dear AMG-Jerry, I just finished reading this awe 3d and was thinking about a Schrick cam for my 55 engine

..looked at their catalogue but it seems to me that code for their C32 cam is different from that one you installed or perhaps I missed something in your posts

 

The one in their catalog is for the non supercharged motors..stay away from those!

If you want to buy cams for the C32, call Ron.

Part numbers 035101681-L0 & 035101681-R0.

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thanks for reply, but I need for 55
perhaps those showed in catalogue for 113 engine are for non-kompressed engine .. as I called them some months ago and told me they had not a regular production tuned cam for 55

it was a bit difficult to understand everythink you did in your car
.. not clear yet if you still suggest go for tuned cams or not
seems to me clear that you do not suggest go for p&p head. Yes?

need a closing summary for this very interesting and honest 3d

 

Be careful . . . I have good reason to believe that those cams do not work properly in 03-04 C32s. I went to hell and back several times trying to get those to work. It was a very expensive learning experience. The gains were not that impressive. Schrick disappeared when the going got tough.

 

Well, I still haven't finished the BIG project yet. I have a 190mm pulley on order that should bring my boost up even more. With the higher boost, the car should put down another 20Whp / 30Wtrq. This is where the P&P comes into play.

I ran a 12.49 with a 1.83 60' and a best mph of 113. This was with cracked headers too. I was running 12.5's all day with no hesitation from the car.

So, stay tuned and I'll post more info when I get it.

 

jgsx - are you referencing the cams Jerry provides the parts numbers for? What kind of numbers did you put down with the cams?

 

I think he added 15whp on a dyno dynamics....would have been 20whp on a dynojet.

 

Yup, those. I put down an extra 13hp, but that was with a combination of the cams a new custom tune from Kleeman for those cams. I'm not sure which of the two mods did what. The car refused to run properly with the cams though. The idle would vary from somewhat acceptable to awful. There's a reason why they are not in the catalog, and there's a reason why vendors that used to sell them stopped. Apparently I'm not the first one that had this problem with this grind.

02s seem to have luck with them.

 

Jerry,



Looking good man!!!

What mods are left on you car that you have not done yet ? ..lol...

I say you rebuild the motor with forged internals and make a custom turbosetup

 

I've ordered a larger pulley and I hope to add custom long tube headers with a tuned exhaust. I think I lost about 15whp in the exhaust and I need it back.

 

Hmmmmm. I have an 03 model year that was built in late 2002. I have been debating these cams and thought I had decided to order them but would hate to go through the expense of purchasing them and installing them only to have to pay again to remove and install the stock cams.

I had been hoping a couple of people would have the things installed and dyno'd but as far as I know there are only two - Jerry and jgsx. Jerry is not a good comparison for most of us given the level of modifications and all with his car and jgsx had issues with the cams but is only one example. Kind of tough to draw conclusions from a sample size this small.

Did you try raising the idle speed? That may have helped with the idle issues.

I would agree that it is tough to say what the Kleeman tune vs. the cams provided. But it is probably a moot point. As the tune was maximized for the cam and would not be worth while without the cams.

 

Yes, I believe we tried everything. I tried reflashing the ECU with different custom Kleeman maps (I believe at least four times). We tried changing the idle speed. We went through the car with a fine tooth comb to make sure there were no other issues. I pulled the cams out and put the stockers back in. The car ran fine. Threw the Schricks back in, and the problem returned. What was frustrating was that the car would run kinda OK at first, then after adaptation, the car would run AWFUL. Schrick insisted that the cams are fine because they produce cams for NASCAR vehicles, and mine is just a street car. I yanked the cams and shipped them to Germany. Once I presented Schrick the evidence that they knew about this issue long ago, and that there were others that had this problem in the past, they would not answer any more questions and just said ship the car to Germany, then *POOF* they disappear. After a several month long battle, I gave up. The US vendor that I purchased them from was nice enough to refund the price of the cams, but I was out several thousand dollars in various labor and shipping costs.

If someone else wants to be the guinea pig and figure out how to make them run properly, by all means go forward. Just don't expect them to be a simple bolt in + ecu flash. The path is not well paved.

