Passive Cooling Ideas
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From: Portsmouth, NH
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Passive Cooling Ideas
As many of us are aware, the C43 engine bay is like a heat vault. Feel the hood after a good drive and it's cool to the touch. Feel in front of the grill and you know there is some heat under there....The engine is so big for the space combined with a well made, well fit, and well insulated hood and you have trapped heat rising. This only gets worse with heavy driving and hot weather.
Looking around the other day I thought about the primary cat placement. They are up high at the exhaust manifold almost standing along the lower firewall. This puts them right below the intake manifold's opening. Cats get stupid hot and stay that way for a while. With heat rising they seem to keep that rear section really hot which is a bad thing for performance. In my case the S/C discharge piping runs right along to the rear and down into the intake manifold. After driving I felt all the piping and it gets noticably hotter as the pipe gets closer to the engine rear. This is not a good thing. Probably effects the N/A setup equally.
Here are my ideas.
1. Wrap the rear section of the exhaust manifolds and primary cats to hopefully direct more of the heat rearward to the exhaust sections underneath the car.
2. Wrap the intake pipe all the way from the S/C to the intake manifold. also preventing engine bay heat.
Here are my concerns.
1. Do cats get too hot for even header wrap??
2. Could this trap intake tract heat within the pipe. Engine bay temps would have to be higher than IATs for this to work and be effecient.
Any other ideas about this................
Looking around the other day I thought about the primary cat placement. They are up high at the exhaust manifold almost standing along the lower firewall. This puts them right below the intake manifold's opening. Cats get stupid hot and stay that way for a while. With heat rising they seem to keep that rear section really hot which is a bad thing for performance. In my case the S/C discharge piping runs right along to the rear and down into the intake manifold. After driving I felt all the piping and it gets noticably hotter as the pipe gets closer to the engine rear. This is not a good thing. Probably effects the N/A setup equally.
Here are my ideas.
1. Wrap the rear section of the exhaust manifolds and primary cats to hopefully direct more of the heat rearward to the exhaust sections underneath the car.
2. Wrap the intake pipe all the way from the S/C to the intake manifold. also preventing engine bay heat.
Here are my concerns.
1. Do cats get too hot for even header wrap??
2. Could this trap intake tract heat within the pipe. Engine bay temps would have to be higher than IATs for this to work and be effecient.
Any other ideas about this................
Super Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 674
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From: USA
1999 C43
It looks like AMG Builders/Mechanics etc... thought about all your concerns with years of experience and built this beautiful solid horsepower machine. I would leave it alone, and enjoy driving..
That's my 15 cents
That's my 15 cents
As many of us are aware, the C43 engine bay is like a heat vault. Feel the hood after a good drive and it's cool to the touch. Feel in front of the grill and you know there is some heat under there....The engine is so big for the space combined with a well made, well fit, and well insulated hood and you have trapped heat rising. This only gets worse with heavy driving and hot weather.
Looking around the other day I thought about the primary cat placement. They are up high at the exhaust manifold almost standing along the lower firewall. This puts them right below the intake manifold's opening. Cats get stupid hot and stay that way for a while. With heat rising they seem to keep that rear section really hot which is a bad thing for performance. In my case the S/C discharge piping runs right along to the rear and down into the intake manifold. After driving I felt all the piping and it gets noticably hotter as the pipe gets closer to the engine rear. This is not a good thing. Probably effects the N/A setup equally.
Here are my ideas.
1. Wrap the rear section of the exhaust manifolds and primary cats to hopefully direct more of the heat rearward to the exhaust sections underneath the car.
2. Wrap the intake pipe all the way from the S/C to the intake manifold. also preventing engine bay heat.
Here are my concerns.
1. Do cats get too hot for even header wrap??
2. Could this trap intake tract heat within the pipe. Engine bay temps would have to be higher than IATs for this to work and be effecient.
Any other ideas about this................
Looking around the other day I thought about the primary cat placement. They are up high at the exhaust manifold almost standing along the lower firewall. This puts them right below the intake manifold's opening. Cats get stupid hot and stay that way for a while. With heat rising they seem to keep that rear section really hot which is a bad thing for performance. In my case the S/C discharge piping runs right along to the rear and down into the intake manifold. After driving I felt all the piping and it gets noticably hotter as the pipe gets closer to the engine rear. This is not a good thing. Probably effects the N/A setup equally.
Here are my ideas.
1. Wrap the rear section of the exhaust manifolds and primary cats to hopefully direct more of the heat rearward to the exhaust sections underneath the car.
2. Wrap the intake pipe all the way from the S/C to the intake manifold. also preventing engine bay heat.
Here are my concerns.
1. Do cats get too hot for even header wrap??
2. Could this trap intake tract heat within the pipe. Engine bay temps would have to be higher than IATs for this to work and be effecient.
