Fellow 6.3L Owners,


Over the past 4 months I have had the pleasure of enjoying the Eurocharged V6.0 ECU Tune + BlackSeries ROW airboxes + AFE ProDry filters installed on my 2009 CL63 AMG. I wanted to provide an honest review of my feedback of the tune compared to previous iterations of the Eurocharged tune in the past and it differs from V3, V5 etc. Having the good fortune if living just down the street from Jerry @ Eurocharged I have always provided my vehicles to Jerry to be the test car for years now (my ML63 was the original development test car for both the V3, V5 and V5 Blip). After hearing of the possibility of the V6 + 7500rpm Redline I jumped at the offer to be the first with before/after dyno results of the tune. In addition to doing the tune we did before/after dynos of the ROW airboxes with stock filters as well (with surprising results). The car now has AFE prodry filters but no after dyno with the filters. Initially I planned on doing the writeup right away, but due to major health concerns I had to begin serious medical treatments in early 2017 and other matters simply became less of a priority at that time. After a few months of recovery I am back on track to good health, which has given me more time to enjoy/learn about the tune differences so this will serve more as a long term review.

Background:

My 2009 CL63 AMG had 13,000 original miles on it at the time of testing, and is officially the lowest mileage one in the country. Being an original 1-owner designo car from the Hamptons NY I knew it was the best preserved bone stock example that was barely driven 2 months out of the year, it serves as a time capsule into what an almost new M156 will dyno in its healthiest form from that era.
Baseline:

After putting her on the dyno, the stock results were stunning to say the least. Phillip said it was the highest bone stock non-SLS 6.3 they had ever measured on their new dyno, so she was healthy to say the least. In fact it was so high that Jerry started to suspect it already had a tune on it, but because It was a completely unmolested super low mileage 6.3L I highly doubted it and thought it was just a really strong factory freak. The airboxes had literally never even been touched to the point where it was tough to actually take any of it apart for the first time. After diving into the ECU code he realized it was still bone stock software and the dyno results obviously proved that.

Caveat: It is important to note that the baseline numbers of 442wHP & 395wTQ are 100% bone stock, however, the CL63 AMG is one of the few AMG’s that comes directly from the factory with secondary cats deleted, so to do a true apples vs. apples comparison to a C63 you would have to compared to a factory car with secondary cats deleted (to be truly objectively fair). Also, the CL63 AMG comes with the most powerful factory ECU tune of 525PS (518HP) so it’s even more powerful than the black series CLK63 & 507 edition cars so its gains will obviously be less as you are starting from the highest possible base tune.

Tune Dyno Results & Initial Impressions:

To say I am extremely happy would be an understatement. For a car that’s already so healthy from the factory, to gain an additional 15wHP & 18wTQ at peak (roughly 18cHP & 21cTQ at crank) is more than satisfactory. More importantly the tune is much smoother than the V5 it replaces. Another major difference (having to do more with the ML63 V5 setup) is that the ML63 is the only AMG that comes with a compound hybrid Primary/Secondary dual cat setup from the factory so you cannot delete one or the other, you have to delete both. For that reason my V5 setup is comparing both Primary/Secondary cats do a V6 setup with just primary cats. Because of it the pull up top above 6000rpm is much more fierce compared to the V5 ML63 setup resulting in a more tapering effect / drop off past 6500rpm due simply to less airflow on the exhaust side of the motor given that unique factory cat arrangement. The V6 on the CL63 simply pulls relentlessly all the way to the higher 7500rpm redline. The car does rev 300rpm more, but only in Manual mode, in all other modes redline is still 7200 (which I actually prefer). Another important note is the significantly improved torque plateau which makes over 400wTQ from 3500rpm-5700rpm, the torque ramps up faster and holds longer giving the impression that torque is everywhere no matter what RPM.

Perhaps the biggest surprise though is not the peak gains (it feels like more than the dyno suggests), but in fact it’s the mid range part throttle gains that are by far the most profound difference. Between 2500-4000rpm it feels like there is 30+ftlbs more torque under part throttle situations. So much so that the transmission shift points have completely changed & auto adapted under “C” comfort mode. Now the engine/transmission upshifts so much faster due to the ECU/TCU recognizing so much more torque. Before there felt like there was no meat below 3500rpm and now the TCU will keep grabbing higher gears as fast as it can due to the abundance of torque. So much so that you can lay into the throttle a good 50-70% at very low rpms and the transmission will hold the gear and accelerate forward instead of constantly downshifting like it used to before. In fact in C mode it will jump straight from 2nd to 4th gear now and a tenth or two of a second later it’s already in 5th gear. Now it likes to keep the rpms between 1500-2000rpm whereas before it would shift much later at 2500-3000+. For everyday driving this is a welcome change and also creates more of a difference in character from C to S modes than stock (which felt almost the same).


