best expenditure point where the resale is equal to cost and save further rebuild money for a car swap. That would be the most intelligent governer for a car project.
Prices vary at ordering times so I think I got mine on sale at 100-euro off.
As per ordering guidelines, cam grinds marked "sport" and "rallye" require modified ignition systems and high stall converters if auto (track grinds require a manual), plus raising static compression ratio is a good idea because dynamic compression is lost with cam overlap, so this means pulling down the bottom end.
But the grinds marked "road" can bolt right into the stock engine/ignition, they're just tow-cams or mild cams.
The DOHC M104 is a great changeover engine for a 190E on paper but it's a lot of trouble unless you're very practised with homebuilds and have a well equipped garage/workshop and spares contacts. People who do this conversion come from the same group who put V8 mercedes engines in these cars, they're familiar with modifying the subframe, etc.
A far more realistic conversion and by far the most popular in Germany for performance tweaking the 190E six is the 3.0 litre M103. Only the ignition system controller (ezl/ecu) needs to come from the bigger engine, everything else bolts right up. And it's worth a straight, simple 20PS increase with a flatter torque band.
Venturing into the territory of gossip here, the M104 tends to blow head gaskets and gets fiddly with a multitude of factory versions and experimental anciliaries, whilst the M103 is a stronger and more straightforward engine that's hard to go wrong with. The only thing to watch for with the M103 is early production has single row timing chain, late production has double row, you want double row, meaning avoid earlier production years or have a double row installed with the cam change.
Since at some point I'd have to rebuild/recondition the engine due to age I'm planning this swap for the 3.0 litre at a future date and recondition that one, picking up another power gain for the bore/valve size increase.
In the meantime as mentioned earlier I'm really kind of preparing the car for this (basic) engine swap, gear I buy for the 2.6 is stuff I can transfer including the cam.
Total cost is foremost in my mind.
One more thing I'm planning is a custom fabricated tubular exhaust manifolding, there's a hotrod builder near me who will do a race quality job for a little over 2-grand, expensive but my goal is cracking 200PS using the auto with no high-stall converter and the stock ignition/injection.
Mine is a budget build and daily driver, it's only because it only owes me 4-grand so far including purchase price, with new brakes, steering, rebuilt injection, tyres and the cam installed...for that reason I'm okay with throwing a few more grand at it before I call it quits.
It's not even really an appropriate enthusiast rebuild, it's the cloth interior Japan delivery version (last owner brought it with him immigrating from India), the top of the door trims are split and frayed, some of the dash plastic and the wood trim has cracks, re-upolstering in Euro leather and renewing the interior would cost a bit. It needs a hood/trunk respray (clear coat is worn off). Just fixing up the paint is going to cost me another $1500 or so.
And age means I need to change all the bushes and refresh suspension but the bonus is I'll put in lowered springs in a sports setup, still that's another grand. Add yet another grand or so for high performance tyres on 16-17" rims.
Just those three things are $3500-4000 and the exhaust refinement another $2-2500.
One of the things you learn from experience pouring money into car projects is what you'll wind up with at the end of the day and how much the total cost set you back, then what is the final product really worth to you? Is it worth that much to you, or would you rather buy an older model Porsche 911 for a similar total price? And you keep in mind sometimes the change to different car at a similar final cost can come with all the things you wanted and more out of the box, a 70s 911 already has all the engine work I'd want to do on the 190E as bought, with the performance I want out of the box and a similar interior ergonomic.
One of the reasons I was a little high as a kite on the 190E as it is, was due to my favourite daily driver was a local 1971 muscle car I rebuilt. The amount of work and money I poured into that has essentially been delivered out of the box in the Mercedes for a fraction of the cost. As incredible as it sounds it's actually cheaper to get what you want in the car model selection rather than a car project that might blow out the cost for an end result no better or even worse as a choice.
So this is my cutoff point. I can find a Porsche for about 10-grand and largely what I'm trying to do with the Mercedes is make it drive like one. The only good thing about spending the amount of money I'm planning to on the 190E is that everything will wind up virtually new bar the transmission, which thankfully seems in perfect working order as it is.
