Kevwood's mods - The Mountain of Goodies

So far I'm very please with how the black and chrome accents are working together. Hope to have a few more pics up tomorrow night after a couple more things are done, there is a lot more than just the roof vinyl...
HOLD THE PHONE !!!!!!!! how'd you go from regular sun roof to panoramic ??

im actually trying to go with a similar concept with my clk except the black version and i want everything to be offseted by crome ...... just sucks and cant get my roof to standout like it does on the light colored cars
As for the lights, I love the black housings on mine, I'm positive they would look great on a black car too.
My car is still a ripped apart mess, the audio system is taking way longer than originally planned because I've changed the design a few times. On top of that I bought the new hood, decided to do a bunch of paintwork and a few other custom cosmetic mods. It should be quite stunning when it's finished, we'll see.
I am supposed to have the car back in about 10 days, lots of pics when I do.




Also, did you install an oil catch can for your setup?
The Best of Mercedes & AMG
It's a wee bit oily in the foam seperator section, but no real liquid level accumulation.
For what it's worth.
My old blown mustang 5.0's with 14psi of boost on 130K mile shortblocks were a diff story....... you had to empty the can it seemed monthly

And at idle the steam/smoke from the breathers could be seen at stoplights coming from under the hood..... I call this a very loose engine
Both of these scenarios result in greater cooling.
As for turning the vents around, if that were done in place you would be attempting to create a ram-air scenario in a low pressure zone, obviously this will not be effective. The vents would need to be moved far forward on the hood to the front area. Doing this would allow for air to be rammed in, but doing so would be counter productive as it would be forced against the heated under hood air and reduce the cooling effect. The only ram-air setup that would be effective is if it was plumbed into the air intake boxes and thus would have no negative effect on cooling.
As for painting the hood, maybe, maybe not. My original plan was to paint it but after seeing, how flawless it is and it on the car, I am going to leave it for now. I can always paint it later if I think the look is too aggressive for my tastes.
I'm glad you said scratching and not pleasuring...Also, did you install an oil catch can for your setup?
As for a catch can, that's next, I'm going to be installing 2 of them. Details and reasoning later

It's a wee bit oily in the foam seperator section, but no real liquid level accumulation.
For what it's worth.
My old blown mustang 5.0's with 14psi of boost on 130K mile shortblocks were a diff story....... you had to empty the can it seemed monthly

And at idle the steam/smoke from the breathers could be seen at stoplights coming from under the hood..... I call this a very loose engine

I'm a pretty thourough guy when it comes to builds, I've got a wee bit of experience
Just an idea

I want that rear spoiler!!! Custom painted of course so that just a little hint of the Cf shows up along the trailing edge
Just an idea

I want that rear spoiler!!! Custom painted of course so that just a little hint of the Cf shows up along the trailing edge

The original idea I had for the hood was to paint it but leave the vents CF. I've got it on the car now and will (when I get it back) dive it as is to see if I like it. You are 100% Right though, my whole build theme has been "OEM'ish" and leaving the hood CF will take it in a whole different direction.Time will tell




It's a wee bit oily in the foam seperator section, but no real liquid level accumulation.
For what it's worth.
My old blown mustang 5.0's with 14psi of boost on 130K mile shortblocks were a diff story....... you had to empty the can it seemed monthly

And at idle the steam/smoke from the breathers could be seen at stoplights coming from under the hood..... I call this a very loose engine

I know of some Kleemann SC owners are complaining of the spark plugs going foul after less than 10K miles; I was figuring the oil blow back was the root cause. I'm reaching 10K miles with my SC installed and I haven't checked my plugs yet. I've never done it before so I'm kind of hesitant doing so.
I do remember you mentioning that the way you installed your catch can was probably not optimal (you referred to the E55 board for a better way of installing), so I'm curious on what Kev has found.
As for a catch can, that's next, I'm going to be installing 2 of them. Details and reasoning later


The original idea I had for the hood was to paint it but leave the vents CF. I've got it on the car now and will (when I get it back) dive it as is to see if I like it. You are 100% Right though, my whole build theme has been "OEM'ish" and leaving the hood CF will take it in a whole different direction.Time will tell

If it rained, will the water seep into the vents and into the engine? I know your doing this for your track days and will probably not drive in the rain (doubt it rains much out there anyways); but if someone did use it as a daily driver, you think that would be an issue?

If it rained, will the water seep into the vents and into the engine? I know your doing this for your track days and will probably not drive in the rain (doubt it rains much out there anyways); but if someone did use it as a daily driver, you think that would be an issue?


