We're doing a C43 project and since the engine is basically the same I figured you'd be interested in what we're doing.

Our goal is 350 Crank HP with basic bolt ons and proper tuning.

Here's the link: https://mbworld.org/forums/c36-amg-c...oject-c43.html

c55s have 5.4L and c43s have a 4.3.

i would be interested in getting 350WHP for the c55

^^^ Yea same here.

I currently (or use to, however you want to look at it) make 355whp and thats coming from a baseline of 291whp.

Getting there isnt hard for an 55N/A. If I was doing it allover again I would do this:
Kleemann Headers
RENNtech Airbox w/K&Ns
Custom exhaust w/ Hiflow cats
Custom Dyno tune

Not sure if I'm missing anything but that should get you i the ballpark of 350whp.

Keeps your wheels the stock size or you can kiss 350whp goodbye (pending on dyno type)

thanks for your input hooleyboy, i am following your s/c thread and wow

how much do you think it would put to the wheels with all those mods you listed minus headers?

And that's the only difference.

Point being everything we're doing on the C43 can be directly applied to all M113 motors.

While that is a great list, we're looking at a much more affordable route. These cars are getting more and more affordable and I would imagine that list of mods is probably in the 6-8K range retail.

You are not kidding! I dropped $1600 or so on the airbox, $2500 for headers, about $2200 in custom dyno tunes, and $700 in exhaust mods. (OUCH!) Not to mention all the misc stuff that adds up too.

For the price of headers for a 55 being so high, You could get a custom set of longtubes made for (I'm guessing) $2500 or below and I would take those over any shorty style header currently available. I would bet there is more tunable power in longtubes over short tubes too.

I love to see tuners take a more affordable route. Low price does not mean quality is less. Keep up the good work.

Check out my SC retro fit thread for this reply: Just trying to keep this thread on topic and not hijack it.

in that case, i would be very interested in what you could do with the c55 engine

2200 for a set of custom long tubes is about right, but if you build sets of 10 or more at a time you can get that cost way down.

There are so many mods out right now that are overpriced to the point that it makes better financial sense to go custom, headers being the main one.

Our goal is 15% gain in HP for around 2k, probably less but don't quote me on that.

And, unless my math is way off that takes you from a baseline C55 300RWHP to 345RWHP...

Suffice it to say I'll be following this project with interest.

Interesting!

Kinda almost. Gains are at the crank, so figure 300-338ish, there's always a tad bit less to the wheels that converts over.

Our C43 is hoping to hit the 280 RWHP mark by the end of this project, currently we're at 239 RWHP, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Any preliminary hints for your project?

For our C43 all of the progress is in the thread.

Basically we are looking at:

Porting and polishing the intake manifold
Opening up Airbox, MAF, and intake elbow
NGK Plugs and Magnecor Wires
Better Injectors (MB tech is a little old in this category)
Tune
Catch Can

Start with the basics that address obvious weaknesses and then improve from there. Throwing lots of money at something is never the way to get to a goal. Our budget is 2K, and that's retail cost.

With the first 4 things finished I'd estimate the cost to be 1300.00, if you wanted it installed add 3 hours labor, deffinately a bargain in the MB world. We're going to try and have the car back together for another pull before the tuning to see exactly what the first set of mods net us.

I can easily see this as a 2.5K installed project and if we get the gains we are looking for then the same mods will be applied to a C55 for the same price.

Stay Tuned!

We had a S5oo in today for some manifold work and wanted to share some progress pics. When we went to disassemble we found out the inside top runners had melted and were just rattling around inside. Fixing that alone probably netted some decent power.

Please post pics after you do the porting and polish work. Did you dyno it before and will you after? How well port matched are the stock pieces?

Hi, I'm definately up for "porting and polishing my intake manifold" and "Opening up my MAF, and intake elbow". My car has not yet had this done. As I said before, I'm reasonably close to you. Shoot me a pm if you need a c55 to work on.

We have a pre-dyno and are awaiting a post dyno once everything is finished.

The runners benefited from about 0.5mm around for port matching, but huge gains on reworking the ports. There were many sharp radii from the casting process that caused a lot of turbulence. We eliminated as much as we could and smoothed out the rest. The opening is now significantly better.

The whole top end of the manifold on the C43 was taken apart and reworked. There's a decent amount of meat to be removed and a lot of sharp radii. I haven't weighed the V8 piece yet, but we lost 3 oz on our V6 pieces, that's a lot of metal shavings.

More to come!

If someone wanted to port the intake manifold could they send it to you to have this done? If someone is interested I might be willing to part with my stock C55 manifold.

Are you actually reshaping things or just opening up the ports? Just wondering if Extrude Honing might be of benefit, too.

Bill

I will actually be buying a bunch of manifolds so that customers can send in their's and receive a ported one back with zero down time. As it gets warmer, not too many people want to be without their intake for two weeks (yea it takes a long time).

We are reshaping the ports as well as porting. The only reason Extrude Hone wouldn't work (and I've looked into it) is due to the 2 piece design of the manifold. Both the top and bottom of the manifolds have 2 seperate pieces, when a force is exerted through that it will easily break the silicone seal and defeat the Extrude Hone process. Good idea though.