RA81722

I have decided that my next car will definitely be a 2012 and up mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG. I definitely want to do a lot of upgrades and modifications and I know that full bolt on naturally aspirated it can make almost 500 wheel horsepower. I have been reading a lot about the supercharger kits available for this car. They are really expensive to say the least. The cheapest one is the Magnuson supercharger, coming in at almost $8700. I understand most of this cost is just the Mercedes-Benz tax. Look at American cars and supercharger kits available for them, and they are considerably less expensive. Notable examples would be supercharger kits for mustangs, and Cadillac CTS V's. My question is what is the reliability of a supercharged 2012 and up C 63 AMG? What kind of power is it expected to make? And to my knowledge I don't believe the facelifted C 63's are affected by the Head bolt issue but idk. Finally I wanted to know if anyone has tried to fabricate their own super charger Kit for a lot cheaper of a price, such as taking a E55 supercharger and trying to bolted onto a C 63 even though there is a lot of work to be done?

Thanks in advance for your consideration!

Savage-wp

The face-lift 63's do not have the headbolts issues.
Guys with chargers have been running for years with no issues, so the cars are still very reliable if you fit one of the off the shelf kits.
Most guys seem to be running the Weistec system.

Southways

FYI, the Magnuson "Tuner Kit" is now only $7999 but is not supplied with calibration as there are many tuners doing custom calibrations (OE Tuning etc).
To compare the cost of most aftermarket AMG performance components to the cost of <say> Mustang or Camaro products fails to consider the limited volumes of AMG's compared to many other brands... and that the cost to develop products is more because purchasing the car & ancillary components costs more, therefore the amortisation of development & tooling is more per product.
It is just math, not tax.

Fabricating your own kit is ambitiously brave - I genuinely wish you luck if you decide to go that route, but suggest you do a lot of research & planning in advance. If you value your time, it will not be cheap.

mr747

go with a proven product and dont take short cuts

Yeah you might of paid 20k for your c63 but try and replace a engine for half of that

good luck

RA81722

a lot of what your saying is true, but I still think its a MB tax. the m156 engine is in a lot of MB models and definitely is not limited production. they built tens of thousands of AMGS with that motor over its 5 year+ history. I didn't say I would fab my own kit but was curious if anyone had, because most superchargers on the market today for the c63 are whipple or eaton based units anyway.

Southways

I can personally guarantee that the Magnuson Hammer kit is not MB-taxed.
As best as I can establish, there was approximately 40,000 M156 C63's built over the 7 model-years. There were over 500,000 Camaros built from 2010 to 2016. The ratio of supercharged AMG's to supercharged Camaros supercharged is small - most AMG's are not modified, most Camaros are.
BTW... The CTS-V kit that you referenced earlier is an upgrade for a factory-supercharged vehicle, so the CTS-V/ZL1 kit does not include the front mount radiator, wiring, injectors, fuel-rail, pump, etc.

Not looking for an argument, just making sure that the facts are stated so that myths do not become gospel.

RA81722

the magnusun supercharger is a 2.3l eaton based unit that is in many many cars and is avlble widely in the aftermarket realm. yes there where more cameros made but 40,000 m156 engined cars is not a small number. i don't think saying most AMGS are stock is true ether TBH. further more go to ESS tuning and see how cheap the BMW supercharger kits are, as low as 4995. but superchargers are just a small product in the MB tax problem. and I'm not looking for an argument ether.

G_Money

Honestly, I do think that most AMGs remain stock, especially as far as major engine work (SC, turbo, NOS, etc) until they are at least a few years old. I don't think that is true with Mustangs, Corvettes, etc. At least not to such a degree. And ESS and Magnusun's kit's are pretty similarly priced. You could probably go buy that Whipple or Eaton core for a very low cost, but designing the housing, intercooler system, and intake manifold is another story.

ESS has been doing BMW superchargers for a very long time. I bet when that kit that is $5k now came out, or when the first kit came out for that car, it was not originally $5k. Also, a lot of the superchargers they do for BMWs are centrifugal units, which can be sold at a lower cost than positive displacement units.

Now, if someone could fit a ProCharger in a C63...

blackbenzz

Check out ESS as well. Same Whipple 2.9L as weistec at a lower cost and looks like better cooling. I just installed one on my C63.

G_Money

Does ESS have different pulleys/psi available?

blackbenzz

Yes they do. I opted for the 8psi pulley now (6psi also available). I have talked to them about making even higher boost pulleys and they are in the process of developing them

G_Money

Ahh, i see that on their website now. Which pulley were they using when theygot 577 in their car? What are you getting with the 8psi pulley? Do you have headers?

blackbenzz

They made 577whp with stock manifolds. I'm not sure which pulley though. I have MBH headers on mine. I literally just got done installing it so no after numbers yet. Will be at the track in March hopefully. Already rented it but fingers crossed on weather.

Cozy

Brunty88

blackbenzz

I did it a small bit at a time but I'd say a full day or two should be enough.
Instructions were lacking to be honest. I might do a write up.
ESS provided tune
Costs of what?

Brunty88

blackbenzz

The ESS kit with injectors and tune are $8,995 retail

Tools are required to install. Nothing out of the ordinary if you are used to working on Mercedes.

I sent the ECU to ESS for tune

Brunty88