Truth is it's probably smarter to think about resale value and cost recovery on the Mercedes and rather than act with an open cheque book just to wind up with basically the same thing as a 911 for approaching the same total cost (or a 928S4 at the same price). Could save myself a whole lot of time finding the best expenditure point where the resale is equal to cost and save further rebuild money for a car swap. That would be the most intelligent governer for a car project.
Last edited by vanir; 05-10-2013 at 09:48 PM.
05-11-2013, 09:09 PM
#4
Member
Thread Starter
I have a performance update, just got a chance to test the line acceleration versus a locally produced Commodore/Chevrolet Sportwagon-SS (post 2008 model), with a 6.0 litre Gen-IV engine quoted at 362hp with a 14.4sec quarter mile in this car, without the wide rubber the owner has.
We only took it to 60mph from standing start to avoid the dangers of street racing at high speed, the road a gentle incline moving to a steep rise.
I got the jump and the low ratio 1st gave me a slight boost, at about 30mph he managed half a car length and increased it to 2 lengths through 45-60mph as we were going up the steep.
All over as a wild prediction using this encounter as a guide, I'm guessing mid to high 15s which isn't bad at all for a mild cam and a tiny engine. I'd say I've achieved approximately the 180hp I was hoping for.
Still looking forward to an actual timecard from a professional track, but it's off season now.
We only took it to 60mph from standing start to avoid the dangers of street racing at high speed, the road a gentle incline moving to a steep rise.
I got the jump and the low ratio 1st gave me a slight boost, at about 30mph he managed half a car length and increased it to 2 lengths through 45-60mph as we were going up the steep.
All over as a wild prediction using this encounter as a guide, I'm guessing mid to high 15s which isn't bad at all for a mild cam and a tiny engine. I'd say I've achieved approximately the 180hp I was hoping for.
Still looking forward to an actual timecard from a professional track, but it's off season now.
05-24-2013, 05:26 PM
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190e 2.6 Sportline
Im thinking of going this route. Getting a 3.0 to rebuild and put one of these in there. What would be a good cam in the 3.0 with a getrag 5 spd? Just completed the swap this week on the trans.
05-30-2013, 05:21 AM
#6
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Thread Starter
Being a manual you could go crazy with the overlap but the issue here is the stock CIS-E ignition doesn't have any spark maps to suit that and high overlap drops dynamic compression, so what you can wind up with is an engine which sounds as good as any track car but in actual operation you lose more than you gain. You need custom piston/rod/chamber and custom ignition setups (expensive) to get the benefits of just going wild with a cam profile.
However it's a bonus in terms of engine building for performance gain since you have the Getrag, which is a close ratio 5-speed that allows you to keep the engine between a very finite power band under any road conditions because there's so many close ratio gears to choose from. That means you can go a little racier than what might be comfortable with a regular 5-speed without expensive and extensive engine modifications to suit the cam profile.
Disclaimer: as a hobbyist without engineering qualifications my advice is merely table conversation, remember to seek qualified advice unless you're expert enough yourself to know what you can and can't do without breaking your engine or winding up with something you don't like to drive.
That said, my advice is you could go one of two roads inexpensively:
1. the racy choice is a 30/70 timing with 11.7mm lift (needs this overlap to ramp the lift so the valve gear isn't overstressed), will need a custom ignition setup. Talk to some ignition systems specialists, particularly those which cater to track cars and custom street cars, there should be some around in every bunch of suburbs. Should only cost a few hundred for the ignition and under a grand for the cam and fitment.
Problems: dynamic compression is lost with this much overlap and it really should have a mild increase in static compression, and it's best to do this with custom/race piston crowns so they can have valve indents and keep some piston clearance at full valve lift (shaving the head isn't such a good idea due to the lift increase, there's not a lot of valve clearance as it is). That's expensive (thousands), not really worth it on this model unless you're building a track car.
Without doing this you're going to lose power at low-mid range for a big increase in high rpm power and a very intimidating exhaust note (starts to sound a bit like an 8), but this is offset by the Getrag close ratios, when you want power you can keep the engine speed up with gear selection, when you don't need power you can run it normally.
You will lose a little more speed going up hills at low rpm for example, you will tend to start driving at higher rpm all the time and that'll impact fuel economy quite a bit.
Point is the 30/70 is about as wild as you'd want to go without customizing the bottom end of the engine to suit, you could get away with that and just an ignition mod in the manual, and do well with it because it's a Getrag.