Any other ideas about this................
MBWorld Fanatic!
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From: S.E. FLA.
05 ML-500 , 03 CLK5.5 AMG has left the Garage
Engine Bay Heat, buildup
I here yuh. I've got a 209 . I had my Kleemann headers coated. Did a 160 thermostat mod & Had Louvers put in the hood. Do a search on 160* thermostat , & search for Hood Louvers on this forum. ___PTE___
MBWorld Fanatic!
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Posts: 1,194
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From: Diamond Bar & Anaheim, CA
2003 C-Class Sportcoupe
....or you can just delete the primary cats altogether. I'm replacing my exhaust system completely from the coated headers to new magnaflow mufflers. The car will still pass smog without the primary cats. Also working on adding louvers to my carbon fiber hood. i was thinking of modifying the hood to convert the intake system to a ram air intake like the Pontiac GTO Ram Air 6.
Last edited by pshek; Oct 18, 2006 at 11:24 AM.
Super Member
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 821
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From: Irvine CA
c43
you can add a fan switch to ahve your elec fans come on sooner, and remove the mech fan to free up some hp and weight, also the fan won't come on anymore because of the two other fans coming on sooner, also if you could some how get the 79c stats that are used in plac eof the 87c stats found in our cars, (79c is a mod that cane be added to m104 engines) that would keep your car running at a lower temp, which won't really help the hp at all too much, but i agree with what was said before, doa complete exhaust and heat coat everything, you can also get (phenloic sp) spacers made that would help cool your car down...
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From: Portsmouth, NH
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[QUOTE=pshek;1797402]....or you can just delete the primary cats altogether. I'm replacing my exhaust system completely from the coated headers to new magnaflow mufflers. The car will still pass smog without the primary cats. Also working on adding louvers to my carbon fiber hood. i was thinking of modifying the hood to convert the intake system to a ram air intake like the Pontiac GTO Ram Air 6. QUOTE]
I thought that I could only afford to remove the secondary cats? From what I was told the secondary cats fall behind all the O2's so that I could just remove them. My options for the primarys from what I understand is only to replace them with high flow units as the O2 sensors pull off of these ones.
My plans where to remove the secondary and resonator but was going to leave the primarys and maybe get 200cel cats in place.
Are you saying keep the secondarys and remove the primarys???
That GTO looks awesome, I like those.
QUOTE]I thought that I could only afford to remove the secondary cats? From what I was told the secondary cats fall behind all the O2's so that I could just remove them. My options for the primarys from what I understand is only to replace them with high flow units as the O2 sensors pull off of these ones.
My plans where to remove the secondary and resonator but was going to leave the primarys and maybe get 200cel cats in place.
Are you saying keep the secondarys and remove the primarys???
That GTO looks awesome, I like those.
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Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
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From: Portsmouth, NH
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As far as hood louvers go I had one idea. I was going to have my hood and nose resprayed over the winter due to some road rash and chips. I was thinking of trying to find the plastic mesh instert things that the SL have. Possibly cutting out the spot and placing them in a similar location. I'm pretty sure they are a removable part. I think with minimal fab it could easily be done and would be an interesting OEM mod.
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Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2006
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From: NorCal
'99 C43, '12 C63, '13 E350, '14 Sprinter
Mine is about the same. The fans rarely kick on even at these temps.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,194
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From: Diamond Bar & Anaheim, CA
2003 C-Class Sportcoupe
[QUOTE=NitrogenBalance;1797807]
Yeah, keep the secondaries and remove the primary cats. That's what Kleeman is doing on their cars. You just have to lengthen the wires.
....or you can just delete the primary cats altogether. I'm replacing my exhaust system completely from the coated headers to new magnaflow mufflers. The car will still pass smog without the primary cats. Also working on adding louvers to my carbon fiber hood. i was thinking of modifying the hood to convert the intake system to a ram air intake like the Pontiac GTO Ram Air 6. QUOTE]
I thought that I could only afford to remove the secondary cats? From what I was told the secondary cats fall behind all the O2's so that I could just remove them. My options for the primarys from what I understand is only to replace them with high flow units as the O2 sensors pull off of these ones.
My plans where to remove the secondary and resonator but was going to leave the primarys and maybe get 200cel cats in place.
Are you saying keep the secondarys and remove the primarys???
That GTO looks awesome, I like those.
QUOTE]I thought that I could only afford to remove the secondary cats? From what I was told the secondary cats fall behind all the O2's so that I could just remove them. My options for the primarys from what I understand is only to replace them with high flow units as the O2 sensors pull off of these ones.
My plans where to remove the secondary and resonator but was going to leave the primarys and maybe get 200cel cats in place.
Are you saying keep the secondarys and remove the primarys???
That GTO looks awesome, I like those.
