SL55/63/65/R230 AMG: euphoriaDSM SL65 Build Journal
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SL65 AMG
Thanks, at the moment though it has horrible drone but that was to be expected. I'm hoping once the exhaust is finished it won't drone or be near as loud in the cabin. My buddies all tell me is sounds great outside the car but very diesel truck like from inside. I did some gopro videos today playing around with a friends 335i so I'll get them up soon. Local Cars & Coffee was today and met up with my buddy with his e63 and a e55 for lunch, will be getting some videos of running with these guys soon as well.
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From: Lincoln, NE
2005 SL600, 2016 ES300h, 2012 Hayabusa
looking forward to the videos. You said finish the exhaust, are you just running the down pipes? I see exhaust tips in the picture so I wasn't sure if you were adding more.
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SL65 AMG
Yes I was running open down pipes for about a week. The tips were left hanging so I wouldn't be harassed by police for not having a muffler. I'm now running 3" from turbo back with h-pipe, no muffler, and no cats.
Back on the rollers this morning and just constant issues. The car pulls great on the street. I spin up to 110mph then finally hook. (my big 20's and 25 series tire out back aren't helping) Can any of you guys shed some advice this way. The car breaks up horribly no matter how we have the car. First tried no dyno mode with just the rear on the rollers, then dyno mode with the rear only on, then dyno mode with all 4 wheels on the dyno simulating real world, then no dyno made with all 4 on and the car just would not do a clean pull. Took the car off the dyno and went for a drive and pulls amazing with no breaking up. We cannot figure out what the heck it's doing. During one of the first pulls we got a Random Misfire code, cleared that and it still continued to break up. Brand new coil packs and plugs so I know there are no issues there.
Back on the rollers this morning and just constant issues. The car pulls great on the street. I spin up to 110mph then finally hook. (my big 20's and 25 series tire out back aren't helping) Can any of you guys shed some advice this way. The car breaks up horribly no matter how we have the car. First tried no dyno mode with just the rear on the rollers, then dyno mode with the rear only on, then dyno mode with all 4 wheels on the dyno simulating real world, then no dyno made with all 4 on and the car just would not do a clean pull. Took the car off the dyno and went for a drive and pulls amazing with no breaking up. We cannot figure out what the heck it's doing. During one of the first pulls we got a Random Misfire code, cleared that and it still continued to break up. Brand new coil packs and plugs so I know there are no issues there.
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06 SL65AMG, 13 Tesla Model S 60kwh, 02 Jaguar S-Type 3.0, 12 S550 4 Matic, 07 E320 Bluetec, 06 LX470
Ok so there could be a few things, When you run the car normally do you ever get ESP turn off when you go on full wot? Hook up star and check the SAM, I had that issue and it cleared the codes and it was night a day.
Other thing I can think of but doesn't seem to fall inline with your problem as much is when I ran with cutouts open prob somewhere around 1/2-2/3 way through the run the car would just end early not to redline. If that's whats happening to yours then at least you have an idea it might have to do something with the exhaust setup, but I don't think you have cutouts. I don't have that problem anymore in my setup which idk if it was the heads doing or removing that crappy v-band where the turbo and the downpipe meets. You probably noticed the stock v-band is weird shaped and the downpipe end of the band where its takes up alot of space and not really 3 inch. I'm thinking that made a big difference.
Otherwise, your and my setup is pretty much the same except for cutouts, and I have hi-flow mufflers. If its not the exhaust maybe intake is choking up? Try running without them and if it runs alot better, you probably need much larger piping for intakes.
Hopefully you find out what it is.
Other thing I can think of but doesn't seem to fall inline with your problem as much is when I ran with cutouts open prob somewhere around 1/2-2/3 way through the run the car would just end early not to redline. If that's whats happening to yours then at least you have an idea it might have to do something with the exhaust setup, but I don't think you have cutouts. I don't have that problem anymore in my setup which idk if it was the heads doing or removing that crappy v-band where the turbo and the downpipe meets. You probably noticed the stock v-band is weird shaped and the downpipe end of the band where its takes up alot of space and not really 3 inch. I'm thinking that made a big difference.
Otherwise, your and my setup is pretty much the same except for cutouts, and I have hi-flow mufflers. If its not the exhaust maybe intake is choking up? Try running without them and if it runs alot better, you probably need much larger piping for intakes.
Hopefully you find out what it is.
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SL65 AMG
Checked SAM and cleared everything in there and will try again another day. I was told by one of the tuners on this site that it could be due to only putting 2000lbs of load on the rollers and or that it may not be an eddy current dyno. Both seem odd as my buddy has had his e63 on there a number of times with no issues. My big concern at the moment is all of a sudden I'm getting a white ABC Visit Workshop warning now and the rear is extra low. I'm assuming like last time on the rollers that it will go away after its driven a little bit on the street again.
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CL65
It sounds weird how you don't have a problem on the street only on the dyno. I would always put the car in dynomode on the rollers otherwise you will get a tranny code for wheel speed differences. Do you have your secondary O2s shut off? I would get a code from that occasionally. Many put a short elbow on the secondary O2 to pull it out of the stream of exhaust a bit. In my case it didn't really work so I had them turned off. I felt the car was losing a bunch of power with the stock air boxes, or at least it was dropping off in the higher RPMs. Before dynoing I made my own intake setup from 2.25" off the turbos to 4" to cone filters. I have a little more space on the CL than your SL, but you get the idea. I dynoed the car and it pulled hard, 645 WHP on a dynojet. I never made any dyno pulls with the stock boxes to know if the problem you had existed. I also have stock mufflers, but I doubt that would really change anything.