2. Second choice is a plug and play setup which is basically what I'm planning since I'm keeping the auto and putting a roof on how much I'm willing to spend on this car before switching to a later model.
The cam I've got is a 22/62 with 11mm lift and the stock ignition maps will handle that normally, plus it only barely impacts dynamic compression. Between the power gain at highway speeds and the barely noticeable loss at very low rpm this cam change hasn't in any way changed the fuel economy of the stock engine.
It would be another improvement to have a custom ignition setup, but there's no real impact using the stock ignition in terms of any degredation due to the cam profile.
Problems: output potential is limited by the conservative cam profile as compared to a sportier grind at the same purchase/installation cost. There is a definite, noticeable increase but to make the most of it you need an exhaust upgrade and an ignition customization couldn't hurt. But overall there's no real problems with this selection, it's designed to bolt into the otherwise stock engine and run just fine, and it does, with a much sportier feel, sound and clear power increase.
The main difference I suppose between the two choices I'd advise is that choice 2 in the 3.0 will basically give you an aim of cracking 200PS with good exhausting and other fine tuning and hard work, whilst choice 1 in the 3.0 will easily top 200PS just by tripping over the engine bay with a spanner in your hand.
Either one will feel quite powerful to drive, either one will be very much like the "Porsche with a baby seat" description that Wheels Magazine originally called the AMG 190E 3.2 when it was released.
AMG uses cubic inches to maintain flexibility with power increase, with a sports cam in a 3.0 litre swap the little given away to capacity is made up for with cam profile, so it should basically feel like one of those to drive.
Serious race profiles do require extensive and expensive modification to suit them as earlier discussed however. This is the rule you need to use to measure your choices and expenditure planning.
However it's a bonus in terms of engine building for performance gain since you have the Getrag, which is a close ratio 5-speed that allows you to keep the engine between a very finite power band under any road conditions because there's so many close ratio gears to choose from. That means you can go a little racier than what might be comfortable with a regular 5-speed without expensive and extensive engine modifications to suit the cam profile.
Disclaimer: as a hobbyist without engineering qualifications my advice is merely table conversation, remember to seek qualified advice unless you're expert enough yourself to know what you can and can't do without breaking your engine or winding up with something you don't like to drive.
That said, my advice is you could go one of two roads inexpensively:
1. the racy choice is a 30/70 timing with 11.7mm lift (needs this overlap to ramp the lift so the valve gear isn't overstressed), will need a custom ignition setup. Talk to some ignition systems specialists, particularly those which cater to track cars and custom street cars, there should be some around in every bunch of suburbs. Should only cost a few hundred for the ignition and under a grand for the cam and fitment.
Problems: dynamic compression is lost with this much overlap and it really should have a mild increase in static compression, and it's best to do this with custom/race piston crowns so they can have valve indents and keep some piston clearance at full valve lift (shaving the head isn't such a good idea due to the lift increase, there's not a lot of valve clearance as it is). That's expensive (thousands), not really worth it on this model unless you're building a track car.
Without doing this you're going to lose power at low-mid range for a big increase in high rpm power and a very intimidating exhaust note (starts to sound a bit like an 8), but this is offset by the Getrag close ratios, when you want power you can keep the engine speed up with gear selection, when you don't need power you can run it normally.
You will lose a little more speed going up hills at low rpm for example, you will tend to start driving at higher rpm all the time and that'll impact fuel economy quite a bit.
Point is the 30/70 is about as wild as you'd want to go without customizing the bottom end of the engine to suit, you could get away with that and just an ignition mod in the manual, and do well with it because it's a Getrag.
2. Second choice is a plug and play setup which is basically what I'm planning since I'm keeping the auto and putting a roof on how much I'm willing to spend on this car before switching to a later model.
The cam I've got is a 22/62 with 11mm lift and the stock ignition maps will handle that normally, plus it only barely impacts dynamic compression. Between the power gain at highway speeds and the barely noticeable loss at very low rpm this cam change hasn't in any way changed the fuel economy of the stock engine.
It would be another improvement to have a custom ignition setup, but there's no real impact using the stock ignition in terms of any degredation due to the cam profile.
