M120 Simple but effective modifications
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 19
Likes: 0
From: Wellington, New Zealand
SL600
M120 Simple but effective modifications
Hi all, as some of you may have seen from my other threads, we've got an M120 engine we're working on for a project and wondered if there's any straight forward changes we can make to give it some more umph ....... yes that's a made up word, but I like it !! 
We're already making our own exhaust manifolds and mufflers to suit our project and also our own intake manifold system similar to that on the BMW engine from the McLaren F1, so not too worried about that side of things, but wondered if anyone here has experience with thing like putting different cams into them to liven them up for performance.......vs their factory setup.
Somewhere I read someone said that I could put some W202 C36 cams will fit into the M120 engine and they would give more aggressive performance, but I don't know if it was a "theory" or a real world scenario........ things like that we would be interested in and also anything that would help increase the RPM limit a bit, or even advice on what is a safe limit for a stock M120 engine ???? What I mean there is that previously I've had cars with a stock limiter of say 7800 RPM, but aftermarket specialists have said we could reliably run it up to say 8500 RPM....
I hope all that make some sense........ really happy to take an input, knowledge or advice around the M120 in general to help us learn more about this magnificent animal !!
We're already making our own exhaust manifolds and mufflers to suit our project and also our own intake manifold system similar to that on the BMW engine from the McLaren F1, so not too worried about that side of things, but wondered if anyone here has experience with thing like putting different cams into them to liven them up for performance.......vs their factory setup.
Somewhere I read someone said that I could put some W202 C36 cams will fit into the M120 engine and they would give more aggressive performance, but I don't know if it was a "theory" or a real world scenario........ things like that we would be interested in and also anything that would help increase the RPM limit a bit, or even advice on what is a safe limit for a stock M120 engine ???? What I mean there is that previously I've had cars with a stock limiter of say 7800 RPM, but aftermarket specialists have said we could reliably run it up to say 8500 RPM....
I hope all that make some sense........ really happy to take an input, knowledge or advice around the M120 in general to help us learn more about this magnificent animal !!
Super Member
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 897
Likes: 19
From: Commierado
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I don't know about cams, but definitely get the heads spruced up (ported, polished, flowed, bigger valves). You'll also want some bigger injectors. If you have the time and resources, look into a standalone ECU for ease of tuning.
As for RPM... You're going to want a fully built bottom end (titanium rods, quality pistons, etc) to even think about 8500. 8500 is doable though. 8000 is a little bit more realistic.
These guys do M120 tuning (bottom item on the page): http://www.mkb-power.de/de/produkte....prod_gruppe=11
Cheers,
Ricky
As for RPM... You're going to want a fully built bottom end (titanium rods, quality pistons, etc) to even think about 8500. 8500 is doable though. 8000 is a little bit more realistic.
These guys do M120 tuning (bottom item on the page): http://www.mkb-power.de/de/produkte....prod_gruppe=11
Cheers,
Ricky
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 19
Likes: 0
From: Wellington, New Zealand
SL600
Hi Ricky,
Thanks very much for the reply............ Sorry about the misunderstanding, but I'm not aiming for 8500RPM, that was just an example I used of a factory RPM limit vs what you can get away with in the real world if you know what I mean...... I don't think I ever saw me revving this motor out that high to be honest .......
What is the factory RPM limit on these Vs the real world limit ?? From what I've seen on videos it's around that 6000rpm kinda area ??
We have ported and polished the heads already so that's been a good start but didn't put bigger valves in......... are we talking exhaust, intake or both ? And are these item from another Mercedes motor or just aftermarket slightly bigger ?
We are running one of the new Motec M1 ECU's so we'll have plenty of ability to configure what we need.......
What would you consider the best "bang for buck" modifications if we do go down the route of modifying things ?? The car is less than 1000KG's so we think it's likely that the stock motor will be enough, but were looking for reasonable upgrades to just perk it up a bit in a light weight car vs a heavy S600.
Thanks very much for the reply............ Sorry about the misunderstanding, but I'm not aiming for 8500RPM, that was just an example I used of a factory RPM limit vs what you can get away with in the real world if you know what I mean...... I don't think I ever saw me revving this motor out that high to be honest .......
What is the factory RPM limit on these Vs the real world limit ?? From what I've seen on videos it's around that 6000rpm kinda area ??
We have ported and polished the heads already so that's been a good start but didn't put bigger valves in......... are we talking exhaust, intake or both ? And are these item from another Mercedes motor or just aftermarket slightly bigger ?
We are running one of the new Motec M1 ECU's so we'll have plenty of ability to configure what we need.......
What would you consider the best "bang for buck" modifications if we do go down the route of modifying things ?? The car is less than 1000KG's so we think it's likely that the stock motor will be enough, but were looking for reasonable upgrades to just perk it up a bit in a light weight car vs a heavy S600.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 19
Likes: 0
From: Wellington, New Zealand
SL600
Thanks for the reply, but not really wanting to go down the nitrous or turbo route for extra power....... wanting to keep it N/A and was just wondering if cams and such simple changes were available for them.
