ctravis595

i followed the directions in this video. I have noticed a difference in the shifting speed, especially with a tcu tune it’s pretty quick


I could be wrong but if we follow these instructions for the 1-2 shifts, and so forth, maybe we can figure out a way to make all gear shifts quicker

ctravis595

Some work had to be done to the oil drain fitting, it looks like a 16an fitting but when I ordered the 16an fitting, the fitting was too large to fit onto the Oem holset oil drain, but with some grinding down the fitting I was able to slip the 16an hose over the oil drain fitting. It will not be very high pressure so a simple screw type clamp should work to secure the hose

This turbo is from a Iveco Cursor 10 semitruck engine, I believe the funky sizes for the oil fittings are for the oem oil lines from the truck


Here is the Honda atv oil tank bored out to slip in a 16an turbo oil drain hose. A dremel works well for this. I went at the oil tank with a parts cleaner but I’ll need to disassemble it to inspect everything and ensure cleanliness

BlownV8

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to seeing the finished project.

ctravis595

With the wipers removed and some of the charge pipe installed through from the bottom of the car, here’s an example of the 2.5” aluminum piping routed from the rear/underside of the car, towards the throttle body

BlownV8

Nice!

alambkal

I'm curious how the ride quality is with those low profile tires. I'm in New England and I think it might be brutal on the roads here to have those tires. Looks like you're somewhere a bit warmer too...?

ctravis595

im from Florida, sometimes we see heavy rains but never snow/ice

i like how precise the low profile tires feel, when I’ve had the oem AMG 18” wheels and tires the ride quality is a bit smoother but the steering “response” is not the same. The steering “response/feel” with the low profile tires reminds me of a more expensive/capable car

and with these new brakes in the front I really do not have any other options besides 20” wheels anymore. I just like how they look, these wheels were part of the reason I chose this car about 8 years ago

it’s just important to watch for potholes and major road imperfections, I recently had all 4 wheels powder coated for the curb rashing, and had one wheel welded/repaired to fix a small hairline crack on the inside edge of the wheel. If I did not have such low profile tires, I’m not sure I would have had to deal with this extra wheel repair

in other news
yesterday I did my first welding, I joined my stainless steel exhaust outlet flange to my iron turbine housing, soon I’ll be able to finish the pre and post turbo exhaust. The welds look like crap but they seem mighty

alambkal

Ohhh I didn't realize you had 20's on there...makes sense now and I can see where your responsiveness is greatly increased. Very nice

ctravis595

ECU/Fuel cut/MAF tuning "Magnum Tuning Evotech Active Power" ebay joke performance chip

when devising this turbocharger system, i knew at one point i would need to address the extra airflow the ECU will sense through the MAF system. one method that seems to work for most is to install a resistor across the signal wire on the MAF wiring harness.

from what i understand thus far. when the MAF/ECU senses too much air (from a turbo or supercharger for example) the ECU will cut the fuel supply (i presume this means closing the throttle body, as well as fuel?)

this is the same way kleeman does their forced induction kits, which often cost 5x the price. as discussed in this thread
https://mbworld.org/forums/clk55-amg...lamp-help.html

already, i sensed this could be an annoying process of trial and error, trying different resistors until i found the right one.... nobody has really shared what resistors work best for fooling the MAF/ECU on these cars from what my research shows

then i remembered a crude device i bought about 7 or 8 years ago, it was an ebay "performance chip" and having more money and boredom than was fit, i decided to buy it

https://www.magnumtuning.com/en/deta...SABEgJzk_D_BwE

upon arrival (many years ago) i found the item to be very crude, and did not deem it fit to attempt installing on any of my cars...and i threw the "chip" into a spare parts bucket, until now here's a link to the product as per the manufacturers website (sidenote, i do not remember this chip ever costing more than $80 or so dollars, the current price is absurd)

it's clear that most auto enthusiasts would not take this thing seriously, let alone on a car like a mercedes, ETC.

fast forward to the present, i realize this "performance chip" might do a suitable job of giving me a controllable level of resistance, so that i can try different resistance settings on the MAF wires until i find the right combination of settings. being able to finely tune the MAF/ECU manipulation offers some benefits as far as not going overboard with fooling the ECU/MAF air volume readings, which would cause the MAF to never really sense overboost, and cut the fuel/air(and timing i presume?)