Problems: output potential is limited by the conservative cam profile as compared to a sportier grind at the same purchase/installation cost. There is a definite, noticeable increase but to make the most of it you need an exhaust upgrade and an ignition customization couldn't hurt. But overall there's no real problems with this selection, it's designed to bolt into the otherwise stock engine and run just fine, and it does, with a much sportier feel, sound and clear power increase.
The main difference I suppose between the two choices I'd advise is that choice 2 in the 3.0 will basically give you an aim of cracking 200PS with good exhausting and other fine tuning and hard work, whilst choice 1 in the 3.0 will easily top 200PS just by tripping over the engine bay with a spanner in your hand.
Either one will feel quite powerful to drive, either one will be very much like the "Porsche with a baby seat" description that Wheels Magazine originally called the AMG 190E 3.2 when it was released.
AMG uses cubic inches to maintain flexibility with power increase, with a sports cam in a 3.0 litre swap the little given away to capacity is made up for with cam profile, so it should basically feel like one of those to drive.
Serious race profiles do require extensive and expensive modification to suit them as earlier discussed however. This is the rule you need to use to measure your choices and expenditure planning.
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05-30-2013, 06:05 PM
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190e 2.6 Sportline
Yeah, im looking for something more of a plug and play as well. Not to into adding a new ignition system. In your experience running the cam you have is it possible to move up to a more aggressive cam but not as much as a track car. Just a real fun weekender. Going with the 30/70 just how much power will i be loosing? This car will mostly be driven on the streets joy ridding or on fridays to work. Would the one you went with be more reasonable for the application im looking at? I have no intention of using this car on the track.
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05-31-2013, 03:24 AM
#8
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For a stress free plug and play installation I'd have to say I picked the profile that was the most enhancement without having to mess around with ignition and compression ratios. That's the 22/62 at 11mm lift, which is actually a very aggressive lift but a quite conservative overlap for the best of both worlds, without having to mess around with ignition and compression ratios because it keeps basically the same engine speeds in the power curves, it just has a ton more in the normal top end rpm and a nice burble and roar in the exhaust note under throttle.
Given your description I'd say this is definitely the one you want. There's two sporty cams below it (one with more lift, one with more overlap, this one has both), as far as a trouble free installation goes it's a pretty aggressive profile and it won't give you any kind of trouble, but you definitely won't be disappointed with either the rumbling exhaust note, or the significant boost you can really feel from it.
It's already made the little 2.6 a pretty quick car, the 3.0 adds another 20PS...
To risk sound like a brow-beater about it, best way I can describe how it felt after putting this cam in, before it really felt like a tiny six. After it feels like a bigger engine. I pull up at the lights against the other traffic and instead of feeling like I've got a tiny six I feel like I've got a big six in a light car. I mean we're talking colloquialisms here but I'm guessing with a 3.0 installation in the light 190E this cam will make it feel like you're driving around in a small V8. Not a race car, not saying it feels like a race car, but it definitely feels like a bigger engine, just from a cam. It's a good cam, I think you'd like it.
Oh and as always with cam changes running in was a big deal, it gets a bit racier after that when it beds in properly. You really notice that.
Given your description I'd say this is definitely the one you want. There's two sporty cams below it (one with more lift, one with more overlap, this one has both), as far as a trouble free installation goes it's a pretty aggressive profile and it won't give you any kind of trouble, but you definitely won't be disappointed with either the rumbling exhaust note, or the significant boost you can really feel from it.
It's already made the little 2.6 a pretty quick car, the 3.0 adds another 20PS...
To risk sound like a brow-beater about it, best way I can describe how it felt after putting this cam in, before it really felt like a tiny six. After it feels like a bigger engine. I pull up at the lights against the other traffic and instead of feeling like I've got a tiny six I feel like I've got a big six in a light car. I mean we're talking colloquialisms here but I'm guessing with a 3.0 installation in the light 190E this cam will make it feel like you're driving around in a small V8. Not a race car, not saying it feels like a race car, but it definitely feels like a bigger engine, just from a cam. It's a good cam, I think you'd like it.
Oh and as always with cam changes running in was a big deal, it gets a bit racier after that when it beds in properly. You really notice that.
Last edited by vanir; 05-31-2013 at 03:46 AM.
