jeff.collop

Would anyone mind chiming in to help me understand the ideal modification path for a C63?

If it follows the trend of most cars, you get the biggest bang for the buck doing things in this order:

1) Tune
2) Intake
3) Headers

Who offers the best tune and intake for these cars?

johnnyblaze

First and foremost, if you want to see the biggest change in the car get a headers and a tune. Everything else will just compliment. A tune by itself will make a large difference, but a whole different beast comes from headers.

Intakes are typically ROW airboxes (rest of the world). You can find them from vendors on here for around $500. They are direct euro replacements that look exactly like stock except they dont have charcoal filters and the MAF inlet is perfectly round (versus half circle that USA stock boxes have) . Different intakes from other companies didn't yield much more horsepower than what typically ROW's do.

AMG E Power

Tune headers and a larger thottle body is about all u can do unless u go crazy and do ported heads and cams or just slap a blower on it

jeff.collop

Thanks guys, I have a Turbo Regal that is for heavy modding and fun! The C63 is my daily and I typically don't want to "mod the daily" but a tune would be fine to get it up to other 6.3 motor outputs in stock trim.

Headers, maybe but I doubt it really the car sounds incredible and I picked it over a modded CTS-V w/way more power because the power just isn't that big of a deal to me like it used to be in my older years the total package means everything. The V interior quality is laughable, also the blower sounds like a broken vacuum to me (to each their own). I'm happy w/the choice I made, but a little extra grunt will be great once I get used to the current power level, say 2-3 months from now.

BAD430BENZ

i just sold my GNX , Syclone and Typhoon last year so i know all about the Turbo 6 fun . i would recommend the tune for sure . the headers are going to be an option , if you don't mind the sound it's going to be loud...and i mean very loud . keep in mind that if you decide on a tune and are thinking about the headers , the flash will have to be designed for the headers .

since you have the play toy in the turbo regal , i would say just the tune for a little extra fun . i would recommend Weistec for the tune

.....and if you have a warranty and don't want to void it , i have a spare ECU that Weistec can flash for you for an easy swap....for those dealership visits

i will make you a great deal on the ECU

abcut973

I would say get a tune as well for more fun with your daily driver (congrats on the purchase by the way).
Then it all comes down to the $$$$ spent. Easy/cheap modification are the tune and probably airboxes. We are talking about less than 1000$ mods here. Then you can go a little bit further with headers/full exhaust/blower.... but cost jump to > 2-3k$ for a starting point.

jellis102.com

Since you are coming from American to Euro like I did, I'll share my experience over the last 2 months of owning a MB.

1 important factor in a Euro tune is (unlike an american car tune) the tunes that these guys are handing out is the ECU tune only, the TCU tune is separate and not very well advertised as such at all.

A tune to me is, the ECU/TCU together just like on my past American muscle/fast cars, my tuner charged X amount for a tune which is a 100% complete tune, not half a tune.

I chose a Eurocharged tune b/c they are local to me, if I have issues or problems, they are 30 minutes away from me, I don't like the idea of my tuner being too far away from me that they can't help right away and I'm not pulling my ECU out of the car to get it plugged in.

jeff.collop

Great input and perspective for me! I shot you a P/M I am in Austin, TX.

BAD430BENZ

this makes sense but what if you are not close to a tuner , like me . it's not that big of a deal to take the ECU out , which takes about 5 minutes maybe , and overnight to and from an experienced tuner

loungn14

We currently have our tune and handheld programmer on sale for $999. You can swap from stock to tuned at will for dealer visits!

jeff.collop

Very nice!

jellis102.com

and that's great IF you want the same tune that every other C63 is running (you only offer 2 tune choices with no changeability), not what I want, I want my own tune, designed around my mods, built specifically to MY car, not the last 18 cars you just did. I want MY tuner to tune MY car on HIS dyno and actually spend the time that it takes to tune MY car and get out of it everything that is there to be had, not what you deem necessary for "a C63 car". (generally speaking of course)

My Z06 and GTO has been on the dyno so many times, playing with different settings to get "test" changes and to optimize the tunes, or to just verify. I know for a fact what my build should yield on the dyno that I have used for the last several years. It's never been wrong, however, I just don't believe in the methods being used and I could very well be wrong on all accounts but, it's my money to spend and I want what I'm paying for.

deadfission

^^While I agree with you, it seems the OP doesnt really plan on modding his car out like crazy ... Thus a simple box tune will probably do him plenty of good.

BAD430BENZ

but the OP said that he has his Turbo Regal for heavy modding and play . a "canned tune" is exactly what he is looking for

a dyno tune also requires a local tuner , which some people don't have.....which i stated in my last comment

exactly

BAD430BENZ

maybe i'm wrong but it sounds like you're arguing with the same tuner you currently have

jeff.collop

Right, my specific situation would be get a tune and get the most out of the stock hardware. I do agree however, in the domestic world a tune always, always, always includes the Auto's computer...very strange that the Merc crowd is getting beat down on that...

loungn14

2 tune choices We are not flash tuners, we can and do custom tune cars all the time. (look at some of the other threads where we were offing race gas tunes, valet tunes etc)

EVERY tune we make is based on the persons car and takes into consideration the mods, elevation, gas etc. All of our base tunes are created on the dyno and are custom tunes (for those mods as we have done hundreds of 63's) We have found that a custom tune for your cars is typically only good for maybe 10whp difference on what we already have based on those particular mods (blowers excluded) There are not very many mods for these cars in general so giving us something to work with that we haven't already seen multiple times doesn't happen very often.

your tuner should offer remote dyno tuning. We custom dyno tune all over the world on a daily basis.

jellis102.com

Please don't take it the wrong way, I'm merely comparing my past tuning experiences with what is offered here, completely different tuning methods, I'm not necessarily saying that you guys aren't pulling everything but, I'm just used to having my car custom tuned.

My question/statement is that with handheld tuners, you can't really change things up, unlike the ability to purchase EFIlive or HPTuners and install on your personal laptop and you can make any change you want at any given time.

I see and read very little of that here on this forum. If you look at LS1tech or LS1gto among other forums, you'll find that guys publicize some the parameters of all sorts of selections within their tunes. I guess with so many different cam selections, the dyno tuning is an absolute must in the American world.

I'm quite happy with the help that you have done for me already and the help that you offered me as soon as I am ready to finish my tuning up post header mods.

Bad430, there is no arguments with my current LS tuner, they are always eager to try new things on cars, even if they only change small things just to optimize something else, I have no problem with that at all, it's free, costs me nothing. I have a beautiful relationship with the shop so it's helps us both out, they try it out on my car and it helps sell to other guys with the same or similar set up.

khmergod

If I were to get ROW boxes, would I need a tune?

Sincity

No. Stock or modified tune will compensate for extra flow.