Bernanke

ya trunk as ported box yeilds great results. never actually done the sub without ported trunk so i guess thats what im going by. I'll let yal know of the results later today.

Bernanke

Hey guys,

I decided that I will first get an adjustable fuel pressure regulator first before i get a chip. it seems this really thin atmosphere is reeking havoc on my A/F ratios so car is running super lean, that plus super high temps (104+) is probably just out of its natural specs (especially with intake and exhaust). I am looking at a few brands.

After doing alot of research I found out our stock fuel pressure regulators run at roughly only 28-30psi which leaves alot of room to increase fuel pressure. most fuel pumps pump at roughly 60-80psi so that leaves a good margin of safety. I will set it at 30psi first then slowly increase by 5psi at a time till i see results. Most say 45 is around the optimum PSI which is a good 15psi above where i'm at right now.

Also... after doing more research I found out the V8 W140's thermostat temperature was 80 degrees where as the 6-cyl and 12-cyl had the 87 degree thermostat so I will plan on doing the 80C thermostat swap for improved cooling characteristics.

I also stopped by the local custom exhaust system shop (exhaust works) and they do custom header applications out of aluminized steel and they only quoted me roughly $300-400 for headers plus $125 install so realistically i can have super high performance customheaders for under $600... which in my book is amazing. I will keep yall updated.

ALSO, I get my rear speakers taken out tomorrow so I will let yall know how the infiniti basslink runs with the ported trunk.

Lotta stuff happening in the next week to the car so I'll keep yall updated... and of course... DYNO COMING SOON

Ashkan's C43

are you going to be doing an NA build on this engine? If you are going to be doing headers, might as well get ported and polished as well since your there, also High flow cats would really help you out on the exhaust side, and 600 usd for headers and install is unreal so cheap.

Bernanke

dude... port and polish is super $$$ lol . well i already have super high flow exhaust system so in reality i dont need high flow cats.. i have dual cats which is plenty good. again i want this to still be street legal so i'm not touch the OEM cats. Honestly with headers and EGR bypass and adjustable fuel pressure regulator... that should be all the mods i need b/c i can always just crank up the fuel pressure for more power. realistically I think i will get into the 220's wheel HP. if i can do that i'll be happy. at this point its just too hard to tell. I may even get chip on top of the fuel pressure regulator which would really be a monster for a 6-cyl

Oh ya... also forgot to mention... Royal purple will be on its way soon. I'm really anxious to see what its like.

Ashkan's C43

high flow cats are still legal in cali and also where do you get royal purple from? And B&M syn Trick Shift is also very good for tranny, and with regard to high flow cats, there really make a huge difference they are a large factor in flow restriction and back pressure

Bernanke

not on the benz systems. majority of restriction is the resonator and muffler, catalytic converter by camparison is much lower restriction compared to the other two components. I cannot wait to see headers and etc. should be very interesting to see. I definitely need a good adjustable pressure regulator.

Bernanke

well i finally got the speakers taken out of the rear deck and MUCH MORE bass comes through. its not as loud as it was in my BMW but I think the reason behind that is b/c the BMW had fold down seats where as the W140 benzs put the gasstank between the rear seat and the trunk so the majority of the sound gets absorbed by the gas tank. however... that said, it still sounds great. its not earth shattering bass... but then again... i wasn't expecting that and I did not want that anyways. I just wanted good subtle high quality bass to add to the enjoyment of the music instead of overpowering it. The shop only charged $55 to take out rear speakers, not that bad considering the labor involved.

Verdict: two thumbs up for high quality subtle bass, but if you want something you can really feel and blow your ears away then this is not the setup for you. Either way you would need to take the rear speakers out anyways.

EDIT: well after realizing the gain on the basslink amp was only roughly half way i turned it up all the way and turned down the bass boost (to prevent distortion) the sub sounds MUCH better even than before. The mid to high basstones are flat out amazing but the lower basstones are the Basslink's Achilles heel, it just cannot produce the earth shatttering deep bass of a JL W7, but it will definitely do the job. verdict still remains the same, still very happy.


More updates coming soon

BenzKid24

sounds awesome omey,take some pics so i can see ur set-up.

happy labor day guys!

