My initial impression is good, but I can't say how much of the apparent improvement came from the pulley, the intake or my imagination Heading to a Test-n-Tune tomorrow, so we'll see if there is any drop in my ET.

The crank pulley was relatively straightforward, but WOW you don't get much of the key in the keyway before you have to use the crank bolt to pull it in the rest of the way. Also, I would recommend that anyone who does this (if there are any more even available?) check out the factory crank holder tool. I *think* it will offer more adjustability as the prongs that go into the pulley holes are replaceable. Not sure, but you might want to check with a SA at your local dealer. The one I got off of ebay worked fine for the stock pulley but didn't work with the AMS pulley until we modified it to have the prongs stick out deeper.

The car definitely revs faster than with the stock pulley and the intake sounds fantastic...now I get a loud chirp when I blip the throttle. I ended up getting a needswings dcai for an SLK55. The setup eliminates the MAF housing and plastic elbow for a black metal elbow with a MAF bung and hose connection for the crankcase vent hose. It splits with a nice silicone Y to 2 inline filters via gunmetal-teflon coated tubes, then connects to the stock intake hoses. As it was for an SLK55, the fitment isn't perfect, but a little tweaking and it will be. Be forewarned, if you do go this route, I'm sure your attention will then be focused on cleaning up all the ugly bits the stock or Renntech airbox hides lol. I'll get some pics of the ugly duckling engine bay and maybe a vid of the intake sound tomorrow but attached is a pic of the only parts you can't see from up top...btw, this pic was when I first unpacked the box, the elbow and Y are backwards.

On another note, didn't get the cams installed yet. Work ate into my time too much and had to go to work on 2 days of my vacation. As much as I'd love to do it myself, I might just cave and have the indy do it. I'm tired of having boxes laying aound and no time to devote to installing stuff. I hope to have them done and set up another custom tune with Eurocharged before the end of the year. Then the Wavetrac that's been collecting dust for too long...

One last thing, I replaced the idler pulley and belt while everything was apart. It was a breeze and mine had bearings that were on their way out. Thanks to Kuzni for posting when his blew up, it got me thinking.

 

That intake is what I need for my car. I wonder if it comes close to attaching to the E55 air boxes. How were you able to just buy what was pictured? I can't see paying $800 just for that part of the intake though.

 

I wonder if that mas body wil work w a Klee blower set up? Thx for sharing.

 

[/ATTACH]Ok, new pb...12.489 @ 111.77 with a 1.894 60'. Timeslip is in the drag racing sticky, won't let me upload again. I think my times suffered last week because I was launching too high with the Hoosiers, this was with a 1200rpm launch and short burnout. Of my 5 runs, I had the 12.4, four low 12.5's and one 12.8. The 12.8 was a high rpm launch just to confirm my belief that I was loosing time with the 2000rpm launches. Tire pressure was 20psi all day; I figured I'd sort out my launch rpm and then play with pressures later. Cecil is open until the 3rd week of December, so I have a few more Saturdays to play. My plan is to get the cams in and get a retune before they close, but we will see. Dragtimes hasn't updated the weather yet, so I can't give a DA, but it was 55 degrees per the dash temp.

On a side note, there was a White C63 there...only glimpsed him in the staging lanes once and then he left. I spoke to a guy with a CTS-V (11.8's) that said the C63 was running 12.0X's. Bummed I showed up too late to chat with him.

91RS, I have a pic below of the whole setup. $800 isn't cheap, but for me, in comparison to the only other aftermarket alternative, it was a no-brainer. I don't think you need for the 55K airboxes since you have the blower, it comes with 2 inline air filters. unfortunately the E55 setup is $200 more, but maybe you could mod the SLK setup to fit? I'm going to see if the local dealer has the shorter CLK intake tubes in stock tomorrow, that should help a great deal as the C55 intake tubes are too long for the SLK55 setup.

As stated above, I'm not sure if it'll work with a klee betreza, I don't see why it wouldn't but then again I'm assuming that the E55 setup they sell uses the same aluminum elbow. Might want to check with Rob @ Needswings to know for sure. Either way,for me, it was nice to have another option!

For everyone else, I will let Rob @ Needswings know what changes I make to fit this on the C55. Hopefully they can put out something that will be cheaper than the Renntech airbox and flows all we could ever need to boot.

 

Ah, ok. I didn't realize you did use the whole setup. I mean $800 was expensive to use part of it. The E55 airbox setup is very tight on the C55 and the splitter touches the wiper cowl panel and it creaks when it's cold. It was fine all summer, but now it's starting to make noise again and it's a little annoying.

Your car is stupid fast for being N/A. I would have been completely happy with that.

