SL55/63/65/R230 AMG: New sl55 owner
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2005 sl55 AMG
New sl55 owner
Hey guys new here. I have been reading for a few days and have some mods I would like some input on. The car is a 05 sl55 with 44k miles. I don't have any previous maintence records. Plans are to have it as a cruiser and drag vehicle. Here's what I'm thinking for mods.
-Johnson cm30 intercooler pump
-pulleys
-tune
Is the Johnson the best ic pump or is the new Bosch found on the later models better?
Also pulleys, do you do the 180mm crank pulley and leave the sc pulley stock? Both at same time or sc pulley only? I'm seeing a 77mm sc pulley. Is that a good route?
Who's a good tuner? All I can find is eurocharged.
I'm liking eurocharged stage 1 package. Seems like a good price for a good 100hp gain.
Sorry if these questions have been asked a million times, I read through the stickys and still had some questions after reading through them. Thanks for the help!
-Johnson cm30 intercooler pump
-pulleys
-tune
Is the Johnson the best ic pump or is the new Bosch found on the later models better?
Also pulleys, do you do the 180mm crank pulley and leave the sc pulley stock? Both at same time or sc pulley only? I'm seeing a 77mm sc pulley. Is that a good route?
Who's a good tuner? All I can find is eurocharged.
I'm liking eurocharged stage 1 package. Seems like a good price for a good 100hp gain.
Sorry if these questions have been asked a million times, I read through the stickys and still had some questions after reading through them. Thanks for the help!
Last edited by Josh154; May 1, 2016 at 06:07 PM.
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2003 SL55
Cm30 is a high volume low pressure pump. It may be fine if you redo the hoses in your system and reduce restriction... but youll likely want something that flows better under pressure if you plan on adding 100hp. I would recommend a cwa50 at minimum, or a wp129 at the high end.
Youll likely prefer the supercharger pulley upgrade to the crank pulley upgrade, its more reliable and less effort. Id recommend a beltwrap kit if you plan on going that route, and if youre retaining the sc clutch you might consider a scattershield as well for safety.
Eurocharged has great value packages, but im really not a fan of the johnson pump. Kleemann and Renntech are probably the most reputable high end tuners, but im more familiar with their parts than their software. I hear great things about RaceIQ and Eurocharged ecu tunes.
Youll likely prefer the supercharger pulley upgrade to the crank pulley upgrade, its more reliable and less effort. Id recommend a beltwrap kit if you plan on going that route, and if youre retaining the sc clutch you might consider a scattershield as well for safety.
Eurocharged has great value packages, but im really not a fan of the johnson pump. Kleemann and Renntech are probably the most reputable high end tuners, but im more familiar with their parts than their software. I hear great things about RaceIQ and Eurocharged ecu tunes.
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2003 SL55
Kleemann makes great parts, i dont know what their tuning options are, but i expect they will be high quality as well.
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2005 sl55 AMG
Cm30 is a high volume low pressure pump. It may be fine if you redo the hoses in your system and reduce restriction... but youll likely want something that flows better under pressure if you plan on adding 100hp. I would recommend a cwa50 at minimum, or a wp129 at the high end.
Youll likely prefer the supercharger pulley upgrade to the crank pulley upgrade, its more reliable and less effort. Id recommend a beltwrap kit if you plan on going that route, and if youre retaining the sc clutch you might consider a scattershield as well for safety.
Eurocharged has great value packages, but im really not a fan of the johnson pump. Kleemann and Renntech are probably the most reputable high end tuners, but im more familiar with their parts than their software. I hear great things about RaceIQ and Eurocharged ecu tunes.
Youll likely prefer the supercharger pulley upgrade to the crank pulley upgrade, its more reliable and less effort. Id recommend a beltwrap kit if you plan on going that route, and if youre retaining the sc clutch you might consider a scattershield as well for safety.
Eurocharged has great value packages, but im really not a fan of the johnson pump. Kleemann and Renntech are probably the most reputable high end tuners, but im more familiar with their parts than their software. I hear great things about RaceIQ and Eurocharged ecu tunes.
I will do the supercharger pulley instead of crank if that is easier and more reliable. Should I go for the 77mm? Is that belt wrap kit the bar going from pulleys that I seen in some pics?
Is the pump really needed? I come from turbod vehicles so not familiar with intercooler pumps.
This is actually my dads car, he just bought it as a play toy and wants me to find out the most reliable and power upgrades. He plans on going out to the drag strip with me.
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2003 SL55
Thanks man that's the answer I was looking for! I will definitely look into kleemann and renntech for tuning.