So, as already mentioned it probably needs more air.
So, as already mentioned it probably needs more air.
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From: Lincoln, NE
2005 SL600, 2016 ES300h, 2012 Hayabusa
I had my rear end drop on my SL after a dyno, they strapped it down too tight and broke one of the ride height sensors. they are about 350 a piece if I remember, but if your car rides super low until about 25 and then jumps up as high as it can with the abc light on, then I think this is the issue
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SL65 AMG
Got under it today to see what was going on and got lucky. My passenger rear lowering link had popped off. I'm guessing it was caught in the hook during trying to strap it down. Popped it back on and everything went back to normal.
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SL65 AMG
Picked up a SL63 style carbon rear wing like I had on my SL55 from a memeber and will get that on soon. Need to stop being lazy and upload some of the videos I have. Here are a few pictures from the local Cars & Coffee and with my buddies new wake boat.
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From: Northern Virginia
1999 E55, 2005 SL65
euphoriaDSM - can't help ya with the ABC hose diagram, sorry.
Your work has given me some good ideas for my 65 so I figured I'd share a few photos with you. One of the photos was taken in your neck of the woods - the old Lotus testing grounds, now NCCAR.
My OEM wheels are in storage, the car has BBS-GTs installed. Lastly, my Meisterschafts sound real nice; hollow rumble at idle and a screaming jet at speed.
Thanks for sharing your work...
Your work has given me some good ideas for my 65 so I figured I'd share a few photos with you. One of the photos was taken in your neck of the woods - the old Lotus testing grounds, now NCCAR.
My OEM wheels are in storage, the car has BBS-GTs installed. Lastly, my Meisterschafts sound real nice; hollow rumble at idle and a screaming jet at speed.
Thanks for sharing your work...
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SL65 AMG
I got the ABC issue solved. It was a leaky hose on the driver side, just changed the o-rings and everything has been fine. I have more mods coming, I just need some down time to get it done. On the hunt for a radial at the moment.
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SL65 AMG
Finally got the car out to the track with disappointing results. I'll have videos and pictures up soon. Went with a buddy that has a w211 E63 and another SL65. Did have an interesting problem come up that had happened once before and thought nothing of it. Has anyone ever had the car not shift gears? In sport mode and pin it, the car steps down and roars away only to not shift to the next gear. I do have a tcu tune. Also when I tried to change the car from Sport to Manual nothing happened. "D" stayed on the dash. I could paddle down and the gear would show on the dash but not change.
Last edited by euphoriaDSM; Sep 21, 2015 at 01:30 PM.
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SL600 / SL450 (107) / E350 / BMW M5 E60 / BMW 745i (E23) / BMW X6M / Toyota Hilux 4 WD/ Honda CBX 10
Finally got the car out to the track with disappointing results. I'll have videos and pictures up soon. Went with a buddy that has a w211 E63 and another SL65. Did have an interesting problem come up that had happened once before and thought nothing of it. Has anyone ever had the car not shift gears? In sport mode and pin it, the car steps down and roars away only to not shift to the next gear. I do have a tcu tune. Also when I tried to change the car from Sport to Manual nothing happened. "D" stayed on the dash. I could paddle down and the gear would show on the dash but not change.
.....Take of the battery (- cable) at the trunk and install it bak after few minutes and try again.
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CL65
The 65s will shift at red line in manual mode. I had issues launching in regular sport mode also, it just becomes too much for the tranny to handle and it goes into limp mode. Dyno mode and manual gave consistent launches. So after the burnout bring it back to 1M to launch. Stall as much as the brakes will hold +/-2500rpms and go full throttle, assuming you have drag radials. I hope that helps.
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SL65 AMG
The 65s will shift at red line in manual mode. I had issues launching in regular sport mode also, it just becomes too much for the tranny to handle and it goes into limp mode. Dyno mode and manual gave consistent launches. So after the burnout bring it back to 1M to launch. Stall as much as the brakes will hold +/-2500rpms and go full throttle, assuming you have drag radials. I hope that helps.
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CL65
Sorry should have been more clear. The problem occurred today, days after the track. Also occurred once before a few months ago. Today it happened while driving home following behind a friends bmw on some twisty roads. The car was in S and I wasn't paddle shifting, I did have ABC on. I stepped on it in a straight, the car down shifted and took off then came the shift and nothing happened. Stayed in gear revving at 5K. I tried to paddle it up and nothing, also tried to stick it right to shift up and nothing. I pulled into my driveway and just shut it off. Problem goes away after cutting the car off and back on.
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SL65 R230
Do you have a video of it?
I remember in my car I had the AMG-Speedshift-Pattern some times activated after very spirited driving e.g. in twists. This is normal and is stored in the ECU/TCU from AMG. The car will hold the gear and not upshift until you go off the throttle for a few seconds. This is for sporty driving in twists. Not really sure, if it would upshift then, when you manually shift for higher gear in this situation.
I remember in my car I had the AMG-Speedshift-Pattern some times activated after very spirited driving e.g. in twists. This is normal and is stored in the ECU/TCU from AMG. The car will hold the gear and not upshift until you go off the throttle for a few seconds. This is for sporty driving in twists. Not really sure, if it would upshift then, when you manually shift for higher gear in this situation.
Last edited by AMG-Driver; Sep 22, 2015 at 08:27 AM.
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SL65 AMG
No, I still have the car. I've just been really lazy/ busy with other toys to update the thread. I've added a few new goodies. I did think about selling to jump to a 09 before widebodying just to have the updated interior and newer options but stalled on that as I want to buy a wakeboat.