EDIT: I've used performance cams in several previous vehicles. I've even used very aggressive "race" gind cams in a 4g63, so I knew what I was getting into. The idle was on par with a full race grind cam. That was NOT something I wanted in my Mercedes -- especially not for a measly 13hp.

 

jgsx - thanks for posting the info on your experience with the cams.

 

jgsx-

I know that Jerry had an issue with the profile on one of his cams being out of spec. Did you check you cams to make sure you did not get part of a bad batch?

 

It is possible. Here's a little more of the story:

I immediately suspected bad cams since mine came from the same batch as Jerry's. Schrick was confident that my problems were not caused by their cams, and assured me that they would compensate me for any costs that I incurred as a result of bad cams. The bill kept piling up. When I sent them to Germany to be inspected, they stopped communicating with me. They ended up telling my vendor that they were fine (not me directly). They could have just said that to avoid having to compensate me. I'll never know. I have worked with hundreds of companies over the years, and I have a VERY short list of companies that I will never work with again -- Schrick is one of them.

 

I got cams from Renntech and they work fine without modifying the ECU programming. The idle is slightly loppier but not bad at all. I've had them in for 3 years now without issue. I don't think the profile is very aggressive and I probably paid too much but at least they haven't giving me problems. I don't know what power gain I got from them but the only performance mods I had were Renntech pulley, sw, cams, SL55 splitter, ITG foam filters and the car dyno'd at 349 whp. The cams were probably good for 15 hp or so.

 

Steve that was 349 on Dyno Dynamics right? Makes a difference the type of dyno as most people use Dynojets.

 

It was done at Xact Dyno in Phoenix. The test is not corrected for altitude and temperature. The ambient temperature was 101 F. A link to the the dyno... http://www.xactdyno.com/.

 

interesting, do you have any specs on the cams?

 

Well I decided to roll the dice on the Schrick Cams. Placed an order with Erick at LET for a number of go fast parts and the cams arrived shortly after - Great service as always.

The cams sat around in the box for a couple of weeks until I shipped off and recieved my ECU back from Evotech. I am very happy with the tuning on the ECU although I only currently have the butt dyno to go by.

Last Monday I had the cams installed by mbenzman (one of the board members who owns a shop here in Atlanta). The Schrick cams have ~1mm more lift on the intake and ~.1mm more lift on exhaust. They also have noticably more duration.

The idle speed had been lowered to 500rpm on a previous trip to see Rich (mbenzman). With the cams installed and the idle left unchanged the car has a very un-MB like lope. The car sounds great, starting to sound like a V8.

Anyway on the drive home the first couple of times I was really able to get on it the acceleration was startling. The cams add a very noticable amount of power. My current mods are:
ASP Pulley's
Evotech ECU
Schrick Cams
Custom HE + Johnson CM90 pump
PFE Thermostat
SL55 Y-Pipe
minor exhaust work

At my current level of tune 3rd gear feels like 2nd, 4th feels like 3rd, etc.

There is one downside with the cams. Traction is a much bigger problem. First gear is starting to become fairly useless. In ~48 degree weather rolling into the throttle in first I get nothing but wheel spin from ~3500-4000rpm to redline at full throttle. I am running Yokohama Advans which are great tires but just can't cope with the torque. Need to upgrade to something wider say 275's.

Once I recieve my 185mm pulley from LET I will install it and hit the dyno.

In talking with SteveL and following the posts by Erick & Jerry I am afraid that I am about out of fuel for my power levels. My next goal for the car is 400rwhp. I think I might just get it but will have to address the fuel issue to get any further.

jgsx my guess is that you got a bad set of cams from Schrick. My car is a 2003 SLK32 and really responded well to the cams.

 

so glad you are enjoying the cams...i agree, you are at the limit of the fuel system...we will see what happens once i get bigger injectors in the car, should be a beast...

 

The cams rock don't they? You should try getting traction with a 50 shot!

 

Yes the cams do rock. I highly recommend them to everyone.

 

Erick what size injectors are you going with?

 

i don't know yet, i would like to go with 60 lb. injectors, just so that i have enough injector available for the twin turbos when i put them on the car...