mbenzman

How to improve breathing, I have two to do, I'll be hard pressed to have them both done by Nov. Will have to try though! Need more power, must have!!!!!!

Bottom half, you can hardly see the details, flaps etc, because of the build up.


Top half seperated, After initial cleaning.




Bottom after initial cleaning.



All cleaning done, smoothing and polishing started.


Rich

DirtyVegasMB

Is this on your CLK 55 and will the performance gains be worth it?

rsr911

WOW shocking!!! Was this car just puttered around town? How many miles are on it. What else are you planning to do to it.

I had my intakes on my 86 911 polished and flowed by Andial. It was expensive but the performance gains were quite noticeable and worth it.

JamE55

Subscribing.

Vadim @ FD

What you have done is to shorten your intake runners. It is worth about 15HP from 4500-6000 rpm. However, you will loose 15-25 ft.lbs. of TQ from 2000-4500 rpm. I did this on C43 about three years ago, if I have time I will look for the Dynojet graph in my archives.

Chappy

Is that the ML's or CLK's?

mbenzman

Teaser.

rsr911

Pretty - Shiney

NitrogenBalance

As my car is going in for the winter sleep you have read my mind!! A few questions though.

1. first and foremost, how much of a PIA is it to remove the intake manifold and associated parts? I have stared at mine for hours thinking hhmmm..

2. did you remove any material form the piece or just polish and clean it??

3. would you say the buildup was due to the oil breather lines being piped back into the TB and intake??

if #3 is true I'm glad I routed my lines to a breather/catch can....

All in all nice work!!!!

mbenzman

No, it's the ML55's, but they will both get the treatment. That's the plan!

Both, but the ML's is now completely apart and some pieces are sent out.

Mrs Leadfoot would have you believe she can only "putter" around Atlanta (because she's running everyone over @ 85 mph). !12k Hard miles in an 5000 lb. SUV. She complains about the power in this ML55 all the time (it's no slouch and has impressed a few passengers), especially since I finished the intake on the 500E.

I don't like compromises and was afraid of losing bottom end on the 500E, I believe I picked up torque and power across the board. It changed the sound too!
I do not plan on "shortening the runners, just cleaning, smoothing and concentrating on improving airflow and heat control. I should not decrease power levels anywhere.
I am impressed with these manifolds and don't see as much room for improvement as I did with the 500E. It's also very easy to work on since it all comes apart.

Rich

RJC

Looks as if we could all benefit from a bottle of very high quality fuel system cleaner every 15k or so...

Vadim @ FD

My mistake. Judging from the pictures, it looked like were going to leave out the middle section of the manifold.

It is a work of art and is made out of a magnesium alloy. Like you mentioned, except for cleaning, there is very little you can do to improve it.

mbenzman

That wouldn't hurt, BUT won't do a thing to the intake because a additive in the fuel would only do any cleaning from the injectors down. They are located in the intake manifold ports just above the intake valves. To be effective you would need to introduce a cleaner such as bg air induction system cleaner to the air intake tract. With the resonance intake such as this you would need to manually open and close the resonance flaps to allow the cleaner to be effective on both air paths.
Rich

mbenzman

I got side tracked, LITERALLY by a side show crosslink to my post here! I guess I wasn't suppost to see an expert's opinion of my work. Maybe omeyhomey should have posted here to stop me from wasting my time.
If anyone would like some entertainment related to this post, follow this thread. http://www.benzworld.org/forums/show...=1#post2068009


Here's an update to the manifold. I'm finding some places to improve but remain impressed with this manifold. I've run into some roadblocks about dealing with magnesium. My metal coating shop failed to electropolish the surface so I have reverted back to manual polishing. I have to to get the project completed in time for the Atlanta AMG GTG. So here's today eye candy. ENJOY!
Rich

NitrogenBalance

That looks great. How long would you say it took to diassemble the intake manifolds??

Also, whats going to keep it from building up all that gunk like before???

mbenzman

Disassembly would take about an hour. removal about 3 hours to remove and reinstall. Cleaning this thing, with so many passages, about another 2.5 hrs.

Hopefully fully polished will provide increased resistance to stuff sticking on, but I will start regular intake flushing since this surprised me to have on my own vehicle.

Now that cleaning is done I will take it up a notch. https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...13#post1798913
Rich

Ghostrider

Is there a way to clean the manifolds without taking them apart?

I was also thinking of having them extrude honed and coated, what are your thoughts on this?

