kvirikadzed

Purchased 2012 550 4Matic 3 weeks ago, since I'm in Chicago I have contacted Alpha performance for some upgrades for my car.

I have upgraded ECU with their M278 Tune and installed Turbo Cooler System upgrade that includes ,

Hand Fabricated Reservoir
•High Efficiency Double Pass Heat Exchanger
•High Flow Brushless Coolant Pump
•4 ply Heavy Duty Silicone Hose
•High Pressure Coolant Line
•Distronic Bracket
•Pump Control w/Harness
•All Clamps, Fittings, Bolts, Brackets and Hardware

My car was used by Alpha to see how their AMG based products would work on M278 based engines for 2 weeks
As a result I got a huge discount on everything ( Parts install ECU ... ), I cant be happier , car feels much faster and performance does not degrade between the runs.

kvirikadzed

BlownS4

wow very nice! My car is Diamond White as well looks awesome with your color scheme
Couple of questions:
1. Where did you get your grill from?
2. What is the corrected horsepower to the crank?
3. Are you seeing the same amount of power in both E and S mode, since E starts you in 2nd gear...
4. What will be the cost to the general public for tune and other parts seperately?
Funny I called Alpha back in Nov right before I got my car and they were like we only work on the m157 and kind of blew me off.
Enjoy your beast!

mjec515

wow....i wonder what it does 0-60 & 1/4...with downpipe+exhaust this thing should push 500+hp and 600+tq...

@dman

Thanks for sharing. I noticed Alpha listed porting the M157 enhancements to the 278 engine on its website. That's a great looking set of modifications.
Are you stopping there?

Adam

kvirikadzed

Front grill I got on eBay , make sure you specify distronic compatible center if you have one .
As far as HP I'm not sure I would think + 15 , 20 % and for standard vs comfort , it does feel faster in standard but probably only because transmition working at a higher RPMs plus first gear start , I found manual mode a lot of fun with increased torque and that's what I use when I want to have fun .

As I mentioned my car was used to see what can be ported from AMG models to m276 , I was hoping for a compatibility down pipes but that did not work , cooling and intake system was compatible so ended up with ECU and cooling system . Intake was crazy expensive so I did not get it . I do have Dyno tests with while intake was installed.

I'm really thinking to do the resonator delete, and was reading a lot of positives reviews about it. I know at idle does not sound good but once you go its is good , can you guys comment on this . Thanks

AKnight55

Nice. We need some 1/4 mile runs

Munich77

Nice numbers are those at the wheel? 470 hp!?!

kvirikadzed

Based on Alpha's website ECU produces 575 HP @ crank , so I would think that these are the wheel HP #s , what's even more impressive that stock car has 405 hp at the wheels, that's seriously underrated.

What would be a best way to launch the car since we have no launch control ? Hold brakes and get to 2500 k ? I've never been on the drag strip b4 , also let me know about the resonator delete pls

Johnny Rad

IMHO, the stock dyno posted above from Alpha is on-par with Renntech's stock run. This one is a hair hotter, but certainly in the same neighborhood.

Just got back from the garage after a little one-on-one time. Turns out I might have to marry my car.

kvirikadzed

Attaching Dyno results while car had Induction System Installed as part of the E63 to M278 transformation, it looks so sexy but i could not afford it even with a discount
Car was mesured 3 times to make sure it was producing consistent results.
Enjoy the Dyno

Munich77

I totally agree the stock out put is insane. It made me smile. I wonder if that is the same for all E550s or if the original poster has a factory freak!

AMS_Performance

That is indeed Wheel Horsepower as is the graph posted with our carbon intake box installed: https://www.amsperformance.com/cart/...ke-system.html

Thank you very much for the time with your car and I hope it makes you smile ear to ear when driving it!

jonUF02

That white/black color scheme is looking beautiful! I think black wheels would really set it off for the "storm trooper" look.

I'm very happy to see the stock WHP dyno at 405!

The mods look cool, great power increase. I would be interested to see what it would dyno with just an ECU tune though. There are probably numbers on this posted from other tuners somewhere. I'm wondering if all that extra work on the intercooler is really worth the modification. I know my turbo Honda jet ski gave a lot more acceleration power with an upgraded intercooler, and also would heat-soak after a tune on the stock intercooler, so I would only get about 10 seconds of true top speed, then it would lean back a little. Although, holding this car at WOT for any more than 10 seconds would be leaping into the 100+mph range from a standstill!

kvirikadzed

Thank you AMS

And thank you Larry from Alpha for keeping me up to date with all the work that was done to my car as it progressed.
Honestly i would have hard time trusting any other tuners in Chicago area with my new car for we weeks.

You guys have amazing craftsmanship.

Truth be told about our cars is that even though car Dynos at 405 HP , as i was told power significantly drops during a subsequent Dyno runs , this is due to the poor cooling for the Turbo system. It was their suggestion to go with cooling system and i'm glad that i did. this way i should be prepared for ECU and future upgrades.

BlownS4

do you have a page with the price for the cooling system?

T.H.Carrera

bye bye warranty ?

bob2011

Safe to say so

jonUF02

Most 2012 are likely out of warranty by now. Unless bought used with expensive extended warranty.

People who buy extended warranties are not the people who do mods like this.

kvirikadzed

You might also go over the posted speed limit quicker

LukkyStrike

@kvirikadzed

I live in Indiana but I am up in the Oak Brook/Chicago Land area just about every other weekend due to my Wifes family. I have been looking at AMS for some time now, and I am thinking of stopping by....

In your opinion should I jump on the ECU tune first, then roll with cooling as step two? or just wait and do both?

Juice1979

Numbers look great with your mods. enjoy the car!

I see in your pics you have removed the stock intake tubes that connect to the intake box. Was that removed only for the pics or has AMS removed those for performance reasons?

Thanks
Erik

kvirikadzed

I would go with ECU upgrade first 100%, after you have that in place you can tell yourself how fast it is and how performance drops after hard accelerations and after that if you are ready to take it to the next level do the Cooling.

you would see most difference from ECU update , cooling should just keep the increased power more consistent.

kvirikadzed

All the Stock intake components are still installed, I was installing new custom grill that's why it was removed only during the reinstall process

can you guys comment on resonator delete , I went to my trusted mechanic and he advised against it , should I get 2010 E63 stock exhaust instead ? found one for 1000$ , any thoughts ?

Thanks.

blegthbloo

Read on here somewhere that on this car with resonator delete, it sounds raspy and like a cheap Honda wannabe, but other people love the aggressiveness. I guess that's up to your own ears at the end of the day.