once i find the perfect level of "resistance" for my setup, i could possibly instead just install a dedicated resistor for a more permanent setup, with less wiring involved. but i believe being able to tune the MAF resistance could help with changing components, boost levels, ETC

i hooked up the chip up to 12v and tested the resistance with my multimeter, sure enough the "performance chip" is just a variable resistance controller like i presumed, linked below is a video of the cheap, crude performance chip finding a more useful application


edit this **** ended up not working correctly

ctravis595

i will update this list with the pricing as I go:

Holset HE531V Turbo - $315
Dual Bosch wideband sensors, with oil temp gauge/sensor and boost gauge cluster -$450
2.5 aluminum charge pipe with intercooler, silicone couplers and clamps - $225
Turbowerks Exapump - $400
Rising Rate Fuel Pressure Regulator - $150
Fuel pump voltage booster - $239
-8an fittings and hose kit - $35
intake oil filter $30
Hobbs switch/2 psi - $20
Charge air intake filter $10
volvo penta air flapper valve -$45
Exhaust heat wrap for the turboback piping $20
44mm wastegate $55
honda rubicon ATV oil tank $26
t4 flange $13
t6 sized turbo blanket $26
blow off valve $50
3" stainless exhaust $75
turbo oil -$20
various hoses, fittings, adapters, dremel bits, etc $100-200
”shop supplies” (screws, brackets, bolts, etc)
$350 (?)roughly(?)

so far we are around the $2500-3000, I’ve tried to include shipping with the price list. (edit: as of Late March of 2020) mark on this project, getting the turbo for free through ebay helped(edit:not in the long run). i will try to keep this particular post updated with the prices of this project. i foresee some hidden costs but this so far this seems very far from the $10k+ people used to say it would cost to add forced induction to a mercedes

ctravis595

here are some more updates, my apologies if it feels as if I’m “over explaining” the process but I always greatly appreciate when I’m doing research and folks include these small details and roadblocks they run into along the way!

my goal is to have the w215 back on the road, with the functioning turbo and everything done by January 24th. Some of the photos in this post are a bit out of order.





Spot welds a friend did for me, aluminum welding is out of my scope of capability at the moment.

3” aluminum intake piping lines up beautifully for anybody wondering

Here is the flange after modification, note the massive t6 sized turbo blanket barely fits over this turbine housing!!!

One common issue with forced induction setups on these motors is the MAF sensor elbow, there is not much of a lip on the throttle bodies for these cars, and not much room to attach charge piping to the throttle body . I’ve read more than one account of this elbow popping off under boost. It was not designed for boost but merely the engine sucking in air naturally

I had a friend weld about 7 or 8 small spots (called tack welds) around the throttle body to connect a bit of aluminum intake pipe with a lip. A lot of heat can get transferred from the welding process into the throttle body and damage it, so I wanted to avoid anything more than a few quick spot welds Afterwards I sealed up the new throttle body modification with a healthy layer of epoxy

A common hold up when installing holset turbos is that you’ll find a normal t4 flange does not line up correctly with the t4 pattern on the holset turbos. A common workaround is to enlarge the bolt holes to fit what is considered a “t4i” or t4 international flange, I was unable to source any of these particular flanges online so it was time to bust out the dremel

ctravis595

As soon as I finally got the underhood charge piping, MAF housing, and the n/a intake valve together, I took an overview picture.

as seen in the photo, I incorporated the maf soon before the throttle body, very similar to the setup from the factory

this part was quite annoying to get everything to line up probably... I had to make some custom cuts in the silicone couplers and aluminum piping... I had to modify the maf housing to better accept silicone boost couplers as well. I also cut a window into the firewall fiberglass insulation... fun. Not to mention all the effort towards adding an aluminum extension to the throttle body for the more secure connection. But I am glad this part is sorted out.

otherwise I have been busy with welding exhaust flanges, flex pipes, etc. my welds are fairly ugly but the strength is what matters to me right now. I can always go back and freshen up the welds once my technique is improved

next up is mounting up the turbo. Then removing the factory x-pipe to attach a wastegate, and develop the exhaust routing directly to the turbine housing through the trunk floor. And then I’ll be able to route the last bits of the charge piping

lastly I’ll develop the fueling system changes, and wire up the turbo oil temp sensor, boost gauge and maf voltage clamp

as seen in the photo above, I’ve decided to delete the egr system. Will need to visit a friend with developer mode enabled on their diagnostic machine because the ones we use in the shop do not have that capability

BlownV8

You probably want the waste gate right at the turbo. If not, it will make the turbo lag even worse. Keep the updates coming. Good stuff!

