Hey guys…
so the little vibration @19/38-45 isn’t entirely gone.. lmao… I sucked out/refilled trans fluid with valvoline max life atf probably atleast 12 quarts it made it better, but it’s right @ the 1-2 shift so maybe its TQ converter but who knows… Will drop it eventually and replace. May throw differential in just to see because maybe the messed up the lash on that which is causing it.. can also use original for quaife LSD. But it’s tolerable 😂😂😂

I ran car with all cats gutted (as they were loose and rattling) and tbh it felt fast as ****… like really fast lol but I had the primaries replaced with high flow cats and the secondaries straight piped to supersprint midpipe and muffler.
once installed it felt more like stock but with a great clean sound.

I had ordered the renntech Airbox and tune and due to delays it was not ready by the time it showed in the northeast. So I moved to Florida to be able to use and enjoy it lmao everyone at renntech is so cool and awesome I freakin love that place.

with the new exhaust setup/intake tune the car is awesome. **** ****in rips, sounds amazing and has been blowing cars the **** away 😂 got a bunch of compliments saying it sounded better than a burble tune c7 vette haha

rev up/torque and acceleration are good as ****!!
I may have to dyno it though and buy a stock one to compare the difference. Hard to say they didn’t get it perfect from factory and ****ing with it may have made it slower 😂 car performs up to 160 and maintains 160 no problems 🤘🏼

I have a creative steel poly transmission mount to install and there is a new product out of Chicago like a brace for the driveshaft center bearing I will be trying that as well.

now on to wheels…
suffice to say trying to run w220 AMG 18’s was a bust 🤦🏻‍♂️ these cars must just Hate spacers..
I originally went with otisincla because they make the hybrid bolts needed to run them.. the thin/cheap aluminum spacers bacond on the first drive.. I then went with cheapo amazon and they seemed to work great.. I would ****in spend hours with Teflon tape/taking the wheels on/off finally getting no vibrations @ 72 only to spend the whole next season wasting more money on spacers/time ****ing with it. Even with h&r’s in the rear there is still a vibration from 100-115… then again got the same thing with my 24 M2.. sold that pos lmao.

I destroyed 2 pairs of w209 front h&r’s spacers 🤦🏻‍♂️
long story short.. after spending like $800 on spacers.. lmao it’s not worth it m.. don’t run them on a w208 😂😂😂

so I went to Alibaba and found the company that probably makes apex’s wheels for them.. lmao

went with a pretty aggressive setup but was able to customize every aspect of the wheel. You can get 3 piece performa reps fully customizable 19” for $2400 shipped.

I went with APEX ml10-rt “reps”
18x8.5 et30 front
19x10 et25 rear

I’ve been running 18x95 et 31 rear and the stock 17x7.5 et37 front and it’s been pretty good. They do it on the new M’s I’ve had and while if u look at it it can look funny but I think it will fill the wheel wells nicely and fitment should be great.
going to run 225/40/18 front and 265 maybe up to 305 in the rear. Will see what happens wheels should arrive in March.

I recently was dumb and cored my perfectly good stock front calipers to rock auto/oreillys. One had issues and both ended up getting really bad surface rust… just from moisture/sitting in fall.. fuxkin annoying.. I did my best to remove it/por 15 caliper pain but it is coming back slightly in a couple spots…

while I know it’s not an “upgrade” and some people say they’re not as good.. but I’ve always been a fan of the look of the W209 AMG front calipers… so I managed to snag the final “pair” of Nugen reman’d which come powdercoated silver.. hopefully they should hold up.

I haven’t had the water pump driven fan/clutch on for a while and the car has done pretty fine without it the aux fan has been working great and comes on no issues. Car feels a little torquier without that parasitic draw

car drove from New York to Florida 0 issues. She hit 200k miles and is driving better than ever. It’s been an absolute blast and I think these cars have such great potential I plan to start scooping them up and doing high end restomods.

once my ‘25 M2 comp comes in a few months I will lose interest in driving the CLK so plan to possibly completely strip her down this summer and do nut/bolt restoration as well as roll cage/custom interior/built and bored bigger engine etc. also the 7 speed transmission swap like quaint did to get paddle shifters.

it’s been fun! These are great cars. Hoping to buy and have many more.

 

Great stuff, keep us updated.

W220 wheels require 20mm spacers on the R129, and I am sure the same applies to W208 as the perfect offset for our cars would be ET25 on 18" wheels that may be 9" or 10" wide.

Here is my W208 on AMG BBS Split Rims which were initially designed for the R129. The trick is to stick to tire sizes as close to OEM specs as possible. In my case, I stuck to factory recommended 225/40's up front and 255/35's rear.

