speadracer08

Stenzel,
If I understand you correctly, you loosened the downpipes from the turbo's... but did not need to drop the grearbox?
You DO NOT recommend leaving exhaust attached to perform the surgery?
What are infusion needles for titans?

Stenzel-Germany

Hi speadracer08,

Language barriers and no hands to explain :-) :-)

If I understand you correctly, you loosened the downpipes from the turbo's... but did not need to drop the grearbox?
You DO NOT recommend leaving exhaust attached to perform the surgery?

Exhaust behind Cat was removed.

Downpipes were not removed and stayed in the car.
The connecting clamps on the turbos been removed and pushed rubber plates between to decouple.
So you have protected the turbos, more mobility on downpipes and you can work a little better.

The infusion needles were a symbol of the sharpened VA tubes. (Cut off in a appr. 30 degree angle and then sharpened) Only in very large = for titans / giants.

I wasn't sure if the 2.5" stainless replacement pipe required any bend for re-attachment.

If you want to weld in a Cat replacement pipe, you have to adjust it a bit. A straight pipe will not work.
The cat housings have a slight offset between input and output. The pipes also go into the cat housing at an angle.


Best regards

Stenzel

MalibuScott

Can I ask a corollary question? Has anyone here lost his warranty as a result of tuning?

Acta_Non_Verba

I can't answer the question directly, BC I haven't lost a warranty under the conditions you're proposing.

But, in theory, you wouldn't/couldn't lose an entire warranty because of a tune. It's more "proximate causal" affect. If you had an aftermarket tune and a wheel bearing failed, the warranty should hold up. But if you had a tune that was too lean, let's say, or too boosted, etc, and it caused a piston to melt down, that would certainly impact the warranty.

The manufacturers are not dummies. They know what goes on in the aftermarket world, and they do have rev counters and CVNs so they can tell the tune had been revved even if you had a catastrophic failure and tried to reinstall the factory tune.

thebishman

The other issue is this: if a manufacturer wants to really screw over an owner who has tuned a car and a drivetrain component fails other than an engine, transmission, etc. the manufacturer could well say that a component failed as the car was now more powerful than originally designed and that the failed part; (wheel bearing; suspension component; cooling system component; etc., etc.), was overly stressed because the OEM hp/torque was exceeded.

The manufacturer then states that it is on the owner’s prerogative to prove that the tune didn’t potentially cause the failure versus the manufacturer proving it did. What are the costs involved in trying to get a local attorney to fight on your behalf versus the corporate legal team the manufacturer has on standby?

That’s why I strongly believe that if you tune your car you should only use a reputable company who only tunes the vehicle conservatively and you need to always be prepared that any major drivetrain failure could well need to be paid for out of pocket.

Acta_Non_Verba

Yes, absolutely true. I've seen it on a lot of American cars where tunes that brought out more performance had a causal impact on a transmission that failed, or a differential, or broken axle as an example and the warranty failed. It is true on this AMG platform if you boost way up in the tune and leave the trans torques stock which are fairly moderate, a more than fair chance you'll take out the clutches. Here again, the manufacturers know their cars and know what to crosscheck when a warranty claim comes in.

Your last statement is one that I concur as well. I've tuned lots of cars, but never tuned someone's car without knowing their purpose for the tune (how they wanted to use the car with a tune). I'd tune differently if the car was going to be used on a dragstrip than I would for a track car.

When you "spend" the performance left on the table from the manufacturers you also shorten the life or range expected before a rebuild. No one should be tuning to extract everything left to take, not unless you have plans to constantly rebuild the motor. Cars used in extreme sports like fuelie drags are rebuilding engines every 9 to 15 runs. This is something the layperson doesn't understand.

There was a standard we used in the tune world comparing a tune that theoretically extracted every ounce of power that would essentially cause an engine to destroy itself on a first run, then backing off 10% from that added over 100 operating hours to the engine and continued to increase non-linearly as the engine was detuned.

Also wanted to add - I think the average person tuning does so primarily for the bragging rights which might include walking around with a dyno sheet and that's all. This isn't that dangerous, and I expect most of the tuning houses that sell canned tunes are selling tunes commensurate with that. Owners using "butt dynos" are thrilled with the performances so all is good in this market.

Stenzel-Germany

Hi Acta,

Top statements. Totally agree.

Best regards

Stenzel

loungn14

tcu tune does help but also do a battery reset. The car stores shift points and gets laggy after a bit

AMG 17GT

Exactly. And my exhaust seems better after battery disconnect.