Somebody was talking turbo at the CLK meet yesterday.....

 

Nitro,Rich is still studying the intake mani so it may be a while. he wants to make sure that it's a feesble project both money wise and performance wise. call him up and he'l fill you in. He's a great guy and paient as well. He's got tons of informative info.

 

Whoever is talking about it, I have one thing to say.... DO ITTTTTT!!!!!!!!!

 

looking good. it was impressive at the dyno and track. did you ever find more power? Noah was in total shock when you put that on the dyno

 

The intake tubing is the same used factory piece from the throttle to the MAF as used on all the M112's, E430, and ML55's. The K&N air filter is for a 6.0 liter Chevy 3500 truck. The rest is fabbed from 4" plumbing.
Problems with what I did are the trans, dipstick needs to be changed and the wiring harness for the MAF relocated.
Rich

 

I'm not there yet. Too many things still going on and I have THREE toys (actually more) to play with that will probably all wind up F/I'ed. I'm itching to do something with the ML55 though. The 15 second 1/4 didn't impress me much, but it does weigh 5000 lbs.
I've been trying to play with the 500E lately for some new baselines with my g-tech. The cold weather is really not helping. I installed the original 225/55/16 pilot sports back on just to see if the heavier wheels were hurting my 0-60. It won't hook up in first anymore!!! I babied it off the line and it went sideways halfway through first on dry pavement ever time I tried. I figured maybe it would after it broke loose and heated the tires some, but no it just wouldn't. the best time I had was 6.3 sec. I guess I have to put the 275's back on. The steering and suspension do feel better with the lighter wheels/tires though.
Rich

 

What did you do about the trans dipstick Rich,order the one for the E430? And what did you use to make that heat shield? Thanx!

 

Mad props!

 

I don't have any "before" dyno pulls on this car. I only bought it a few weeks prior to the AMG meet. You can use the others stock baselines as they should be accurate, especially the ones performed on the same day prior to mine.
As for a coating on the manifold, it wouldn't hurt. Polishing the surface makes the manifold want to reflect heat energy away. I have installed a insulation blanket between the manifold and the block. I have done this previously to my 500E as well. Don't know what it's worth, but couldn't hurt.
The stock air cleaner sitting on top helps hold the heat in too. Notice no air cleaner on top of mine anymore either.
I actually got rid of the air cleaner for several reasons not just heat.
Rich

 

I have relocated mine temporarily as I haven't called this finished, so I don't know what YOU would need to try to duplicate this, nor do I know that this particular part of what I did is of value or not. I haven't put the stock airbox back on to see what it is worth if anything. The wifes driving the car right now, at least I have my 500E back.
The air filter is like this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/K-N-K...spagenameZWDVW

The heat shield is fashioned from a $6 plastic garbage can from Home Depot. I used 2 of them to get it right, 1st one sucked. No one recognized it though. lol
Rich

 

So RubberMaid is tapping into the aftermarket auto industry huh??

Man, that is way too funny. I would have stole my neighbors trash can and used those.

My first thoughts are melting plastic, which I already know you must have consisdered and have delt with. Keep it up. You've provided some really interesting and worthy upgrades lately. I'm impressed.

 

The air cleaners, engine covers and inlet tubes among lots of other examples, are all plastic. You just don't want it too close to the exhaust manifolds.

 

I'm still trying to figure out the tranny dipstick part.

 

The dipstick tube from a w210 e430 should work.
Rich

 

Thanks Rich! Are you able to tell a difference between the Stck AMG setup vs your present setup?

 

That engine bay thats all polished and with the supercharger is really nice !

 

There's no supercharger mate!

 

Mbenzman....any difference that you know of between the 430/500 motors and the 4.3/5.5 AMG motors in terms of intake manifold?? Looking at one over at my tech's garage it seems that they are the same........

 

They are all the same. Steve (C558mo) Had to reuse his 4.3L mani back on his 5.5L motor when he did the conversion on his C43 because the 5.5L motor he bought came from a car that caught on fire and the original mani on it got damaged as a result. Car runs like a BEAST! All the M113 mani's are the same. It's the cylinder heads that someone claims are different.

