wilburfierce

( My 3 greatest loves. My C 63, my dog, and my mountain bike ( stashed in back where it stays )

I know there are 1000s of mod threads but I want to take this thread in a different direction. Even though I love my 2012 C 63 coup, lately I've begun lusting for speed. I decided trading up was not an option. I read everything I could find on the newer C63s that meet my specs;( 2 dr, RWD, room for my mountain bike in back. ). Everything pretty much admits that nothing since the awesome 6.2 has equaled it. Now it seems some basic mods are my only options but I am wary. I spent 3-4 hrs here reading perf. mod threads and all I got was a headache. 100s of different builds were posted but after reading so many it seemed that they all were a little iffy as to results, and very costly. That they often came with a lot of bugs to work out, and often affected the cars reliability. I am not a gear head. Call me mechanically challenged. So I am looking for some simple mods with proven returns that won't break the bank.

So I challenge all to show me a mod for under $5000 that has proven gains, simple to install, and doesn't make the car finicky.

Background :
I have gone to our local dragstrip 2 times and my best was 8 sec flat. Lame. A friend, ( veteran in autocross- Porsche 911 ) took me to my first autocross recently but warned me politely that he thought my car wasn't that suited for it. Most of my runs were pretty ragged but I had a few decent ones. My best beat his by 1.5 secs. and there are miles of room for improvement ( driver) ! He rode with me on a run and all he would admit to was to say, "I had no idea how good your AMG was". HA ! I now love autocross. In 2018, I will probably do quite a few more, go to the drags a couple of times, and maybe realize my dream of getting on a real track with her. ( So glad I didn't go to the track last year, my first year with the car. I would have stunk. ) I learned a lot just in one autocross. I think some more will be good preparation for the track. All this may tell you more than you need to know but to summarize; in order of priority, I am looking for; Measurable gains in HP & torque, simplicity and ease of use ( ie. no complicated tune with a lot of maps to diddle with-just one, fast), simple installation, ( I will be paying shop rates ), no compromise in reliability, reasonable cost to gain ratio.
I hope this "challenge" will draw a lot of response from more members, and I thank you all in advance. If what I am asking for just doesn't exist I won't mind an honest post that says so then you can tell me " you already have an awesome car. Be satisfied and just enjoy what you have !" May be what I need to hear. But you understand we just don't roll that way, that's why we're here.


BTW, thanks to all C 63-204 members for sticking together here. We know what we've got even if "they" don't. You can have my 6.2L dinosaur when it's time to pry it from my cold dead hands !

bentz69

tunes are not complicated. plug in handheld tuner to obd port, upload tune, drive. less then 1000$. Get a tune and call it day.

JonM

For $5,000 you could do headers and a tune and gain 60whp+

For autocross, the headers bump you out of Street class, though. I think that puts you in Street Modified, which if all you care about is raw time then that doesn't matter. For PAX, I would just get a tune which puts you in Street Prepared; better PAX.

Depends on what you want. Do you want to autocross or do you want a street car? Headers and tune if you don't care about what class you run in autocross. If you care, which you will in a few months, just get a tune.

wilburfierce

Thanks Jon
I never considered my autocross class changes. I felt I was competing with myself but I can't say I didn't compare to other times. I seemed to be plagued with a very competitive nature ( over a decade in Motocross, then Triathlon then racing mountainbike ) There are so many street categories the AMG & I were alone in our cat. Seemed strange. It would be nice to get in a cat with some competition. But if memory serves there were some over the top cars that I couldn't believe were streetable in S Modified. I don't want to wind up in a money fight. I will go to the club page and look at the results and the competition to see if that is an influence. Our region's events are on 2 venues and at both its reliably the same usual suspects.

Tune only sounds good now. It's in line with my simplicity objective and offers the biggest returns/ $. No ?

AhhMyyGawd

Yes. Tune is by far the greatest bang for your buck. Eurocharged has sales so you can get it for around $750. its plug and play, and it will turn it into a completely more aggressive monster. Nothing else will yield as much performance gain for the money, as well as make the car shift smoother

Diabolis

I would make sure that you can put down the power that you already make. Do you have an LSD? If you don't, that is by far the best place to start. Second - and probably last in that price range - are headers and a tune. As for auto-x - the C63 is not the right tool for the job. Yes, you will have fun doing it, but it's a tank and a freakin' expensive one at that...

wilburfierce

UPDATE
Thanks Ahhmygawd Got the euro charge tune complete ( $750 ). Throttle response is monstrous. Rep claimed 50hp gain. I took w/ a salt grain but now I can believe it.
And yes Diabolis the C 63 is not the best auto X car. The course I ran was big with 2 straights good for about 60. The C 63 loved that and I ran some respectable times. Been looking for a DD as I hate putting "junk miles" on the C 63 ( long road trips on the slab & city driving ). Just snagged a 2012 JCW Mini S. Will be my DD and my AutoX er.