All in all, I could not be happier with the results. Worth every damn penny (and I paid full price for the tune). I have not had a chance to measure MPG gains from the lower shift points but I am sure it can only help. With that said, she is a BIG girl and is definitely thirstier than before. It’s hard to compare to my ML63 b/c the ML63 had a 24+ gallon tank and roughly 3 gallons bigger so it appeared to go through fuel at a slower rate (although I am probably sure it’s the same). I am sure if you babied the throttle and drove it grandma style it would prove to be more efficient than the stock tune under certain driving conditions, but I did not buy this car to drive like a grandma so that point is moot, lead foot 4 life. I will say this, on the highway it is way more fuel efficient than the ML63 purely b/c of aerodynamics so I can eek out 21MPG on a good day, whereas the ML63 required on act of God to break 18.2MPG above 75mph.

Black Series ROW Airboxes & AFE Pro Dry filters:
This is where things got interesting… I had read dozens of these ROW & filter threads trying to determine exactly whether it’s the airboxes or the filters that create most of the power gains / noise. Without any concrete evidence I wanted to do the tests myself to see once & for all the true definite quantitative results and prove which forum myths & misconceptions were false and which theories are true.
The ROW/BS airboxes are the best investment you can make, they are dirt cheap and a factory OEM part that will not void any warranty. On my ML63 I just did the charcoal delete, but to be honest the factory ROW airbox setup is much better. Do not be cheap and just buy them off Parts.com ($280 for the pair plus shipping etc). The AFE’s were another $140 shipped. The main reason I wanted to do the airbox & filters is actually not for power but for sound. I had heard that both improve the exhaust note. Given how the CL63 has secondary cats deleted from the factory (and most of the resonator delete videos I have heard actually did not sound smooth/refined at all) I opted to not delete the factory resonators and instead try to use the ROW & filters to get the exhaust sound I was looking for.

First the Dyno results from just the ROW airboxes: wait for it…. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. To all those saying the power gains come from the ROW instead of the filters, I am sorry but you are absolutely 100% wrong. We did 6-7 dyno runs back to back after installing the ROW airboxes while retaining the stock filters and after 6-7 runs the difference was <1HP (basically standard dyno variability). There simply were not any gains no matter how many runs we did back to back before/after. I had always suspected that the real restriction is the factory air filters, and without the added flow of performance filters you simply do not get any CFM gains by switching to the larger ROW airboxes. With that said… you DO get the roughly 10% increase in exhaust & intake sound. You also gain another additional 10% intake & exhaust sound from the air filters as well for roughly a total of 20% increase in noise on both sides of the engine. Nothing crazy, but for my purposes absolutely perfect. It takes a couple months for the exhaust side to fully mature, but once it does its perfect in my opinion and completely eliminates the need for a resonator delete at all (at least on the CL63 platform). For you C63 guys, secondary cat delete is still recommended.


The Filters did add a bit more pep and I suspect I probably picked up another 5HP from the filters with the ROW filters already in place, but to all those owners being cheap thinking you are getting power gains with ROW & not upgrading the filters, simply put, the data does not lie. Moral of the story, don’t be cheap, get both the ROW + the AFE Prodry filters and install both at the same time, Life is best with ROW + AFE .

Conclusion:

After driving the car for 4 months, I could not be happier with the results. So much so, I will not be touching the intake/exhaust side of the engine anymore. All future wheel HP/TQ gains will be from drivetrain efficiency mods: Lightweight 2-piece RacingBrake Rotors, Carbon Fiber Driveshaft and Wavetrac Diff in due time. I will also be doing before/after dynos on all of those to truly show all the differences. I suspect by the end I will be in the 470-485wHP range and for my purposes that is more than enough. To put it in perspective the car as it sits now is pushing almost 560HP at the crank which is borderline SLS power from a non SLS car. The V6 tune has completely woken up the car and had none of the jerkiness or refinement issues that the V5 exhibited at times. It’s the best money you can spend on your 6.3L and I am glad Eurocharged has taken the time to further develop the M156 platform now that it is an older legacy platform, we should all be grateful they have gone to such great lengths to make hands down the best ECU tune out there for one of the best V8s of all time J


Cheers,
ML63 AMG

 

This was a well detailed and nicely controlled experiment. Thanks for doing it so carefully.