I will do the supercharger pulley instead of crank if that is easier and more reliable. Should I go for the 77mm? Is that belt wrap kit the bar going from pulleys that I seen in some pics?
Is the pump really needed? I come from turbod vehicles so not familiar with intercooler pumps.
This is actually my dads car, he just bought it as a play toy and wants me to find out the most reliable and power upgrades. He plans on going out to the drag strip with me.
I will do the supercharger pulley instead of crank if that is easier and more reliable. Should I go for the 77mm? Is that belt wrap kit the bar going from pulleys that I seen in some pics?
Is the pump really needed? I come from turbod vehicles so not familiar with intercooler pumps.
This is actually my dads car, he just bought it as a play toy and wants me to find out the most reliable and power upgrades. He plans on going out to the drag strip with me.
i have 2 water intercooled supercharged v8s, so its definitely an area of interest for me.First: chances are your stock pump is dead or dying. Replacing with oem is not recommended... the updated bosch version is fine for keeping stock, but more boost equals more heat equals more cooling, and its better to do it once and do it right the first time.
I was in your shoes 10 years ago... i wanted to mod my dads sl55, and the only parts he would conider were kleemann. Now, the car is mine and eurocharged is an option, so i went that route since im not as big of a baller as he was yet, and eurocharged offers great value.
I picked up the full 5 pulley kit plus supercharger pulley and belt wrap kit from shardul (a member on this forum). He also included a tuning package from eurocharged, so I plan on trying them out. I already replaced the intercooler pump and will be doing the pulley upgrade and a trunk tank soon. Still deciding on whether to add a heat exchanger or not.
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2005 sl55 AMG
Welcome to the world of superchargers, where waterflow is as important as airflow i have 2 water intercooled supercharged v8s, so its definitely an area of interest for me.
First: chances are your stock pump is dead or dying. Replacing with oem is not recommended... the updated bosch version is fine for keeping stock, but more boost equals more heat equals more cooling, and its better to do it once and do it right the first time.
I was in your shoes 10 years ago... i wanted to mod my dads sl55, and the only parts he would conider were kleemann. Now, the car is mine and eurocharged is an option, so i went that route since im not as big of a baller as he was yet, and eurocharged offers great value.
I picked up the full 5 pulley kit plus supercharger pulley and belt wrap kit from shardul (a member on this forum). He also included a tuning package from eurocharged, so I plan on trying them out. I already replaced the intercooler pump and will be doing the pulley upgrade and a trunk tank soon. Still deciding on whether to add a heat exchanger or not.
i have 2 water intercooled supercharged v8s, so its definitely an area of interest for me.First: chances are your stock pump is dead or dying. Replacing with oem is not recommended... the updated bosch version is fine for keeping stock, but more boost equals more heat equals more cooling, and its better to do it once and do it right the first time.
I was in your shoes 10 years ago... i wanted to mod my dads sl55, and the only parts he would conider were kleemann. Now, the car is mine and eurocharged is an option, so i went that route since im not as big of a baller as he was yet, and eurocharged offers great value.
I picked up the full 5 pulley kit plus supercharger pulley and belt wrap kit from shardul (a member on this forum). He also included a tuning package from eurocharged, so I plan on trying them out. I already replaced the intercooler pump and will be doing the pulley upgrade and a trunk tank soon. Still deciding on whether to add a heat exchanger or not.
I get what your saying, heat robs power so I get the point of upgrading pumps. It seems like adding 100hp is gonna take quite a bit of money. Renntechs site says there stage 1 package only adds 50hp with crank pulley, tune and ic pump.
I'm not sure if he plans on doing exhaust and all that stuff. Just wants it reliable, so around 45k miles I should forsure be replacing ic pump and belts? Sounds like a good time for upgrades.
Is the renntech ic pump a good high pressure and high volume pump?
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2003 SL55
Lol believe it or not my dad is the one who wants to mod it. He was real set on renntech but wanted me to look further into it.
I get what your saying, heat robs power so I get the point of upgrading pumps. It seems like adding 100hp is gonna take quite a bit of money. Renntechs site says there stage 1 package only adds 50hp with crank pulley, tune and ic pump.
I'm not sure if he plans on doing exhaust and all that stuff. Just wants it reliable, so around 45k miles I should forsure be replacing ic pump and belts? Sounds like a good time for upgrades.
Is the renntech ic pump a good high pressure and high volume pump?
I get what your saying, heat robs power so I get the point of upgrading pumps. It seems like adding 100hp is gonna take quite a bit of money. Renntechs site says there stage 1 package only adds 50hp with crank pulley, tune and ic pump.
I'm not sure if he plans on doing exhaust and all that stuff. Just wants it reliable, so around 45k miles I should forsure be replacing ic pump and belts? Sounds like a good time for upgrades.