Okay, as for the vents, yes, rainwater and water when the car is washed (and the sand that blows around here for that matter) is going to get in there and on the engine, there is no question about that whatsoever. However, I'm not concerned about it at all, I ran (and still do) open vents on my Z34 and they are far larger than the ones on my CLK carbon fiber hood - I never had an issue.
What I'll do is when I eventually get the car back (the audio guy is seriously dragging his ***) I'll get more pics of the vents and the placement in relation to the underhood layout.
For the catch can(s), yeah, I've got a great idea, just need to oder up suitable sized ones and get them all plumbed in. Traveling outside the counrty all week everyweek makes it a ***** to get anything done on my car.
this was routed to the catch can, then
the outlet of the catch can was sent to the elbow inet in front of the TB, and the little nippleinlet after the TB.
THIS WAS WRONG. After reviewing the needswings catch can plumbing i modified to their setup which is:
Plumb the two small nipples (one on each valve cover) into the catch can, then the outlet of the catch can to the nipple inlet after the TB. Leave the large vent hose from the drivers side valve cover plumbed to the elbow before the TB.




this was routed to the catch can, then
the outlet of the catch can was sent to the elbow inet in front of the TB, and the little nippleinlet after the TB.
THIS WAS WRONG. After reviewing the needswings catch can plumbing i modified to their setup which is:
Plumb the two small nipples (one on each valve cover) into the catch can, then the outlet of the catch can to the nipple inlet after the TB. Leave the large vent hose from the drivers side valve cover plumbed to the elbow before the TB.
this was routed to the catch can, then
the outlet of the catch can was sent to the elbow inet in front of the TB, and the little nippleinlet after the TB.
THIS WAS WRONG. After reviewing the needswings catch can plumbing i modified to their setup which is:
Plumb the two small nipples (one on each valve cover) into the catch can, then the outlet of the catch can to the nipple inlet after the TB. Leave the large vent hose from the drivers side valve cover plumbed to the elbow before the TB.
) My idea will be to isolate the two systems and capture all of the crap.




) My idea will be to isolate the two systems and capture all of the crap.Kev and Jeff,
Maybe you guys would know the answer to these questions.
I want to get some cams in the future and I heard the OEM 55k will give me a good hp boost! I can probably get them for a better price than the PTE/Kleemann cams. Have you heard anything about them?
Are 55K Heads compatible with the 500 engine? Are the 55K cams lye inside the cylinder heads?
Seems like I dropped the car off a year ago now..
Kev and Jeff,
Maybe you guys would know the answer to these questions.
I want to get some cams in the future and I heard the OEM 55k will give me a good hp boost! I can probably get them for a better price than the PTE/Kleemann cams. Have you heard anything about them?
Are 55K Heads compatible with the 500 engine? Are the 55K cams lye inside the cylinder heads?
1. The Kleemann cams that were manufactured were direct copies of the 55K cams and added about 12-15HP when used with the Kleemann SC and ECU tune.
2. Since the cams were copies of the 55K cams, yes, the cams between the 500,55 and 55K are all interchangeable.
3. The 'new' Kleemann cams are a more aggressive grind and can add about 20-25HP when used with the Kleemann SC and ECU tune.
Based on this information I went with the new Kleemann cams. How factual and accurate the info/numbers are, well, that's anyone's guess. When I finally get the car back and have the TCU tune done, I will be able to get it on their dyno and get some actual numbers at last.
Honestly you really can't tell my car has cams, it idles like stock IMHO.
I'm guessing this is due to the tune and or ported heads.
Didn't know about new vs old klee cams. That's good to know. I wonder how the new klee cams compare to the pte variants and/or the SLR variants?


** no oil in the catch can with the needswings hose routing.
Last edited by betrezra; Mar 17, 2012 at 05:54 PM.
Honestly you really can't tell my car has cams, it idles like stock IMHO.
I'm guessing this is due to the tune and or ported heads.
Didn't know about new vs old klee cams. That's good to know. I wonder how the new klee cams compare to the pte variants and/or the SLR variants?


** no oil in the catch can with the needswings hose routing.
I have a slight chop at an idle, when the car comes back I will be taking it in for a TCU flash and have it run on their dyno, at that time we will data log everything and see if the ECU tune needs to be cleaned up.
Seems like I dropped the car off a year ago now..
Cams were a big topic when I was getting my Kleemann build all figured out, I wanted to know exactly what my options were so the rep spoke with Kleemann and got info for me, this is what I was told;
1. The Kleemann cams that were manufactured were direct copies of the 55K cams and added about 12-15HP when used with the Kleemann SC and ECU tune.
2. Since the cams were copies of the 55K cams, yes, the cams between the 500,55 and 55K are all interchangeable.
3. The 'new' Kleemann cams are a more aggressive grind and can add about 20-25HP when used with the Kleemann SC and ECU tune.
Based on this information I went with the new Kleemann cams. How factual and accurate the info/numbers are, well, that's anyone's guess. When I finally get the car back and have the TCU tune done, I will be able to get it on their dyno and get some actual numbers at last.

Keep it coming
Car is 'supposed' to be done on Saturday, not holding my breath though. Doesn't really matter in the end because I am going on vacation for a week starting Friday, wifey and I are going to lay on the beach in the Maldives



