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Alright, I got a plan. I'm gonna keep the Asanti Grille on for a little bit, maybe a month or so. I got a photography student lined up looking to build a portfolio, get some shots with the Asanti grille on. In the meantime, I'll Krylon over the chrome bits on old single slat, and I'll see if I can get "professional" photographs of both grilles on, for comparison.
As far as videos go, I'm having a tough time finding anything worthwhile to film. The Ford GT or whatever it is was a random stroke of luck on the highway. I was having too much fun driving to even think about filming it. If I end up doing the 24h drive to the BenzWorks All In, I think I can make a proper video. I'll find a copilot to run the cameras, film parts of the drive. Should be fun.
If I end up doing the 24h drive to the BenzWorks All In, I think I can make a proper video. I'll find a copilot to run the cameras, film parts of the drive. Should be fun.
If you're talking about the AMGfest/Mercedes Madness in Vegas it's May 29-31. Quite a few W215s myself included will be there
The Asanti grille works alright on a Escalade rolling on 26 inch wheels but would not be my choice for your car. The car was so clean before . This is simlply my opinion .if you like the grille then rock it and don't worry about what others think. I tend to make some bold choices on my car that weren't for everyone myself. Hell,, some people hate the color choice I went with but it came out exactly how I wanted it. Bottom line, it's your car.. It's a super nice looking CL either way. Enjoy owning and driving it.iwll say it's one of the tightest CL's I've seen
Alright, update time. I've been lazy and I haven't posted half the **** I should have, but now it's time to dump. First off, I took it over to DB Performance in Rogers MN for their Dyno Day. This was a little bit after my Voltage Transformer failed on me in the middle of nowhere south Minnesota. I ended up limping it 60 miles or so with 6 misfiring cylinders to Mercedes-Benz of Rochester. Not something I would normally do, but I was a couple hundred miles off from home. Either way, when the mechanic gave me a call, he asked me if I was at the Dells Car show a year or two back. I told him that Kamil had the car there, and he laughed and said he had a picture of the engine bay on his phone. He had a bet with his coworkers if it was the same car. It's nice to be recognized sometimes.
Also I am in full agreement, the Asanti grille would only look good if I was on thirty inch spinners with two subs in the trunk. I'll get the single slat back on once I get it painted.
As far as the Dyno day goes, I got three runs in, but my numbers were lower than expected. They weren't able to get torque numbers apparently, since they couldn't access the ignition coil or something with their torque reader, which means I couldn't confirm my suspicions that it was making too much torque and was spinning off the dyno rollers. Here's the graphs if anyone is interested, the wobbling at peak HP seems off. Especially considering it made more power on a Mustang dyno. I personally think they could have done a better job, but seeing as it was a dyno day and there were hundreds of cars, along with them never having dynoed one of these before, I don't blame them.
Also, just since about three days ago, I've had an issue with what I think is the BOV. Recently, when I've been letting off the accelerator while holding a small amount of boost, at approximately 2000-3000 RPM, I am greeted with a "woo" sort of sound instead of a "pshhh." I'm getting no codes and boost still seems to be holding, along with no other weird sounds in the engine bay at idle. Now I can't remember if the Speedriven billet BOV was installed or not, and whether or not that would be the issue or if it's the stock one. I am lost as to what the issue could be, it just sort of popped up while cruising around in 4th. If Kamil or anyone else who has dealt with this issue, knows the source or how to fix it, please let me know. Thanks.
I'm putting the sound issue to the side for now to deal with the wheels. Front Passenger rim has a two inch crack from the inside lip. Might be repairable, but the structural integrity is compromised and it's not worth it to fix. The other three rims are bent as well, so I'm thinking it might be worth it just to replace the set. They're 65 AMG replicas from OEM Wheels Plus, the MB522s.
Size: 20x8.5 Front / 20x9.5 Rear
Bolt Pattern: 5x112
Finish: Silver Machined Face
Offset: 35 Front / 35 Rear
Hubcentric: 66.6
Don over at OEM Wheels Plus offered me a good deal at $740 for the set of 4. It would then be another 400 or so to Powder coat them all black again.
