aussie e55

are C63 engines built to diffrent specs. for diffrent countrys ?. thanks

CarHopper

No

Diabolis

The engines themselves are not. There are slight ECU variations for different countries (different mandated speed limiters for example), or the additional charcoal air filter elements required in North America, but the mechanical bits are the same worldwide.

JimmyR

I wonder about variance in the standard ie factory tunes in different parts of the world. Australian delivered C63s are set up to run on 98 octane fuel only (95 only if 98 not available, for short periods only and with a reduced power output/increased consumption as a result). My understanding is that in other parts of the world including NA the standard tune can tolerate 89 - 91 RON fuel.

aussie e55

thanks for your reply i have a MB dealer work shop telling me internal mechanical parts are different in engines built for the USA & australia & problems for USA engines would b different to Aust. engine problems ?.

Diabolis

No. In parts of the world where the fuel octane rating is expressed in RON (Australia & Europe), the engine requires 98 RON (and 95 only if 98 isn't available). In North America, octane ratings are expressed as AKI which is (RON+MON)/2, so the 98 RON fuel is equivalent to 91 AKI octane here, with 89 allowed for short periods only if 91 isn't available. It's not 91 RON, it's 91 AKI. The MON is always some 12 points or so lower than the RON, so it works out to pretty much being exactly the same.

The same applies to the power rating of the engines. In Europe, engine power is expressed in DIN (metric) horsepower or PS (these days converted to kilowatts) whereas in NA it's the SAE method. Both of them produce slightly different result due to the numbet of connected accessories to the motor (e.g. alternator, power steering, cooling system, stock exhaust, etc.) and the slight variation in the definition of each (735.5W DIN vs 746W SAE per hp), resulting in the slightly different engine power ratings. The "507" doesn't produce 507 SAE hp - it produces 507 DIN hp, which is 500 SAE hp (98.6%) - but in terms of actual output they really are all the same.

Seeing as the ECUs nowadays can both "learn" and more than sufficiently compensate for lower octane gas and modify the AFR or pull ignition timing, pretty much the only difference in programming betweeen different countries is the mandated speed limiter. The engines run the same.

Diabolis

I am not aware of any mechanical differences between the motors themselves. Other items, yes - whether it's the heat controls, various standard and available options, etc. but not within the engines themselves. Sure, there are differences between the P31 and non-P31 engines for eaxmple, but AFAIK they're uniform between the respective models in different parts of the world.

That does not mean that the problems are not going to be different though. For example, in the mid-1990s there were a bunch of BMW engine blocks that kept failing in NA due to the higher sulphur content of our gas, which reacted with the nikasil cylinder wall coating and destryed the engine block. There was no such problem in Europe where the gas is much cleaner due to governmental regualtions and has a much lower suplphur content. Newer engine blocks were then made using alusil insead of nikasil for the cylinder wall coating, but again AFAIK the change was implemented worldwide, not just in NA.

chrisridebike8

Not as far as engines. I know there have been some cases where roads are so bad MB will only sell you a car with the 18s on it. I remember a member or 2 on here got a 507 brand new and they couldn't get the forged 19s due to their country's roads being considered too poor.