Where's the face palm smiley?

A 'fun project' is one that gets finished.

OK so you like the 220 chassis.

Want a bent eight car that rips, came with real brakes from the factory and has a transmission that holds up?

I gently suggest that you look to the S-55 that came from the factory with a supercharged 5.5 liter bent eight, has a nice interior et al that Mercedes did the development work on. Turn it up when you feel the need.

Do the math for what it will take to build one right, allow ten cents an hour for your time and trouble....

You are many thousands of dollars ahead starting with an S-55. Want it to go faster? Others have already done it.... Which means you get to benefit from all the junk they blew up developing something that works. S-55 can be made to go real good. Not enough for you? Find an S-65 and make it a monster. In either case you have a real starting point. Be sure to figure more brakes into the equation as a car that MB limited to 130 for good reason will need more when it can quickly get to 170.... Oh the S-55 and S-65 came with more brakes. Hmmmmm....

Many of us started projects with stars in our eyes that for all the reasons that life throws at us end as a parts car + pile of expensive parts and hundreds of hours screwing around with it tossed aside when she got pregnant.... The house needs a roof.... Someone gets sick.... Priorities change.

Your project... Your choices. The sooner you are thrashing on it on the road the more fun it will be.

Hmmmmm..... I've got a $20.00 bill that I'll lay on the table in a bet saying you've yet to drive an S-65 in a fashion that will test the limits of adhesion.
Have you abused an S-55 for it's handling?

I drive my S-65 daily and can assure you that of it's list of issues; Understeer is not among them. My nits to pick with it being lack of brakes and not coming with a limited slip from the factory. Yes; first world problems. That and I'd love for it to be at least 1500lbs less portly. Alas... She's a powerful fattie that is shockingly entertaining when being a savage.

Best wishes with your project.

The cons are you’ll never be able to do a S500 turbo project as well as MB AMG did the supercharged S55. Full stop. You’re wasting your time and mental energy. Go drive a supercharged 55 with a blown M113 at 4300lbs that feels jumpier than a Prius but also turns and stops better than a S500 ever will, and if you’re still thinking about your project after that, you can have John’s $20.

Also, the S600 is a turbo charged W220, although nowhere near as reliable as the S55, due to the coil packs and ignition modules it likes to eat for breakfast.

maw

P.S. When I was younger and new to the game, I thought about buying an E36M Cabrio, or a E320 Cabrio, both with a turbo “project” in mind to get to a 4-seater Cabrio with real power, sort of like the E36 AMG Cabrio that never came to the USA. Then I came to my senses... “what the **** am I doing?!?! That’s a science project, and a stupid one at that.” So I bought an E46M Cabrio that came stock over 330hp, with BMW Motorsport R&D and warranty to boot. MUCH better decision.

OP for real handling toss the RX-7 and reach for an M3 or M5 to be going much faster when leaving the road! E-55 is hilarious as well. I'm too big to comfortably fit in any C-Class and thus have never thrashed one.

As for S-55 VS S-65... Maw notes above that the bent-12 cars have had issues with coil packs and ignition modules. Both issues have work arounds that are not the end of the world. When that stuff fails... Fix it right and issue is gone for a long time. My car is a 221 chassis car which has many improvements over how it went with the 220 cars. ABC is not being an issue in it for example.... Though I shudder at having now said as much. Gasp!
S-55's bent eight will have you replacing individual coils as they fail one at a time. Less to spend on them but eight coils. Happens. I ended up replacing all eight coils in my E-55 after dealing with four of them failing within a year. The bent eight seems easier to find oil leaks and keep from leaking oil... Though the six liter bent-12 in my car is utterly dry since replacing it after it spit a main bearing shell into the chains which made the original (leaking oil) engine to be an expensive boat anchor. The main bearing doing that is said to be a rarity so I'm the lucky one! Engine was a treat to do and far from free. Radiator cracked where they always do a month or so later.

I say say this with a straight face.... If fuel economy is a consideration in your choice of S-65 vs S-55.... Go shopping for a veg-o-matic four cylinder putt-putt. There is sooooo much more to life then good fuel economy! I have when being a savage managed 5.5mpg over a 120 mile trip in my car. Yes, a fuel stop during that trip. Money well spent! It manages 18-22 on the freeway if cruise can get set at 90 and left lane trolls are at a minimum. My E-55 managed 22-24 on longer trips. The 211 E-500 managed 26 on the road for a 208 mile round trip daily commute. Keep in mind that my driving is never with an eye on hypermiling my MPG's. I enjoy all the sensations that go along with letting the horses run and do so daily.
If your going to buy a 220 Chassis car get the last year of the series. Buy the best loved car you can find. If you can swing it... Be sure that you can as they all need the repairs and maintenance that goes along with a car that cost six figures when new and is not a Toyota... Get a 221 car.

^^^ all great advice OP. I'm a little guy, so W221 was and is too big for me. Don't like wrestling big girls around, beds or roads. But I think you have your answer if you want a turbo W220. Good luck.

maw

Year?

maw

I call coils and modules a reliability issue. If you want to call it a maintenance issue, I guess that’s ok. It’s your experience.

I’ve known maybe a dozen 65 owners over 10 years, all of which have had coil pack issues. That’s 100%, literally. Figure 3 or 4 have had multiple episodes. About 1/2 of them have also had transmission issues (rebuilds, conductor plates). And I’ll assume for this purpose that ABC issues are the same in 65 v 55 cars, although since the 65s are heavier, that’s probably not true. Finally, some of these were SL and CL cars, not all SClass. Your experience vs mine confirms this — you’ve done coil packs, I have never had to think about mine, in roughly the same period of ownership.

So maybe it’s debatable whether it’s a reliability or maintenance issue, or how bad it is “overall” in whatever context you want to debate about, but the fact is it’s an issue on 65s but not 55s.

maw

Fair points. “Eat them for breakfast” is a bit hyperbolic. And of course ABC is probably all maintenance — as I said, I can’t believe the extra weight helps but I also can’t prove it hurts. I’m having a robust conversation about the transmissions elsewhere, because people think they handle 1000 lb ft of torque, when in reality they handle 1000Nm (738 lb ft), so the tunes push them over their limits. I think Kleeman pushes to 862 lb ft, and people wonder why their transmissions fail. This is why RENNtech recommends to beef up your transmission with your tune -- of course for a fee. This is also why the Black Series SL has more hp but not more tq.

I digress. OP has his answers.

maw

I'm tickled that the previous owner 'got to' replace coil packs and module in my car... Perhaps that was the straw that broke the camel's back! Updated parts have had zero issues in the 25,000 miles I've enjoyed it.

Now to get to the bottom of why COMMAND shuts off over and over. Annoying!

This is all news to me. Good news, but news all the same. When were these updated coils made available, and has anyone run them over, say 5 years and 50k miles? I’m not looking to discredit them. To the contrary, I’ve considered the 65 cars for years. I knew they updated the ignition system for the W222 chassis, but hadn’t been aware of any reliable solution for previous chassis cars.

maw

222 cars got a coil for each cylinder. About time!

Now if only MB would give the bent-12 the cylinder head of the current inline six....