EuroB6

Hey everybody, I'm new to the site and new to MB cars. Picked up my C63 last Saturday. I came from an Audi background, having previously owned a B6 S4 and a B7 S4. In all honesty, the C63 was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Now, let's get to my question.

I don't plan on getting a tune for my C yet, but I know eventually I will. I have searched and searched and read a lot of reviews of different tuners. I have narrowed down my pick to Kleemann or Evosport. My question to all of you owners with these tunes, is how happy are you with the tune and how much of a noticable difference are you actually feeling/seeing? I keep hearing that you can get these cars up to 500 crank HP with a tune, but are these numbers realistic? Of the Kleeman ECU/TCU owners, what percentage of these cars are getting the 500+ chp and the same question for Evosport. We all know that different cars, respond differently to tunes. Sorry for the long post, I just want some honest feedback here.

patboyy

congrad on ur new beast...enjoy...

EuroB6

will do, thank you.

C'mon guys, no one has anything good or bad to say about their tunes?

sflgator

I currently do not have a tune (yet anyway ), but I can say that I haven't heard anything negative of the Kleemann ecu flash. In fact, I would say that it may be the most popular C63 AMG ecu for the MBWorld forum members, since it's probably the "most bang for your buck." I believe the consensus is that the $1,495 Kleemann K1 ecu flash provides approx. +50-60BHP / +30 lb-ft TQ, and everyone seems to be quite pleased with it. If I get an ecu flash, it will be the Kleemann K1 (with a quick 2-day turnaround from Cory @ Kleemann USA in CO), even though I live within 20min. of RENNtech...I'll pass on their $3,495 ecu flash (which yields approx. the same HP/TQ increase as the Kleemann K1).

I hope that helps.

EuroB6

Thanks bud. I did hear a lot of positive stuff about Kleemann. I know the Evosport stune is a little more, but anybody out there want to share their own opinions about Evosport's tune?

yaymitch

I have the Kleeman K1 ECU tune and the difference is definitely noticeable. Especially at moderate to high speeds. I noticed a bit of a lag between 70 to 120 when stock, that is gone with the K1. The car is responsive at all speeds now.

KenFlo

New to the forum as well, good question.

Thanks for the helpful feedback guys.

lomita

Been driving on the Evosport tune now for little over a week. Walking around now, with big stupid grin, ear to ear, all the time. People at work still trying to figure out what happened.

Got the pulley too, yesterday. Jeezus, lightning fast now!

No longer even remotely the same car.

Put my order in with Evo today for some European AMG air boxes. It's only money, and I don't have any..........

BTW, my 17 year old son is going with LET Motorsports on his C32 AMG. Hope it all works out. Cheaper, mehbe. I wish him luck.

Am sticking with Evosport.

deaguero

I also have the Evosport tune which is actually the Powerchip tune.
I feel it lives up to the claim of a 50 + HP increase.

It is within price range of the Kleeman which I have heard good things too.

Good luck with your ultimate decision!

Phil

EuroB6

this is all great feedback. It is becoming more and more difficult to make a decision. My main reason for posting this, is because I have heard from some people that the tune doesnt feel any different than stock. One instance, where the wrong tune was setup for someone, not sure what happenned to rectify the issue. Another went to the dyno and yielded only a ~20hp increase at the wheels, if that. I just want to make sure that a tune that I get, will give me the 400whp that I am looking for. It looks like our cars dyno in at around 360-370whp, so attaining another 30-40 at the wheels sounds doable, per the venders.

propain

Welcome to the forum. Awesome choice in car.

Im a fan of Audi as well. The RS4 is very nice.

With that from what ive put together and guys ive spoken to the K1 or K2 package is the way to go. I think you MIGHT get more HP results from Rentech but they cost about 2 1/2 times as much for an ECU tune. I didnt even bother talking to them about Stage 2.

K1 package will run you $1500 and is worth every penny I hear. Ill be doing it at about 5K miles. I want to enjoy the stock C63 and get bored with her power (if thats possible) before I start modding. The winter is almost here anyway and she will most likely get garaged anyhow.

Word to the wise on this forum. Dont crome anything! JK. Welcome.

Edit: For 40 more WHP you will need the K2 package for about $3600 installed including labor. The K1 wont get you there IMO.

EuroB6

Nice,glad to hear.

No need to worry about chrome over here. My last set of wheels were BBS RS-GTs in diamond black.