 

Carl,
In what way? 25 more h.p. is very noticeable. What I can't tell you is how much h.p. the intake tubibing is worth of the 25 h.p., if that's your question.
Someone else need to dyno before and after.
Rich

 

This may be like the 55 heads question. The part numbers are different but then according to the EPC, they sub to the same parts. If this is the case why would they have had different numbers in the first place and they do put AMG on the part number stickers.
I wonder if they just sub the numbers for simplification and there actually was a difference. A 5.5 would still run stronger than a 4.3 with the same intake. But the original part number for the c43 intake is the same as the 5.5.
I guess one would have to take them apart and study.
Rich

 

Well, we will soon find out I hope. I bought one from an ML430, should have it in a week or less. My AMG mani is still on the car. I was going to have this one worked over and swapped out so the car sees less down time. I'll also have my stock one on the side if something goes wrong with the modified one. I will be sure to take some cleaned up detailed pics of the 430 manifold opened up and maybe you can see if there is a difference. From the information gathered and looking at the two I have a feeling they are the same.

A couple quick ?'s too!! Any thoughts on the proper way to remove the EGR and if it's even possible with these cars?? I know it can be done with other cars, I just don't know about this application...

About the polish, If I dish out the extra coin to have the outer case polished do you have any thoughts about a cermic clear coat or powder coat to protect and maintain the polish? I just don't want to be married to it trying to keep it shiny.

....lastly, have you ran into any issues or concerns with the system?? Things I wouldnt' forsee??

 

Maybe I missed it, but what was the process for polishing your intake. I always wanted to polish the intake manifold on my diesel since it's HUGE.

How do you keep it from tarnishing?

 

Lot's of elbow grease, since it's polished inside and out. It was an incredible amount of work an d not for the easily discourage or impatient types. It's a matter of sanding and polishing with finer abrasives as you go until you've reached the level of shine you wish.
As far as how to keep it from tarnishing, well there are some choices, let it tarnish (will take a while) and repolish on occasion (my choice), clearcoating it which would dull the shine and then yellow from the heat and probably peel, a shiny coating (such as cermachrome) which would cover it and therefore eliminating the need for polish in the first place and would not be as pretty, or possibly chrome plating which will eventually peel off, especially if you damage it with bolts etc.. This intake is magnesium, the m119 and your diesel have aluminum intakes, but the same principles apply except maybe the plating as I've never heard of chromed mag.
I am used to caring for bare polished metal as I have two sets of polished aluminum wheels.
Rich

 

If you eliminate the oil in the intake tract, the carbon from the exhaust would not have anything to "glue" it to the inside of the intake. Just eliminating the egr valve would set the cel (check engine light) because the system would know it's no longer functional. You would have to reprogram the me ecu to disable egr tests/functions to prevent this. Do you have a smog check to deal with? The egr valve only opens at part throttle cruising reducing nox emissions. It doesn't affect full throttle power and has another benefit, by the displacing of new mixture (with recycled exhaust) in the combustion chambers it will provide increased fuel mileage.
IMO not worth it.
As far as polishing goes, if you at least smooth the finish then you could powder coat or cermachrome the finish for a relatively decent finish. I just prefer the chrome look and the ability of polished surface to resist heat absorbing. Shinier finish reflects not only light but heat energy as well and it's not that much trouble to care for. I did install shiney foil/fiberglass insulation under the manifold to help prevent heat from the block soaking into the manifold.
You should buy some of PTE's thermo intake insulators, (I do plan on two sets for myself and thought I would have to hand fab them) and install them when you do it.
The plastic intake ducting I used makes a good insulator, however if your car is supercharged, you may need to cool the intake charge, especially if you don't have an intercooler of some type.
Get rid of your hood pad as it holds in the heat. Providing for airflow (ducting, hood scoop, hood venting, etc.)across the intake would help shed heat.
In my case I'm keeping the intake from absorbing engine heat by being shiney, you might use your as a cooler (if no intercooler) and need a dull rough finish to more efficiently radiate heat from the intake charge.
Rich
I did purchase one of the bmw crankcase regulators to play with next.