NitrogenBalance

Rather than depending on the smooth surface to prevent buildup why don't you run an oil/air separator or catch can inline with the breather lines exiting the valve covers.

I think the configuration with the breather lines goin to the TB is for emmisons. I also have a feeling it is the reason the intake gets so dirty. If you get a catch can, instead of venting through a filter you can route the line right back to the TB to stay emmisions friendly. I would think this would catch all the oil and send a clean charge back to the TB preventing the gunk from ever happening again.

Alot of F/I cars run this setup pretty succesfully. I have this setup but I'm sure my intake is dirty from the original configuration of 55K miles.

mbenzman

That's why I used the BG air induction cleaning kit. I actuated the resonance flaps and varied throttle application while running the flush, but I have my doubts as to how effective it can be with so much volume and all the nooks acd crannies.
It does seem seems happy and peppy since doing it, really eager to rev. But with damp roads for three days, I haven't measure any stronger, quicker runs.
Rich

mbenzman

I've been thinking about what you've said. Do you have any pictures of what you have installed and where did you buy the parts for it? You do realize that there already are sepertors built in?
The real problem is the minute you attach the pcv to engine vacuum, you get the vapors, which eventually does this, A seperator cuts it down by removing any liquid, but you still will get it unless you use a pump and vent to atmosphere. Then it's a emmission problem.
Here's a couple ideas to build on. relocate the pcv vacuum directly at the intake ports in the head or a wet nitrous kit. Carburated cars did not have this problem, despite having their pcv systems piped back into manifold vacuum. The gasoline from the jets back kept everything rinsed clean. If the ports were behind the injectors it would rinse the oil off, or the notrous would do the same. Honey it's a high performance cleaning kit for the engine, thats fun to use!
Maybe a good excuse for a wet nitrous oxide kit plumbed right behind the throttle body. I HAVE to go clean the manifold, honey! HAHA.
My sons 3rd birthday is Nov. 7th. I have him telling his mother he wants nitrous for his birthday! LOL
Rich

NitrogenBalance

Funny that I have the same problem convincing my girlfriend to leave me alone and stop whining about what I'm doing with my car. I always try to drop a "for better safety" line in what I'm doing and she has no idea but "safety" usually makes her quiet down as if shes in danger. Funny really.

About the catch can, I bought one from Jegs for $55. It has two 3/8 hose barbs, a mini filter on top, and an open/close valve on the bottom for draining. I'll grab some pics this weekend. My setup would not be emmisions friendly but I'm not worried about that out here. The mini filter could simply be replaced with 3/8 tube running back to the intake.

I'm planing on running a methanol/H20 mist sometime soon. I have heard that when used in the location you mentioned(TB mount of intake) it can have a steam cleaning effect on the intake manifold similar to what you are thinking of with nitrous. I still think that after seeing yours that mine would need a good initial cleaning before attempting to keep it clean as I am. Pics on there way.

rsr911

That safty line is worth its wait in gold. Or in my case a set of Wilwood big brakes for my WRX track car. I even had my friends wife backing me up. He has a track car too. My wife went with it. What a great lady!!

Will be using it again in the future I am sure.

mbenzman

Since there seems to be a little confusion about my intents over at benzworld, I took this manifold off to madify it, not just clean it.
I seperated the posts because I thought this was the case.
So here's a upper half picture before cleaning, since the other cleaned up pictures seems to make people think the top doesn't get much buildup.
Rich

ProjectC55

This gentleman added velocity stacks to his m113 intake mani!

http://www.club202.com/forums/showth...&threadid=8726

Rich I also have an extra intake mani,would you be able to perform some magic on it for me? One more question,would'nt you have been able to have gotten your intake mani extrude honed?


PS That 500E is a loely machine.Sounds and looks damn good in that video.Let us know your dyno and 1/4 mile times when able. Unfortunately I have to call Chappy and tell him i won't be making it down to ATL!

mbenzman

I absolutely do not believe those velocity stacks are an improvement over the factory setup. The intake will peak at one rpm now, ONLY. He never posted a dyno sheet or even claimed to dyno it. The other thing I would not do is to glue them on. He did this with epoxy, and I would fear them coming loose due to the vibration from the resonance. Of course they won't have to endure as much resonance since the manifold will only peak once.
There is theory, then there is practice. His velocity stacks have potential to make top end power. Some theory isn't correct. I'm not knocking his redesign except for the glue part, just would like to see results to go with it.
Just my 2 cents.
Rich