BlownV8

Any updates?

ctravis595

Nothing too drastic, I’ve been practicing my welding. I’ve cut out some trunk to route the exhaust and mount the turbo, otherwise I’ve been swamped with work and a bmw e38 sport I picked up to drive while the w215 is down

ctravis595

After lots of trial and error , here is the turbo charge pipe , into the Volvo penta air valve, into the oem maf, then into the engine . This part was fairly tedious but I’m very glad I made room to hide the air intake flapper valve and retain some of the oem engine bay arrangement . I expect slightly cooler intake air temps with the “ambient air” being drawn from behind the firewall insulation, The cooler the air intake temps, the better...

Here is the intake setup with the oem engine cover. Once I realized the intake air valve could possibly be hidden behind the firewall insulation, I was eager to see if the engine cover could still be fitted. Sure enough it still fits!! If anything, it actually directs some fresh cooler air directed towards the back of the throttle body/intake system through the oem air box/air intake tubes, from the front grill area

Here is an oil catch can idea I’m trying out... a few inches off of the catch van, is a PCV (air valve) from a 1999 Ford e150 v8 van. This way the engine can blow off excess crankcase pressure, yet retain vacuum when needed. This valve kinda sucks, it was only about $5 but I’ve found it’s not absolutely airtight like i would prefer








As of now, most of the work under the hood is done, besides routing some boost gauge vacuum lines and making some heat shielding.

Ultimately I want this car to be suitable for all weather conditions despite the modifications. So I will have to tackle two obstacles with this. I will need to build some sort of shielding over the oem A/C air intake. The oem design does not fit with the new charge piping.

secondly I will need to develop a new guttering system below the hood. In the oem form, there is a sort of box/downspout configuration that takes water caught in the hood vents, down to the bottom of the chassis. Using the shape of the oem downspout pieces as templates, I will have to build a new “drain system” from the hood vents to the bottom of the car. Likely made from aluminum sheet and maybe pvc pipes


edit : one of those problems is solved, I used tin snips to cut away at the Oem gutter box/drain housing until it was just a “hood” type shield left over the hvac air intake . See photo below



Here is the charge piping routed under the car, into the front right wheel well. Even with the steering wheel fully turned right, there is still plenty of clearance between the piping and the tire

Another shot further back of the charge piping with the wheel/tire in place

DIY “hood” over the hvac air intake...now to just finish a suitable “drain” tube from the hood opening to the bottom of the car

ctravis595

Sadly, I’ve decided to ditch the Honda Rubicon Atv oil tank idea for now... it is coincidentally a great design for a trunk mounted turbo on a w215 car, but it’s aluminum and I do not have the means to weld aluminum right now. Lying around, I had a small air tank for an air compressor system. I cut it down to a more reasonable size, and welded it shut. Later I used a hole saw to cut a 1 1/4” size hole for my 16an drain line to run directly into the oil tank. You can see it if you look closely

as pictured, here is an example of my stand-alone oiling system for the holset turbo. Not pictured is the oil pump and the turbo, of course

it starts with the reservoir tank, and uses -8an fittings to connect to an oil filter, then connects to an inline oil temperature sensor , then the oil gets picked up by the oil pump to feed the turbo.

the turbo oil drain will be gravity fed back to the reservoir.

I will keep an eye on oil temperatures for the turbo system during test runs to see if an oil cooler needs to be added. There is plenty of room to add one and they seem to be found fairly cheaply online

BlownV8

Nice updates and that is a great place for an air filter. With that said, I tried running two of those size air filters on my SL600 and it absolutely killed the power. However, that's just for the low end until the boost kicks in, correct? If so, that may work just fine and may be a good balance of air velocity and flow.

ctravis595

Yea exactly, it’s just meant to give an extra gush of fresh air when you first punch the throttle. The valve will soon after divert to the charge air being supplied by the turbo

its pretty much a valve that sucks N/a air, then is overpowered by the airflow from the turbo