EuroB6

For all of you with just an ECU tune, did you upgrade your air filters, or stayed with the stock filters?

lomita

Took those nasty stock filters and threw em in the trunk. Have the BMC filters now. Breathing a whole lot better now.

You can definitely feel the difference with the tune and filters, however, whole new game with the crankshaft pulley addition.

Next up, AMG filter boxes from Germany via Evosport.

Mr. Happy

I did K1 recently. I considered EVOsport too but there was not as much support as for Kleemann. You can read my thread if it can help.

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...ay-my-c63.html

soldier2304

IDK where you got your info that a pulley will add major amount of power on our car. From good source i was told that a pulley on the C63 is not worth it and is literally a waste of money for too little power. I have yet to see dyno numbers of pulley gains on our cars.

c32AMG-DTM

lomita has already made clear that seat-of-the-pants "feel" is his automotive performance measuring stick.

I'm one to believe that "hey, if it makes you (the owner) happy, more power to you" 'cause in the end, that's what should matter most.

To the OP - from all of the data I've seen, I'd vote Kleemann. Tune vs. tune, similar results from a well established, well respected MB tuner for 75% of the cost of the Powerchip tune.

Evosport's Powerchip tune is also the only tune in the country specifically developed to run on California 91 pump (as posted by evo)... but if it's developed specifically on CA 91, does it leave anything on the table for the rest of the country who can get good 93? I'd normally think that a box tune wouldn't matter (they're all less aggressive than if you were custom dyno tuned, a "least-common-denominator" type of thing), but this was pushed as a selling point to a potential CA customer... so who knows?

rory breaker

It boggles my mind why these tunes are so expensive to begin with.

A good tuner will take half a day, MAYBE a day on the dyno factoring in multiple once-overs to develop a safe tune. I would love to know what is so different about these tunes that they charge so much.

Its a tune for a stock car. Once its developed its done. $1500 is simply insane and as a consumer, I hope more competitors come out to drive these prices down.

c32AMG-DTM

Many have stated it's due to the smaller target market... fewer cars to recoup the fixed costs across means each one shares more of that overall expense. The tuner's time spent (i.e. labor) is only a fraction of the overall cost - there's the hardware used to consider, as well as other overhead (sales, marketing, warranty if applicable, etc.), plus a profit motive for the tuning company. I'm sure there's a bit of a "luxury tax" factor as well... because tuning costs escalate as you go up the automotive food chain.

Agree that more competition is good for consumers - but lower cost upstart tuners are usually doing their "R&D" on the backs of their client base; it's up to the consumer to then decide if that's worth the cost savings or not - but it's nice to have choices.

rory breaker

I agree with the last part of your statement, no doubt.

In response to the first part, I just dont buy it. My suspicion is that the price of the mods scale with the MSRP of the car, period. Its unfortunate that the supplier sets the unquestioned market pricing for this product versus the consumer, but thats the way it is I guess.

At $1500 a pop, they are recouping their dough, no doubt. Just waiting for an ambitious engineer to crack the code him/herself and start offering the same tune for $250 to bring these guys down to reality thats all.

Now if the $1500 is warranted and a tuner wants to explain where that number came from and why it costs so much (IE there is a module in every ECU we must replace that comes from Germany, which we are charged $375 a pop for, combined with blah blah blah) then I would love to hear it.

hhughes1

It is all relative, consider that the cost of delimitation which raises the governed top speed from 155 to 172 as a factory option was $1250. And this provides no more power. Picking up an extra 40 hp at the wheels raises the cars performance threshold to that of many cars that are priced significantly higher. For $1500 that is a bargain in the $50,000+ range but not so much for an old fox body.

lomita

Put your stock in your sources and I will continue to enjoy my Evosport pulley....works for me. There is only me, there is no you.........my name is Mud, enjoy my wine.........oh that's right, jet pilots whine more....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdSoEXpJCiE

PS, power is freed up by replacing heavier weight crankshaft pulley with lighter Evosport pulley, therefore, throttle response improved.

lomita

IYHO, do you even have a C63?

REDSRT

Totally agree! I DYNO TUNED my SRT8 charger for only 400 bux! The deal also came with the Diablo predator which is a diablo tuner, that lets you adjust everything my self----shift points, fuel, timing, etc. Now I am not comparing the charger to the C as I realize they are completely different ( american vs. german), but just saying. Its a FREAKIN CAR and a FREAKIN TUNE, its not really a major mod such as heads, or Cam etc. that involves major labor, Alright Im done

REDSRT

Does it matter what he drives??? The guy is talking about TUNES, not specified cars. Plus its in his sig....