Bernanke

ok so i finally took pics of the setup. after listening to it for a few days i'm actually very impressed with the sound, some songs make it sound better than thers, so i guess it all depends on the quality of the bass in the songs. I actually find myself turning the bass DOWN sometimes so i guess its all the bass i'd ever need. As you can see its a very neat install and you can see the direct ports into the cabin, from inside the cabin its exactly the same, you cannot tell a difference, even from the trunk you can't really tell a difference so its a great stealthy upgrade.

here are the pics

Bernanke

I finally received the the fuel pressure regulator today and i must say i am actually pretty impressed with the quality of the regulator considering it only cost me $58 shipped (like $40 on ebay plus ebay shipping rape fee). All the compoenents are CNC machined and over all quality seem high. I cannot wait to install this bad boy b/c my engine is literally being starved for fuel b/c the atmosphere here at 2500ft + is just killing my air fuel ratios, so it will be nice to be able to fine tune my fuel for once. I will updated yall once installed, until then i have attached the pictures below for your enjoyment.

Bernanke

Hey guys, I just installed the 92 degree "Cool Harness" lower temperature fan switch for my W140 (stock temp is 103). The install was very straight forward and took no more than 5 min tops. It cost about $55 shipped but well worth it considering the margine of safety it provides. I have not had a chance to really test it out yet in some high heat situations but I will let yall know.

here is a picture of the harness...



and here is the link to the website (at bottom of page)...

http://pages.prodigy.net/jforgione/MB_S500.html

Bernanke

hey guys, with the new fan switch in the car has never gone above roughly 90 degrees and its always cool even sitting still with AC blowing and etc. seems like it really does the job. I'm very happy with the results. I will post results of the Adjustable fuel pressure regulator tomorrow.

Bernanke

Hey guys. somewhat bad news. After going to the shop today i realized the aftermarket adjustable fuel pressure regulator cannot be used b/c there is nowhere to really insert it into the system, the hoses are not rubber but instead a hard plastic so i cannot do that. Also, the idea struck me well maybe i can use a different rated OEM fuel pressure regulator but ALL the W140's have the exact same one. so its looking pretty bad, HOWEVER....

A common trick amongst us BMW guys is to just swap out injectors. So i realized if i just went with a slightly higher rated bosch injectors i would solve all my problems without the need for anything aftermarket and it would have a true OEM look and feel. On the old E30 bmws they dont even use software, just the new injectors alone does everything necessary. Using larger injectors is no different than using same injectors with higher fuel pressure. All you are doing is changing duty cycle of the injectors. So i am going to hunt down Bosch tech guy and see if he can email me the different flow rates. should be interesting to see the results.

Bernanke

Hey guys, after finding pics of the two injectors online i realized that it should be a direct swap b/c the actual bodies of the injectors are identical. I emailed bosch and i should hear back from them very soon regarding the flow rates of hte injectors (unit in lbs). I have attached pictures for you to compare the 6-cyl and 8-cyl motors.

sicrx65

how fast can this thing run the 1/4 mile in?

Bernanke

dunno, the thing is a tank... stock is a whopping 17.0 haha. i'll eventually take it to the track just to see what I can run. gonna do injectors and royal purple and headers first. if i can pull mid 15's that would be an accomplishment for sure.

Ashkan's C43

besides doing all the engine mods, (which to that I say I really hope to do an NA build, because its really kick *** for your car especially if you got rid of the m3)lose some weight off the car and that helps just as much as adding more power, getting rid of the spare wheel extra restrive plastic, break upgrade (to lose some weight), lighter wheels, lighter exhuast system (which you have done), and lighter under drive pully, all helps with power, I remember reading somewhere that every 3 pounds lighter is like having 1 more hp? but don't quote me that is most likely wrong, but it was something like that

Ashkan's C43

so were you planning on adding like 30 pounds injectors? or more if stock is 30?

Bernanke

you are absolutely correct. weight is key, however theres not much more weight to remove other than spare tire, jack, tire iron and lightweight aftermarket exhaust (which I have already done). stock seats are probably huge weight savings and ive thouht about maybe getting sportier MB seats from another generation but what to pic i dunno. I LOVE the new 2006 SLK 350 seats (my mom just got them) they are awesome and so much more comfy, i hate W140 seats, they look so comfy but they aren't, plus they probably weigh a good 80-100lbs EACH.

