I've made multiple CAI's for the V12 Biturbo over the years, my last variation fetching outside fresh air w/giant silicone 4.5" piping @ largest section is by far and away the best, coupled to Misha vented hood (NOT to fetch cold air for turbos but simply to help cool down/vent some of the extreme heat created by these motors) Appears Brabus agrees w/me.

The new V8 Biturbo has same problems, Brabus is currently modifying BOTH of these engines w/giant composite CAI piping leading out of the engine bays, thru what appears to be NOT the front of radiator where OEM holes are located but the front fender wells which are perfect areas to collect fresh cool air.

In following pictures you will clearly see what I'm talking about, also watch this Brabus video.. a few min in & you will see where I captured all the stills.

They go thru a bunch of current 65/63 engine builds noting how Brabus was avidly researching what the main bottleneck in power was for these engines & found it is the Air Intake systems (really) they note on the V8 Biturbo they gained 50hp by not only changing the air intake path to fender wells but by drastically increasing cai piping diameter ALL the way to turbo inlets like I have done etc..

They obviously ditched the Ram-Air hood system that fed the turbo inlets on older 65 models & opted to add the hood scoop purely to vent some of the hellish heat these beasts give off.. They show 1 of the older V12 Biturbos being tested on engine dyno w/old Ram-Air system in place, obviously ALL the new V12 builds didn't retain this design meaning the new CAI's in pix make much more hp/tq..

Anyhow food for thought gents, rollup those sleeves and build yourself a real CAI Or sell a kidney & buy it from Brabus..
New V12 CAI piping

V12 w/engine cover

Hood scoop galore

63 engine w/new CAI etc

Showing larger CF piping routed all way to turbo inlets

65 engine w/old Ram-Air system being tested on engine dyno

 

From the master himself!!!

You are the master of CAI systems. Good stuff.

 

Thank you very much for the great video of the Brabus factory! Very interesting...

31.5.-1.6.2014 we also see a new round of Moscow Unlim and I know of a Renntech E63S with special bigger Turbos which is going to run there with a Brabus E63 850. Regrettably they will only run 1000m instead of a whole mile, but this will be very interesting and I am also very curious how the new Brabus 850 will run in a real world race.

 

where do you find all this stuff

 

You need a 3D printer so you can take your design to fruition and easily reproduce and sell it

 

Here is a simple question. Turbo cars benefit by the air being as cold as possible before being burnt, that's why they go well on cold damp days.
So why do people put cone filters and the like under the hood where
all the heat is. I tried an experiment, my Cosworth has a cone filter
where my air box used to be, I was advised by a tuning company to
go back to my air box with suitable filter, K&N in mine. When I put
the air box back I noticed a square pipe coming from the bottom of
the box about 4 inches long, and it lines up with a hole in the front
allowing fresh air to enter. Checking my boost gauge has shown I have
a little more boost and he hold up longer. It's also quitter. And Yes it goes
better, but for obvious reasons I cannot quote extra BHP figures, maybe
just a little but the way it hold the boost means more bhp for longer.

 

Nice find, as always. The concept is easy to understand but finding a place in the SL or even the CL still remains somewhat of a challenge. The G has big squared off truck fenders that sit high to allow for truck wheel travel. Offering alot more space than your hood sitting roughly 6" higher than the top of your tires. You are right, its gotta help it breath more efficiently. I still feel their quad intercooler setup on the V12s is a big plus. I'd love to get my hands on a pair of the "y" pipes off the turbo. Splitting the air into two paths of the same size as stock has to slow down the velocity crossing the intercooler for better heat transfer in each. My only concern would be if passing through the additional intercoolers will create pressure losses. In the end you will still want the cold air intake to start off with a cooler temp before reaching the turbos. CAI of some sort seems to be a must.

 

Great video and your concept is sound. However, after watching I gazed at my engine bay and became a little depressed at the realization that there is little to no room in there for a Needwings style or hybrid CAI setup.

I think I'll scratch my head a little and dig deeper into this over the winter once the CL is in hybernation. Who knows, I might bring it down to BIP and let them experiment with it and see what they can cook up.

 

I agree w/you guys real estate isn't abundant under our hoods, but you can def replicate what I have done and or create your own hybrid (as my boy Jody's done) just remember DON'T make the piping outt've metal, you'll just be going backwards w/heat sink etc.. Buy silicone piping it comes in every concievable size etc needed..

 

+1

It's easy to get air to a Turbo when you have the room these big 6x6 have.
There isn't the room under a 65 bonnet, and fitting cones under the bonnet/
hood I think is worse than the standard system which takes air from the front. What I think to do is beef up the standard pipes from the front.

 

Good advice. Metal intake tubes will form a heat exchanger. It will take the heat of the engine bay and transfer it to the cooler incoming air thus negating some of the positive benefits of the cold air intake.

 

How do you get photos like this on the forum..

 

Screen captures from his tablet.

 

Ding ding ding.. Yup

 

My dream is to remove the airbox top and intake tubes.
Then craft ram air NACA ducts in the hood that would seal to the existing air box once the hood is closed

Not sure how to keep water out but the old muscle cars ram air hoods worked great so there must be a way

 

I would luv similar type of setup ala' Shaker Hood would be perfection inmop.. Though done in a more reserved slick German hotrod style... Imagine how cool this would be on AMG Blk Ser.. Engine builders Siggy & plaque out on top in polished gun metal etc etc..

 

will the Brabus manifold with 4 inlets work on the cl65 motor with the 4 stock intercoolers? id be interested to buy the manifold and piping off the turbos to intercoolers

 

It will work on your CL but Brabus only sells it through the SV12R 800 engine conversion wich costs more than a brand new E-Class

 

Just take a.couple off a biturbo to a competent welder or fab shop and they can convert them to work on your car. Making an intercooler is not a big deal.

 

I vote to go quad turbo and quad intercooled.....that project is probably only 100k out of my budget

 

Thericker do you have some pics of your intake system?

 

I'd love to see you're setup as well. I've now tried a few different solutions and am about to replicate the Speedriven 1 off and cut the car to get the piping behind the front grille. If you've found a better way it would save me from doing something I can't go back from.

 

Reason Speedriven managed to pull of the front mount intakes is cause the white SL65 they had was an 06 with a face lift body kit for the 09+ style. The older head lights are much more difficult to do this setup then using a car with the newer headlights since the high beams of the 09+ are much more skinnier then the pre 08 with those big old ovals.

If you do manage to test it with the old head lights let us know. As for me I'm just sticking with my short rams until the body kit gets put on this winter with the new headlights

 

Seems as if we have two intake threads going at the moment so i will post here also. I have a facelift 2010 sl600 with the scorpion intakes and speedriven I/C any H/E. I also have a SLS black style front end wide body kit(suhorovsky sr66.1) this means I have a load of room in front of the radiator however i really like the aesthetics of the scorpions so I would like to go down the forced cold air route using some kind of scoops in the front. I have seen other mercedes using the TTM scoops. Does anybody have any experience with these or any other options for scoops for the r230

 

You can do the front mount intakes on the pre facelift you just have to cut the headlight cups, plastic ducting attached to the radiator, and trim some of the hood latch cups. Even facelift you have to cut some plastic.