With this, then, I can officially say I'm shopping for new wheels. Ideas are appreciated from anyone, I'm thinking a similar five-twin spoke design, but maybe something black from factory. If any marketers stumble upon this post as well, shoot me a PM with what you got and for how much, I'm very open minded.
(Maybe it's time to follow my Asanti destiny and get some 30 inch spinners, huh?)
Last edited by RoadHazard; 06-29-2015 at 06:57 PM.
Wheel nightmare continues. I picked up some Roderick RW-4's, since I found a set with perfect fitment. Got em mounted on brand new Nitto NT555's for that grip, and everything was supposed to go great. But naw, a nightmare began instead.
New wheels. I'm thinking these would look pretty good, I liked the look but was considering painting them black and leaving the chrome lip. They take away from the caliper colors too much as is, though, but that was something I was willing to forego for perfect fitment. They look pretty good, though, even on a filthy, collecting dirt for 3 weeks V12TT.
However no, I get screwed again. The 55 calipers are too big, but not in the front. The REAR calipers won't clear, they're barely rubbing against the spokes. It's either new wheels or spacers, now. Whatever, gives me time to burn out the old camberworn rears. I'll do that soon . But now we have bigger fish to fry.
Nothing like pulling your car out of the garage and seeing a puddle of hydraulic fluid on the ground. ABC, you son of a *****. We've got a hose leak, fellas.
Literally on the way to the mechanic when boom, the fluid finally hit low enough for the hydraulic pump to shut off. I went full 70's Cadillac mode for about 15 miles. It was like driving a trampoline.
Here she is, filthy, and stuck with the suspension all the way up. What a sad state.
However, we're not sitting outside a dealer. We're outside of THE NUMBER ONE AUTOMOTIVE MECHANIC IN MINNESOTA, TURBO TIM'S.
Thank you to @TwinTurboTim for his miracle work on my ABC. I ended up getting it back with the ABC fully repaired, with fresh oil, and a wash and a wax for considerably under the four figure price the dealer claimed would be minimum when I asked. Tim is an AUTOMOTIVE WIZARD, and saved me from disaster. I even got a T-Shirt out of it. I think I've found my new favorite mechanic. @TwinTurboTim lets head down to the strip sometime, CL65 vs CL600. Should be fun!
Feels good to have her healthy, even with the mismatched wheels. I got something in the works though, and it's not spacers. Hopefully an update tomorrow regarding that.
In other news, no update on the strange whine on blowoff. Tim did check out the BoV, and noticed nothing there. He can't place it either. Hopefully it's nothing too serious, might just be the a turbo going bad, which would mean a return to Speedriven for some big ones . We'll wait and see.
Last edited by RoadHazard; 08-13-2015 at 11:16 PM.
I love that shirt. I pretend it stands for Twin Turbo rather than Turbo Tim's, but no big deal. In other news, I've managed to **** up the surprise I had planned for you all today. Here it is.
Picked up a set of classic HRE 543R's in a gunmetal grey, came of an S55 AMG. Price was good, fitment was on point, but sometimes things are too good to be true.
One of the rears has a small bend in it, no big deal. But it also won't hold air. The seal between the face and the outer barrel is ****ed. I gotta send it into HRE, or cheap out and get it fixed locally. Other three are fine, luckily. I guess it will be a couple more weeks of mismatched wheels. Gives me time to do burnouts, I guess.
The finish is super clean, at least, and I got some decent tires out of it.
Could be worse. The real question is, do I leave them gunmetal gray, or get them done up in black? I'm super confident that the gray look would be stellar, but then it wouldn't be murdered out. I might plastidip them just to test and see. Oh well.
My 06 has different calipers then yours if you ever want to try them. They don't stick out as far but I think your calipers match the front better. Do you know what they are from? Thanks for the kind words about the shop! Hope your car is well!
The black reps were a good look, too bad potholes bent and cracked them in 50 places. The HRE's cast aluminum should be lighter and more durable, even if they don't look as good.
The black reps were a good look, too bad potholes bent and cracked them in 50 places. The HRE's cast aluminum should be lighter and more durable, even if they don't look as good.