 

This setup is a little tight, but we aren't working with a whole lot of clearance no matter what route we take. The difficulty for me was getting the silicone elbow on the MAF. Major PITA, but better than air leaks. Thankfully my father was a mechanic for 30+ years and was of major assistance...putting the crank pulley on with his 4' long 800 lb/ft torque wrench made things a breeze lol .

Maybe the E55 setup will work for you, if the #'s are right on the Needswings website, it's a BIG improvement over stock, but I'm not sure that the E55 setup provides the provision for a MAF sensor. Even though it's not cheap, it may be worth looking into??

Like what I assume most believe, I think you are some tweaking away from ripping off 11's consistantly. Props to you for taking on the Klee install and tuning yourself and your willingness to share, I don't think I'd ever be comfortable trying it myself. Personally, it sucks that you aren't happy with the results of your hard work yet, I just hope you don't give up. The results you want are in reach, it just seems that nothing really comes easy with these engines.

 

With the Kleemann setup, it uses the stock C55 throttle body elbow (which is VERY tight with the SC) and the stock C55 MAF housing. You just take the E55 splitter and attach it to the C55 MAF housing with two screws and some silicone to seal it up. It seems to function well enough, just the noise from it rubbing the wiper cowl is annoying.

I'll be really curious to see what the cams do for you. From what I've read they only give about 15-20hp but make big changes in the powerband. I wasn't planning on doing them though. Not sure if I want to spend the money. I would love for it to get into 11's.

 

Gotcha, if that's the case, I would guess you could see some gains with this setup. Too bad you live so far away. The Needswings setup does seem to be tilted forward more than the stock setup, but if the Klee setup reuses the stock elbow and MAF housing I don't see why you couldn't make it work.

I'll be updating everyone about the cam swap asap, I'm not expecting anything earth-shattering, but I would be thrilled with 25 or 30rwhp for the intake, cams, tune and pulley combined. I'll still be happy with anything I get, but my list of N/A power adders is getting shorter.

I'm sure that with your skills and knowledge you will get her to 11's, patience is a b**ch, but makes acheiving the goal that much sweeter

 

My Renntech CF airbox has no clearance issues. Being slow never looked this good.

Congrats on the times again. Hopefully, I will get near your trapspeed with custom retune, and x pipe with high flow secondaries.

Are you running race gas(100 octane or higher)?

Can't wait to see what you do with the cams.

 

No doubt about the Renntech airbox looking better. For all I know the Needswings and Renntech flow the same. Wish I coulda squeezed a dyno in, but by the time I get the cams in and a retune, who knows what contributed how much.

A race gas tune is in the cards but probably not until spring. Eurocharged says the Mytuner will work in the C55

Thx agaun for the tubes!

 

Nice work! What cams do you plan on getting?

 

Thx, already picked up VRP/PTE cams about 6 months ago, just haven't had time to install them

 

Well, I've gotten quotes from $800 to $1100 to install the cams. REDICULOUS, at least as far as I'm concerned. I'll be doing them myself, ordered the special tools I was lacking Tuesday. Hopefully the stuff I ordered shows up in time for me to get a custom tune from Eurocharged before my local drag strip closes.

Since I had to buy the tools, if any M112 or M113 guys pick up cams, let me know. If you've been on here for a while and I know who you are, I'll be happy to send the cam tools so you don't have to spend the $120.00 for something you'll do once.

 

12.345 @ 113.5 withat a 1.855 60', best trap of the day was 113.78.

I'll add the pic tonight

Not sure why they cut the one slip in half...guess their printer ate the other guy's slip...it was a modded WRX that did about a 13.0. Jesus those things can launch. Wish I knew what his 60' was!

 

 

Holy crap! What tires are you running?

 

Thanks!

Hoosier DOT Drag Radials, 225/50-16 on 16x7 Sparco Asseta Garas. The "225's" were only 1/2" narrower than the 265 street radials I got the 12.79 with, plus there are E55's pulling awesome 60's with 245's and 255's. I'm nowhere needing that much traction yet *sigh*

Added slips above btw...^^^^

There was a modded IS-F there today, running high 11's on drag radials ...damn they may be fugly from behind, but they sound GOOOOD with headers and exhaust!

About the intake, I was informed br Rob @ Needswings that I had installed the tubes to the Y backwards (oops lol...guess I got a little brain dead after 2 full days wrenching on the car). I swapped the tubes, but also installed the shorter kevlar CLK tubes, fit and appearance are MUCH better (pic below) when you install it right and you have the slightly shorter tubes. Thanks again for the tubes Nachtsturm!

I still need to install the badge holder, but I'm waiting on the cam tools to pull of the valve covers and intake manifold to paint them VHT Burnt Copper (see attached pic, opinions anyone?). I figure I will paint the calipers to match when I get around to that point on my very long list.

