BonitaBeast

Hi All,

The installation is progressing. Slowly but surely just to make sure everything is done properly.


I have a couple of questions regarding the Headers and Downpipes if anyone can help and a few others regarding water pump and intercooler location suggestions:



1.) Should I be concerned about the clearance between the downpipe and the chassis? Is there any way to increase the clearance via Tranny mount adjustment? new tranny mounts? New engine mounts?


Right side Downpipe Pic:



Left side Downpipe Pic (Clearance seems to be good on this side):




2.) I also included a picture of the top of the engine. Is it normal for the rear of the engine to be sloping down a little to the rear?




3.) Also a question regarding the rear portion of the supercharger where the elbow connects to MAF. Is it normal that the clearance between the elbow and the firewall is non existent? It's directly up against the firewall. Unfortunately I don't have a good shot of exactly what I'm talking about.



Any input would be great. Also, would anyone have any photos of others who have done this modification to their N/A G55 so we can get ideas of mounting areas for the intercooler, and water pump. Or if anyone can suggest where to place them. The instructions weren't to helpful in this regard since, the car pictured in the instruction manual is an S-class.
Could someone suggest where I could place the water pump:


Right now, I'm planning to mount the intercooler right behind the front bumper in front of the condenser unit where the air slots are located.
In this picture, it would be right behind the bumper:




Any ideas would be great!

hubert

One of the down pipes looks too close to me and might be hitting the frame. Your engine is fine that's how they are mounted. Clearance of the elbow is almost none existent , I remember I had the same issue on my E class with Kleemann blower and I had a guy make me a custom aluminum elbow that run up to the MAF sensor and was conected to the throttle body by a silicone hose and clamps. It's a tight place and takes a really good guy to do what he did but it worked great.

BonitaBeast

Thanks. The downpipe isn't hitting the frame at all. There's about 5mm of clearance but I'm worried that when the engine revs, the pipe may hit the frame. I'm hoping changing the engine mounts will add some clearance.

Any suggestions on the intercooler and water pump?

BonitaBeast

Just got some sound advice from the good man, Cory, at Kleemann! Turns out to be a common issue of the right side downpipe barely clearing the chassis.

Aside from possible worn out engine mounts, the right side downpipes have been known to have clearance issues, so kleemann usually fabricates a 13-16mm spacer that goes underneath the engine mount bracket to provide the necessary clearance for the downpipe.

So I have new Engine mounts on the way, as well as a new tranny mount, just to be safe. The spacer is being fitted along with a longer bolt to accommodate the spacer.

More updates to come on the S/C thread:
https://mbworld.org/forums/g55-amg-w...oject-s-c.html

Intercooler has been mounted with a custom fabricated mount. Cooling lines are being run and water pump is being fitted.

BonitaBeast

Solved the clearance issue! We fabricated a 13mm spacer that goes between the engine mount bracket and the chassis as Cory from Kleemann suggested. Now we have clearance!

Here's the spacer:


Here's a shot of the space between downpipe and chassis:

BonitaBeast

UPDATE.

The install is done; not without more drama but the bottom line is I am now enjoyng the Kleemann products to the fullest!!

After we solved the header clearance issue, I found out I needed a special gasket to go between the headers and the downpipes. What is pictured above was a generic asbestos type of gasket (my fault for not checking for sure especially since I got the headers and downpipes used). The one Kleemann specs is an Audi metal gasket. Needless to say, I burned through the asbestos one pretty quickly causing a gigantic leak in the exhaust system. I had to wait for some gaskets to come in from kleemann HQ Colorado since the Audi dealership here in the Philippines **** blocked me and didn't sell me the part because I don't have an audi (or didn't buy one from their dealership was more like it. I won't name names).

Aside from this gasket ordeal, I was having idling issues and some misfiring at idling, which lead me to check the entire vacuum system. My findings were horrifying. Connections to the MAP sensor and siwtchover valve were completely wrong. I'm not sure how anyone can mess up such simple connections which were spelled out pretty clearly in the installation manual, but that's what I found.

I had remove the entire intake setup down to the throttle body for me to access the vacuum lines coming out from behind the supercharger and re-ran the lines using new hoses to the respective sensors.

After reinstalling the intake, I started her up and she idled perfectly!!!

Now the car is running perfectly and soooooo smoothly! At idle you can barely even tell there is a monster hiding under the hood. Once you stomp on the gas though, it's a completely different story!!

I think this whole project was a complete learning experience on all fronts! I would do it all again in a heartbeat after experiencing the outcome and the performance this package provides! It took a little longer than I would have liked but once again, at least it's now done and I can enjoy it!

The grin I have is EAR TO EAR!!!!