Well, i have been a member for nearly a year now i guess, and i haven't posted any pics of my car really, or the few mods i have done, so here it is..

1st. 20" Real Brabus wheels from Germany wrapped in 255 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S in the front and 295 Pilot Sports A/S in the rear..

2nd. Added a painted decklid spoiler..

3rd. Had the Calipers removed, stripped, and proffesionaly coated red with AMG stickers..

4th. Had the grille custom painted to match the car..

5th. Installed a Valentine One (Love this radar detector)..

6th. Installed a ScanGauge II (Very usefull tool at monitoring AITs, Coolant temps, MAP, etc.)

7th. Added a VERY large 2nd Heat Exchanger up front (26x7x2") and all the plumbing needed.

8th. Attached (2) 6" fans to the backside of the new large heat exchanger up front that are controlled by a switch hidden in the ashtray. They really help to keep IATs down while sitting at redlights or around town.

9th. Added a Johnson CM30 pump. (My stock pump crapped out on me and started my cooling revolution ). I wired the pump to run when the car runs so it is constantly circulating water.

10th. Separated the Cooling system from the intercooler circuit and installed a small reservoir to hold my IC water. This really helped to keep IAT's down.

11th. I had the Secondary Cats and the Resonators removed. The car sounds AWESOME now...

12th. Installed a PTE thermostat to keep engine temps LOW.

13th. Installed the SUVINEER CF front lip. Looks truly Awesome IMO. And came with a great price of 230.00 shipped (memorial day sale).

I think that is everything. Other than all the maintainence items i have done like air filters, oil filters, transmission filter, ALL fluids, plugs, and 1 new transmission mount.

I gotta say so far i LOVE the car. I had a bad IC pump and really didn't know it until i started paying attention (the car ran out of power on HOT days). Then when i installed my ScanGauge II i was watching my IAT's in the high 190's i knew immediately...

I am happy to report that with my new IC circuit cooling mods i see IAT's that are consistently 21-23 degrees F above ambient.
My cooling mods have DEFINATELY made this car come alive.
Occasionally on a hot day at WOT the temps climb to 130F but almost instantly go back down to 109F and then in about 10seconds are back to around 100F.
This is MUCH improved over the IATs i had before that were shutting of the supercharger and retarding the timing...

Anyway, now to my pics...

Please forgive my girlfriends dirty garage in the 1st pics...

 

Some pics at the house later....

 

and some more

 

 

SO what do you think???

 

Very NICE! Dump the Fletcher Jones plate holder and get clear side markers.

 

Nice ride, very tasteful mods.
Cool idea putting the fans on the heat exchanger...never heard that one before. Did you really notice a difference in iat's when you added them or was it done at the same time as the other cooling mods?

 

Love your ride man! The cooling mods are incredibly inovative and well thought out. Well done!

my only gripe is that wood interior. I'd be swapping that out asap. But that's just me.

 

Im loving the idea of seperating the colling system from the intercooler system.

 

Nice car . so what are your peak IAT's in a 3rd gear pull.

 

Looks great man!!

 

Wow!!

Can someone help me understand the use of the larger heat exchanger??

 

Here is where I put my Scanguage and my V1. It helps unclutter the dash area and keeps them away from prying eyes.

 

I actually do notice a difference. It would take longer for the IAT's to drop once i got off the highway after a long pull, so i installed the fans. They help tremendously while i am sitting at redlights and moving slowly. They don't reduce the temps more than if i didn't have them, but they absolutely do reduce the recovery time it takes for the temps to drop back down after they rise...

Thanks for the nice comments..

Nick

 

It absolutely works. It keeps 200F degree coolant away from my 100 degree intercooler system. On the SL55, there is a bleed hose for the intercooler circuit that returns air and some coolant to the original coolant reservoir. When I 1st separated the systems, i didn't cap this return line, and after i ran the car, i noticed i had coolant boiling out of my new I/C reservoir .
I also had about 5-10 F difference in temps after i capped this line (see my above pic for the cap) and FULLY separated the systems. It was easy to do. Recovery time also decreased with this mod because hot engine coolant isn't fed into the system while driving.
I found a power steering reservoir, fabricated a bracket for it, bought some hose clamps, and installed a couple of splices. It was easy to do.
These cars should have come with a separate reservoir from the factory. The separated circuit is a better and more efficient setup..
Thanks
Nick

 

The highest i have seen thus far is in the low 130's (90F ambient temp)and then as soon as i let off the throttle, it takes about 5 secs to drop back down roughly 20 or so degrees F and at cruise it remains usually right at 20F above ambient...
I am very please thus far...

 

When it comes to modifying the intercooler circuit, aside from increasing the flow, the best gains are made from increasing the capacity of intercooler circuit's coolant, as well as increasing the surface area of your heat exchanger. By putting a large second heat exchanger, I increased the capacity of intercooler coolant and the surface area for heat exchanger at the same time.
This way it takes much longer to heat soak your setup. And as we all know, HEAT SOAK IS THE ENEMY!!

Basically, i did alot of research on the forums, and found ALOT of different ideas for cooling mods, and when i found i had problems, i incorporated all the ideas into my car (2nd heat exchanger/separated circuits/johnson CM30 pump/ pump wired to run all the time/the fans(my own idea).
I ordered everything i needed, and fabricated what i had to. I still have the stock oil cooler in place, and was actually able to fit the heat exchanger and the two 6" fans in front of it. It is tight, but it all fits, and works perfectly. When i turn on my fans, i feel hot air blowing out of the vents in the engine underpan where the original oil cooler air was vented.
I drastically increased the performance of my car.
I don't know if i will ever do a pulley setup and a tune, but if i wanted to, i would certainly be setup for the extra heat problems that are associated with those mods.


Here are some pics i took today after driving around the car hard this morning. The 1st pic shows it is rougly 72F outside and my FIA (which is degrees F Intake Air) on the scangauge is 94F. Like i said, the car runs around 20F above ambient, rises about 20 or so degrees during long WOT runs, but then VERY quickly returns to 20 above ambient.





Thanks again everyone for the nice words..

Nick

 

Get that thing to a drag strip and see what she'll do ASAP! Then report back.

 

Get rid of the wood, and the black wheels, then your talking!

 

NikleinR6,

You should do the DiNOC wrap like I did. No more light wood.

 

Very nice and well thought out mods. Any plans for a pulley and tune in the future?

 

None so far. But from what i have read, you can acquire some serious horsepower and torque for only 1300 or so $.. I don't really know which pulley to get and who to get it tuned with..
Anyone care to talk me into it....



Also, about the wood, I agree with all of you. I think i should have it replaced with carbon as well. How does the vinyl wrap look? Can you tell its a wrap?
I have been reading about how to actually glue/lay carbon cloth over a part you want to coat, and then you just urethane it, and sand it. I have seen some peoples work and the parts look great. At least i would have a good layer of real carbon. No sure if it would affect fitment though. I would hate to increase the size of my parts to where they would no longer fit..

 

I like it all! Nice engineering. Where might I purchace an intercooler/heat exchanger like yours? Looks to be the perfect size (BIG)!

 

Now you can mod your since you got the proper cooling already. It's gonna be one fast animal.

 

+1 i was gonn say the same.