Great input all !

Thanks !

Savage-wp

Awesome. Tune really wakes it up. Now fit some headers and you will uncork some more power and a glorious sound.
Congrats on the Mini. They are great little cars.

AMGC

todthedod

Like everyone says, tune should be first. Then exhaust and make sure you have good tires. Having a competitive nature cost wayyyyyyy too much money...lol. Just keep whatever you do light and fun.

Diabolis

I respectfully disagree that a tune on its own should be first or for that matter a viable option at all on a N/A engine. The gains are minimal and when you factor in the accelerated wear and tear it places on the drive train, it quickly becomes one of the worst things you can do in terms of value. Once you add headers and/or other goodies to the mix, then yes, absolutely tune it for the mods - but on its own, I'm afraid that a tune for an otherwise unmodified M156-equipped car is a "fail".

Jasonoff

So for 6 years my non P31 with a tune hasn't benefited at all?

AhhMyyGawd

AMGonFire

Diabolis

How much has your tune exactly benefited you - and at what cost? While the non-P31 cars are detuned on purpose to make the engines last, what has the extra power actually gotten you? Shaved off 0.1 seconds in your 0-60 time?

Not quite as mindblowing as yours, but then again I didn't drink the Kool Aid so I'm not under the influence nearly as much as you apparently are. I'm from the planet where there is no such thing as a free lunch. On a P31 car you'd get 20-25 hp at best, and the risk for the gains - which in practical terms are indeed minimal - when the downside is a $35K bill for a new motor are FAR too great for quality as a reasonable mod. Re-read the OP's post - he was asking about being faster in an auto-x event, and furthermore wanted "no compromise in reliability {and a] reasonable cost to gain ratio." I am afraid a tune doesn't even remotely qualify.

Glad to hear your E85 car is still running great. That's about as accurate as saying that playing Russian roulette is perfectly safe because you haven't killed yourself yet. Carry on, please.

AMGonFire

Jasonoff

The personal enjoyment has benefited my quality of life as substantial amount.
Cost was about $700 at the time...
They were? LOL, do you actually believe that? So you're telling me Mercedes had longevity as a top priority for non P31 instead listing +30hp for a P31 upgrade option? Interesting...
It aids in escaping dangerous situations on the roadways. Nobody cares about 0-60 times...

AMG3.2

Well this got interesting.

skratch77

Wasn't the e63 and ml63 rated at 520hp? Same internals as the non PP c63!

easy way to tell if its undertuned is to get a bone stock 2007 e63 and look how much the tbsp open with a scan tool.

INS1GNIA

Diabolis

Thanks, but I like my Mercs... never owned a Toyota and never will.

The E63 makes a little more power because it has a different air intake or exhaust (don't remember which) and is tuned accordingly from the factory. The P31 and 507 make more power than the non-P31 C63 because they have forged internals and 7 lb less reciprocating mass in the engine. The BS makes a little more power than the P31 / 507 because the bottom end of the motor is different and cylinders on opposing sides of the V help pull down / push up the piston in the opposite cylinder. It's things like that that account for the extra power so that the expected wear and tear, longevity and reliability of the engine remain unaffected in spite of the power increase. They are not tuned or detuned for marketing purposes - they are tuned or detuned to make the whole package equally reliable following millions of hours and miles of testing. Yes, number are sometimes misrepresented for marketing purposes, but they do not actually restrict the engine from making more power than claimed. The P31 makes the same power at the 507, yet the P31 is marketed as making 481 hp whereas the 507 is marketed as the full 507 (and interestingly enough, with the 507 they "forgot" the difference between metric and mechanical hp).

According to me and the laws of the physical universe *I* live in, engines that are run harder experience more wear and tear than engines that are not run as hard. The same principle applies to everything from light bulbs to human knees and elbows. It appliers to everything including your brain, and yours will definitely outlast mine by quite a margin.

Diabolis

That is cool and I completely respect that.
I am not talking about the cost of the tune itself - I am talking about the cost of the whole system over its projected lifespan. If the engines from the factory were designed to last 10 years with the OEM tune and you take a 100 engines that were not tuned and another 100 that were, the repair costs of the tuned ones over those 10 years would be significantly higher than the ones that weren't.
Absolutely. Mercedes is extremely concerned with profit. Engines that fail cost them both directly (money to repair under warranty claims) as well as indirectly (reputation and thus future sales figures).
LOL. I somehow don't think that the extra power provided by the tune is going to make much of a difference in that area, but mathematically speaking you are indeed correct!

Diabolis

There is a key component that you're forgetting about... they way the cars are driven. E63s and ML63s are aimed at a different segment of the population and are not going to be raced or pushed NEARLY as much or as hard as a C63 would. If you look at the E63s and ML63s that were pushed hard, most of them are in fact falling apart. Read some of the threads here.

AMGonFire

AMGonFire