Otherwise the engine is sucking through 12’ feet of charge piping to initiate throttle response.

while the air filter is not as big as id like, being only 2’ away from the throttle I think it will give a nice throttle response . The stock setup is about 3-4’ of piping the intake air must travel through before hitting the throttle body

BlownV8

Yeah, should work great. That valve is damn cool.

ctravis595

The oiling system is finished, installed and tested

the egr delete is finished

everything under the hood is finished besides some heat shielding for the new vacuum lines near the exhaust manifold

the CD player delete is Also finished and tested (this was to make room for the new oil tank, and cds are obsolete these days in my opinion anyways)

ive pulled the boost gauge and oil temp gauge as both gauges had the backlighting cease to work anymore on them. They will be sent in for warranty

I have the exhaust out of the car, and I’ve started getting everything in order to be bolted in and have the car fired up

unfortunately I have a 3 week trip out to the west coast fixing the Mercedes sprinter vans that I leave for in 2 hours... I was hoping to get this (and other projects) wrapped up soon but looks like I will have to put things on hold

SLcharge

I few words of advise, from an long term DIY turbo guy.

If you haven't done so already, make a vent from the top of the tank to the outside, finishing with a small K&N filter. Exhaust gasses as well as compressed air will Sif in to the centerpiece, and create an over pressure in the oil tank. If not ventet away, it will force oil out in both the turbine and compressor housing, when you lift your foot. Vent should be no less than AN10.
The oil pump should have as low a suction vacuum as possible, and should therefore be connected directly to the tank, in front of any other components. If not, Kavitation and failing oil pressure / flow could be the result. The suction tube should be at least one size over the intended inlet ( AN8 /AN10 ).
The oil that is Coming back to the tank, from a turbo, looks and feels like Mayonnaise, because of the high rev spinning air into the oil. The air in the Mayonnaise need time to get out of the oil, so my recommendation is that you have no less than ½ a gallon of oil in the tank. Return oil from the turbo MUST be let into the tank, ABOVE max oil level. ( free flow ).

An oil temp of 200F is okay, and I recommend using a 0W-30 oil. Too low an oil temp, like 100F, just put Extra strain on the pump, and makes the turbo slow. If you add an oil cooler, fit a thermostatic divider in the loop, that don.t engage the oil cooler before 180F or so.

Happy wrenching.

ctravis595

excellent idea. I had actually been wondering about whether the oil tank needs venting...and being my first turbo build this is the First I’m learning that the turbo oil drain may have exhaust gasses!

being a trunk mounted turbo, I was going to be closely watching my carbon monoxide alarm in the event I have overlooked an exhaust leak, or for reasons like this.

I have left one port open on my custom oil tank, it’s only about 1/2” big, not nearly as big as the 10an hose you mention, maybe this will work? That’s a good idea about routing this port to the outside of the car, not gonna be hard with some rubber heater/fuel hose

You mention low oil temp is bad for the oil pump? I figured the oil pump might prefer warmer oil temps but I didn’t know low temps can cause strain... I will closely watch the oil temps and 0/30 does sound like a good oil weight to start with. Perhaps with this being a used turbo maybe 0/40 weight oil could help “fill” some of the mechanical clearance gaps that have developed with age/wear...

I have my oil filter between the oil tank and the pump, hopefully this doesn’t cause too much cavitation as you mention. It’s a simple in-line oil filter but I did notice upon testing that it took a few seconds to prime the oil pump... i figured this was because my tank was mounted lower than the pump... perhaps I need to mount my oil pump lower so that it is always “primed”..,

so many options...its the beauty of diy setups such as these!

ctravis595

I’m thinking this easily installed -8an one way valve might help the oil pump prime very quickly and prevent excess cavitation ...

https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=...BAgKEA8&adurl=

SLcharge

If the one way valve is spring loaded, it is not a good idea. Will just increase suction resistance.
Best is pump feed direct from tank, and as large an hose as possible. Do NOT go less than the inlet size of the pump.
A another thing : You might consider an pressure relief valve, opening at some 70-80 PSI. If the pump can't get rid of the oil ( flow) it will just increase pressure until it can, overloading the pump, and applying too much pressure on the turbo. If lubrication is connected to the engine, the engine oil pump relief valve will see to it.