OT, since I was at my Dad's for thanksgiving, I was on 70 in the middle of nowhere and happened upon a new RS-5...he was right behind me for a long time and multiple times when we would hit a long open section free of traffic, I would walk away from him every time. I know they're around 4000lbs, but they have 450hp? I was expecting more....Sorry, no vids if anyone is looking, I was by myself. For me, there is a time and place to play, and driving and filming with my phone will never be part of either time or place.

 

Not a problem, glad they worked out, looks great.

Congrats on your runs!

Now give me some of those traps speeds lol.

 

Thanks! I'm really wondering now if I could crack into the 11's still N/A. It looks like I won't have the cams and retune done before the tracks close, so by next spring I'm hoping to have cams, a race gas tune, maybe Evosport UDP's, and some more weight loss (Braille battery for track days, maybe race seats and lighter front wheels...driver needs to shed some weight too . Strip the trunk and hood liner, get rid of the CD changer, who knows what else. I refuse to pull the rear seats though, wherever I end up at it still needs to be street ready). Can't wait to see how I do next spring!

My dream race seats would be Cobra Misano's with black and gray leather with aluminized fiberglass backs, but WOW are they pricey! I can get leather Corbeau's with seat heaters for about 1/2 the price and a few pounds lighter each.

Up until now, my mods have been relatively cheap by my standards. I've kept my eyes out for used stuff where I could find it. After the cams and retune, what's left? Head work or larger TB? Neither will be cheap nor easy and I have no idea how it will effect driveability or what gains I might see. I don't really want to go the nitrous route, but after I get everything else done, maybe I'll try a 50 shot wet system? Probably not, I'm too paranoid lol.

 

I think with the cams, headwork, and throttle body, combined with weight reduction you can do it. Especially with a race gas tune. 11's are possible.

I, myself, am contemplating on just buying a C63 and moving on. I am just so partial to the CLK looks.

Trapspeed is just dropping and dropping lol. As my car sits, I do not think it will go any quicker or faster. Still a high 12 at full street trim is pretty stout.

I really thought with the canned tune and intake I would be trapping circa 110.

Till next season.

 

I feel you on the looks thing...not a big fan of most of the new models. The E class coupe is sweet though! Too bad no AMG.

I get the confusion too. I really don't have a good feel yet for why it does what it does. My trap speeds have really varied in ways I didn't expect after the drag radials and then the crank pulley/intake.

There is one more Test and Tune this year Saturday and I finished the cams yesterday. It will be interesting to see what results I get before it's dyno tuned.

 

How does it feel with the cams so far? How long did the install take? Who are you getting to dyno tune it?

 

I only have 200 miles on them, so I'm not sure how much adaptation the ECU will make but I can understand why some people say these are too lumpy lol. You can feel and hear the difference, but it's still within the limits of what I consider acceptable. My only complaint is the feel when it's in gear and stopped or rolling at walking pace with no throttle. It's not jerky enough to be visibly noticible, but you can feel the lope. If the ECU doesn't end up smoothing that out, I might see if Eurocharged can bump the idle up 100 rpms or so when I do the dyno tune.

The install actually wasn't bad, just time consuming. I was using the Kleemann installation instructions you can find and download online. There are a few things that would have been good to include in the instructions but overall they are pretty easy to follow.

We started the work Sunday around noon and basically was finished the passenger side that day (or so I thought). Finished the PITA driver side on Monday but then discovered when looking at the StarTek service DVD that you are NOT supposed to reuse the camshaft bridge bolts...no mention of this in the Kleemann instructions. Not only that, there are different torque specs in Startek for the C55 cam bridge bolts than the C32...the Kleemann instructions use the C32 specs. So, after a bit creative cursing, I had to get on the phone with a dealership to track down the bolts. I ended up having to drive 2 hours from Pennsylvania to Baltimore Monday night, then Alexandria Virginia, next Germantown then Hagerstown and back to PA Monday morning since no one had everything I needed. I replaced the cam gear bolts and chain tensioner while I was at it and torqued everything to the C55 specs. It could have taken one long day without the bolt issue but I was painting the valve covers too.

Performance wise, it does seem to pull harder up top, but it may be exagerated if I lost anything down low. The whistling sound from the intake seems more pronounced now as well, hopefully that means she needs more air now. It's supposed to be dry and 40-50 degrees this saturday, I'll find out then

 

Pretty bummed. No racing today, driver's side hood latch is stuck closed and passenger side is stuck open. Guess I'll update you guys when I get around to the dyno tune.

 

Would you post a video of the idle. Would really like to hear it.