 

Great work so far.

Have you Investigated the driveshaft at all in regard to the vibration? I've spoken to a long time MB Mechanic who says he's seen many examples of people unable to track down where its coming from, only for it to be a driveshaft out of balance. It may be worth it to pull the driveshaft and check it out.

Exhaust looks great, good choice with the Supersprint set-up. Try and get a video clip, i'm curious how it sounds. I really need to get on my car, its been on the back burner for a while now.

Is that a brand new Renntech Intake directly through them? I was under the impression that they were no longer available, but if they are still taking orders and being made, thats awesome. They're pricey but they are a great company.

Wheel, Tire and spacer set-up can be difficult to get perfect, however start with the basics. I would strongly recommend Motorsports Hardware Wheel Studs and be DONE with them. Their 90mm studs will allow you to run a decent size spacer no problem, and leaves plenty of bite left. I have realized that running a 235/45/17 on the front is just way too much sidewall (45) and its actually rubbing the wheel liner and sometimes bottoming out on the upper control arm. It's also due to my bushings needing replaced, however i think its just slightly too tall. I think the perfect set-up/sweet spot is a 30/35 side wall and nothing wider then a 245 up front, regardless of 17 or 18 inch. I think 19'' is just too big and will start to have problems with fitment all over again along with compromising drivability considerably.

Take a few more pictures of the outside and that exhaust clip when you get a chance, and report back once you have a wheel/tire set-up.

- Joe

 

hey Joe glad to see ur still around have been following ur build since you started!

Where the issue originally started was a shop doing trans service driveshaft center diff service and rear wheel bearings. Their thought was the driveshaft i have a very extensive couple year long thread on it lmao.

I had a shaft made by what seems like a really good company and it didn’t help. I messed with just about everything. Last thing I’ve done is swap out all the fluid and it’s a little better. I can’t tell if it’s shift point related but it could be the TC torque converter. My final thought was maybe it could be the differential (which hopefully it is) thinking the few I had seen for sale would still be available.. lmao they are not looks almost impossible to find one.
I was planning on going quaife anyways…

the little vibration around 1-2 shift is minimal but there
38-45 vibration very minimal when first driving once warmed up goes away.. lol it sucks.

but yeah exhaust came out great! I’ve run the car just about every which way you can and this setup is great. I paid $3500 for the car and all into exhaust is about $3500 if you get what I mean. I know how the guy did it though so I could just get a welder and do it myself for anyone.
it’s definitely “refined” not too loud or annoying and compliments the car. Supersprint no longer made a non resonated center section but I’m thinking of adding one for sound, as well as maybe an x pipe where the rear cats were.

was funny though first compliment I ever got on the car was that it sounded great!

I have a build planned for this year/next with Moscow headers to full custom exhaust.

yea, renntech managed to make the box (after a couple months) haha I ended up moving to Florida to be close and annoy them but also to enjoy the car.
tbh idk if the box did anything but its candy. They require a core Airbox and I have a couple so I may buy some just to have
I think the tune did more than anything though, car feels great.
They’re awesome though, while pricey it’s so worth it I’m pissed I wasted time doing anything else and waited haha

and wheels.. yeah.. I know but since bmw started running different diameter front and rear and you I think? I’ve tried it and liked it. Going 19x10 rear moreso for traction and ran 18x8.5 225/35/18 et 32 no problem and liked the grip. Also it will fill out the wheel well more. Deciding whether or not to get kw or keep the h&r’s/bilstein

and yeah when you originally went studs I should have too.. 🤦🏻‍♂️

I’m cool with losing money now so have some big things planned lmao. Will figure out the differential first.

grabbing my Ml55 and driving it down from NY wish me luck!

when my 25 M2 build gets here we will see what happens with the CLK55 I’d like to find a clean one to have mint and classy and make this a track rat like quants

 

@PHILLYCLSJOE i uploaded some videos to YouTube @amgeeze quik55s
enjoy! I need to get some take offs and fly bys one day.

the body on the car looks like **** lol. Was a northeast car for many years.. never got around to doing the work. I have ever part back home and sourced to make it perfectly mint but I just can’t stop beating the **** out of her 🤣🤣🤣🤣

think I’m gonna do the new inozetek black/white color shift wrap

 

Yep, still here. The CLK has been on the back burner but I've been getting the itch to start tearing back into it. I have a couple big mods coming for it once i can find some time.

Where on youtube? I wasn't able to find anything.

- Joe

 

Subscribed. Good job!

 

Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/@Amgeeze

 

I had a vibration like that on my w208 clk430. I replaced the engine mounts and it improved significantly. Takes about 3-4 hours for both with a floor jack to lift the engine.