Oh and the rule is every 100lbs is like 10HP. so if you can drop off 200lbs thats 20HP equivalent. but honestly i dont you see getting more than 100lbs off the car without doing seats (which is not easy to do).

Bernanke

No, stock fuel PRESSURE is roughly 30psi. i highly doubt stock fuel injectors are 30lb injectors. my e36 M3 which was 3.0L used 17lb injectors and the slightly larger 3.2L M3's ran 21.5lb injectors so i would guess stock ones are probably 19-21.5lb bosche injectors. V8's are probably 24lb injectors which is a good jump. I highly doubt any benzes except the new AMG's use anything close to 30lb injectors. At this point i may go ahead and buy the injectors anyways, i found a site that has them for $237 for 8 injectors which is not a bad deal at all (considering i only need 6 of them). So i supposed if yall wanted to do a group buy of 4 it would only cost for 3 of them so roughly 75% off. im just gonna go ahead and buy them b/c car is running so lean its down like 50 HP honestly. so I will just upgrade in the for the greater good of the W140 modding world

Ashkan's C43

I would say if you could replace the seats with other benz seats and make it work that would be very nice, but keep a benz a benz, a break upgrade would free a lot more weight than you think, easily 35-40 pounds, check out thebreakman.com they have great stuff, much better than brembos or stoptech, ud pullies, some high flow cats would free up weight as well, and provide more hp, I am not sure if you want to remove sound deadening material, but that would free up some hp, a cf hood and trunk would also free up weight, and painted to match the color of your car and no one would ever know the difference, and add some vents or slk powerdomes and it would be a very nice and new look to the s class

Ashkan's C43

and you can't forget the most important weight factor... THE DRIVER its sort of point less to get rid of the spare tire when you gain 20 pounds....

Bernanke

Brake upgrade will not do much, 5-10lbs tops, also i'd rather just do brake pads for increased performance. As you said... a benz is a benz, no point in going performance crazy, light mods here and there are fine but brakes are more than ample (especially if you remove more weight from the car).

Ashkan i think u are getting too crazy with this lol. its still an S-class.

With that said I may be doing custom headers soon and If I do that I will go ahead and get an aftermarket freer flowing cat (stock cats are 12 years old and probably very clogged up). I also would get rid of the rest of the system for further weight. SO the entire exhaust system will be aftermarket, lighter in weight, and much more freeflowing while still being street legal. That plus larger injectors should be all the power i'd ever need, after that i'm completely done and be close to my target of V8 power in a I6 platform. i'll definitely be keeping yall updated in the coming weeks.

Bernanke

hey guys, well im gonna go ahead and take a risk and buy the S500 injectors anyways. Im also gonna get another stock fuel pressure regulator anyways b/c fuel rail will come out anyways. That should solve all of my fuel problems. It will cost roughly $250 for injectors and another $70-80 for fuel pressure regulator. It is essential to replace the fuel pressure regulator b/c old ones go bad and mine is 12 years old which is just way too old. anyways I will keep yall updated.

Bernanke

UPDATE...

Hey guys, just ordered a case of Royal Purple Max ATF synthetic transmission fluid and also i'm trying to finalized the deal on these S500 injectors so i can finally fix my lean problem.

ALSO, it seems the exhaust is NOT done after all . I decided I will go ahead and ditch the entire stock exhaust system both for weight as well as performance. the cat back section i modded (gen 3) will still remain in tact but everything before that (including cats) will be redone. I will run custom long tube equal length headers into a single 2.5" pipe system with a new 2.5" magnaflow freeflow cat and I will add one more resonator called the "Aero Turbine" resonator (its like the highest quality resonator out there). There is still alot of resonance below 2500rpm so this should really help smoothen out the sound. I may potentially get rid of this magnaflow muffler and upgrade to something slightly louder. its pretty damn quiet from outside the car, i may go to a shorter peice so if anyone is interested in my Magnaflow muffler I will give it away for FREE, you just have to pay the $30 for shipping. If anyone is interested let me know. The stock exhayst system is just too heavy and pointless so I will go ahead and upgrade it. I just wish i upgraded it from the beginning.... oh well .

will keep yall updated in the next few days.