Jim G

 

Could of swore the cl63s came with row boxes stock.I know the clk 63 did

 

Thanks for taking the time to post, it was an interesting read.

I read it twice but i kept getting confused though...you have a CLS63 and an ML63? One of them has a V5 tune and one was stock with 442 at the wheels? Is the ML 4WD?

 

Great review!

Concusion - no need to install aftermarket filters.

 

At first I thought you meant you got a concussion from the review... conclusion!


Haha


-Patel

 

Ahah! Typo

It's a great review indeed, but didn't give me a concussion

 

Great write up. Thanks for taking the time to do it. I have the V5 plus all the mods you have, and I have the V6 sitting on my computer and was waiting to use it.

 

I think you did have a concussion.
The conclusion is that aftermarket filters gain hp. ROW airbox do not.

 

EXACTLY

 

^^ +2

 

How much for the upgrade from V5 to V6?

 

V5 to V6 upgrade is $125.

 

They did not, only the CLK63 black series did, some of the CLK63s did later but only one side of the airbox as has been reported.

CL63 came with standard charcoal filter design

 

I currently have the CL63 , my previous vehicle was an ML63 with V5blip tune. The ML63 was 4WD but had horrendous drivetrain loss (over 30%). The ML Dyno'd in the 380s stock bc of all the transfer case losses and insanely heavy wheel / tire / brake setup. 442 was baseline of the CL63 correct

 

Opposite conclusion. Aftermarket filters are basically mandatory. The airboxes do not actually make any power, but they do increase the sound of the intake & exhaust. I highly recommend doing both at the same time.

The filters are where the CFM gains come in hence the power gains. Factory filters will only flow so many CFM before they top out and become a restriction. Beyond that AFE begins to unlock more gains

 

Worth every penny, the smoothness of the transmission is big step up. Power gains at WOT from V5-V6 are not much more, but it's the mid range partial throttle maps and smoothness of the power delivery that are so massively improved. It feels like an OEM SLS tune essentially in refinement

 

The c63 pp or non pp tune still dyno lower than the stock CL63. I thought the motor were pretty much identical.
What makes the CL63 with that much HP?

 

The CL63 S63 and SL63 all came with the highest state of tune (Higher than the black series and even the 507 cars. They are the max 525PS tune. A;so, the CL63 comes from the factory with only primary cats, not secondaries.

In addition, the CL63 and S63 have the longest exhaust systems out of all the AMGs which actually increases torque response across a broader rpm range. So all those factors combined make for a very unique set of circumstances that are optimal for power. It was also probably broken in very well by the original owner and well maintained.

It's definitely a factory freak no question.

 

How is the transmission smoother? Do you mean the power delivery is smoother?

 

Part of the transmissions characteristics are from the TCU, But a portion of the code is also located in the engine ECU (Specifically the delay times at each point throughout the shifting process). How you modify that code determines how the transmission shifts. Doing just the V6.0 engine ECU will still significantly improve the transmission shifting time over stock even without touching the TCU. However, for even faster shifting times you can always do the TCU as well (but honestly not necessary, especially on the 7G).

The V5 was not as refined, but the V6.0 has significantly improved the refinement and as a result the shifting is the best yet compared to all previous iterations of the tune.

Hope that helps explain it better

 

Nice write up. Made for an interesting read.

 

It does but to my understanding from EC and OC and other chip guys is that the transmission will not be any different due to all of the code being in the TCU.
I can see in your OP that when you state that the car makes more torque, it will change the dynamic of the transmission because it's thinking more torque, shift faster, but not sure that's code changes and not speed and torque changes.
I am not an expert at this so I would like to hear from others about this as well. I have never felt a difference from stock to V5 in the tranny at all other than getting to speed and running the gears a little quicker due to that.

 

V5-V6 is where you feel most of the refinement changes. Shift speeds are improved under certain circumstances as well from stock to V5. V5 tended to give rough shifts from time to time, V6 improved that and never had that issue anymore

 

Nope, not true....

I have AFE dry filters and am very pleased with them.,...BUT....when I had Tony Lawshee at Buckhead Import Performance do my tuning and dyno-ing he showed me 1st hand that there was zero difference in output between factory filters and aftermarket....strapped to the dyno he made a pull with aftermarket (389rwhp), changed out to factory filters, made another pull(389rwhp).....I didn't have ROW at the time but was told that they did make a difference in output(said average was around 8hp)....this was at a tuning shop that rolled M156s through all the time so they had ample experience with what worked and what didn't.