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Anyone know if there is a difference in the metals used to make the AMG V8 vs. regular MB V8 engines? I know there are differences in software, displacement (ie 5.5L vs. 4.7L), bore stroke, and AMGs are hand assembled. But are there actually any differences in the quality of metals used to make the AMG V8 vs. regular MB V8 engine parts like the pistons/rings, crankshaft, cams, chains, oil pump ect? From the outside the two V8s look very similar...see attached pics of both.
My suspicion (I can't call it more) has always been that these large increases in power (by Audi and BMW, as well) are due entirely to re-tuning the engines to restore full power. In other words, the ordinary engines are de-tuned -- a lot! There is something very suspicious about a torgue curve that is flat from 1600 RPM to 4000 RPM. Back in the 1960s, I read Road & Track every month. Whether the test car of the month was a Renault or a Ferrari, the torgue curve was never flat! It was always a bell-shaped curve. Restoring the bell-shaped curve is all that the high-priced, specialty shop needs, in order to acquire a reputation as auto wizards. The manufacturers have to deny these engines to the mass of owners because of CAFE -- Corporate Average Fuel Economy. They can produce only so many full-power engines and still meet the CAFE standards. The law of supply-and-demand then takes over, resulting in the high price.
Some changes may be necessary to ensure engine reliability at the higher power levels. If all of the ordinary engines could handle those levels, they would be over-engineered. However, assembling an engine by hand will not make it stronger. I think we're past having to worry that production engines are delivered with oil channels clogged with machine chips or even not drilled all the way through to the proper destination of the lubricant! Or that the centers of the main bearings do not lie along a straight line! Perhaps some critical parts have to be made out of better metal. At least I would hope that the metal of the balance shaft sprockets on the AMG M272 and M273 engines on the W203 C-Class would have to be harder than that of those sprockets on regular production engines. MBUSA had to settle a class-action lawsuit on those. (My 2007 C280 would have been part of that class action, if I had not already traded it.)
I hope some actual engineer will speak up on my points.
I am not an actual engineer, but look at the "new" E43 engine and the "newest" E53 engine. It certainly all looks likes tuning, and not much additional power. I long for the days when 53 meant a 5.3L V8!
I am not an actual engineer, but look at the "new" E43 engine and the "newest" E53 engine. It certainly all looks likes tuning, and not much additional power. I long for the days when 53 meant a 5.3L V8!
Famous quote from Briggs Cunningham, competitor, patron and pioneering champion of road racing in the USA, "You can beat cubic inches [of engine displacement], but it takes cubic money." So simply get the bigger engine, changing marques, if you have to. All those technically beautiful, sophisticated devices on European cars were really necessary only to beat European taxes on engine displacement and high gasoline prices (again due to high taxes),
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