Is the renntech ic pump a good high pressure and high volume pump?
If you do a little research, it appears renntech pump is just a rebranded cwa100, which is a good pump, but can be had for less.
As far as i know, the 2 best power mods are a pulley and long tube headers. You have lots of options regarding how much power you want from the pulley, but keep in mind anything smaller than an 80mm pulley is going to require a beefed up IC system beyond just a pump. Split cooling would be next. Heat exchanger beyond that.
As far as cooling, it depends on your use case. You might not mind a little loss of power after sitting in traffic for a while, so long as it comes back when youre up to speed again. Or you might desperately need cold water in your IC sitting in staging lanes at a busy drag strip. These use cases have different symptoms and different solutions.
Adding power to these cars is easy, its keeping the power available thats tough.
My opinion:
77mm pulley
Datalogged tune
Cwa50 Pump
Split cooling (either basic res or trunk tank)
Makes one solid freeway cruiser capable of 186mph with 500 wheel horses. If thats cool for you, youre done with less than a thousand spent.
If you wanna drag race it, youll probably want to do more like a quaife limited slip, toe links, headers, and drag radials should see you in the low 11s with good temp management. Thats another 3k though lol
Last edited by m-svt-amg; May 1, 2016 at 09:32 PM.
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2005 sl55 AMG
A lot of people feel renntech isnt worth the money. No one seems to question their quality though. Kinda like my dad, yours seems to want to just pay to have it taken care of and not worry about it.
If you do a little research, it appears renntech pump is just a rebranded cwa100, which is a good pump, but can be had for less.
As far as i know, the 2 best power mods are a pulley and long tube headers. You have lots of options regarding how much power you want from the pulley, but keep in mind anything smaller than an 80mm pulley is going to require a beefed up IC system beyond just a pump. Split cooling would be next. Heat exchanger beyond that.
As far as cooling, it depends on your use case. You might not mind a little loss of power after sitting in traffic for a while, so long as it comes back when youre up to speed again. Or you might desperately need cold water in your IC sitting in staging lanes at a busy drag strip. These use cases have different symptoms and different solutions.
Adding power to these cars is easy, its keeping the power available thats tough.
If you do a little research, it appears renntech pump is just a rebranded cwa100, which is a good pump, but can be had for less.
As far as i know, the 2 best power mods are a pulley and long tube headers. You have lots of options regarding how much power you want from the pulley, but keep in mind anything smaller than an 80mm pulley is going to require a beefed up IC system beyond just a pump. Split cooling would be next. Heat exchanger beyond that.
As far as cooling, it depends on your use case. You might not mind a little loss of power after sitting in traffic for a while, so long as it comes back when youre up to speed again. Or you might desperately need cold water in your IC sitting in staging lanes at a busy drag strip. These use cases have different symptoms and different solutions.
Adding power to these cars is easy, its keeping the power available thats tough.
So sounds like headers, pump, 80mm sc pulley and tune would be a pretty stout setup? What would a quarter mile look like with some drag radials and those parts?
I'm having trouble finding supercharger pulleys. Only place I can really find them is eurocharged. Kleemann and renntech only offer crank pulleys. I read the diy and it's something I know I could do.
I'm also guessing everyone is going to recommend kleemann or renntech for headers? Is it worth doing a full exhaust or just headers?
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2003 SL55
Headers are one of the most expensive parts, and they drastically alter the sound of the vehicle. It may be tiresime for those who cruise with the top down at 80mph or so...
You can get the power from more boost if you have more cooling. The pump upgrade us a must-have. The split cooling bmw tank is a great addition for very cheap. Hit up shardul for pulleys. Call eurocharged or RaceIQ for the tune. Youll be happy for less than the cost of headers alone.
However, i hear mbh headers are highly recommended as well.
You can get the power from more boost if you have more cooling. The pump upgrade us a must-have. The split cooling bmw tank is a great addition for very cheap. Hit up shardul for pulleys. Call eurocharged or RaceIQ for the tune. Youll be happy for less than the cost of headers alone.
However, i hear mbh headers are highly recommended as well.
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2003 SL55
Id say talk to shardul first, he might get you a deal at eurocharged. Then ask them what they think about your fuel injectors based on their tune. They might recommend an upgrade for 77mm, not sure. You can get those and a split cooling kit from fabtech pretty cheap.
Lastly, check up on the car, make sure there are no leaking abc components or valve covers, might wanna get new spark plugs, brake pads, and suspension bushings before really pushing it.
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2005 sl55 AMG
Low 12s easy, assuming everything else in your car is mechanically sound. You might need drag tires for 11s without further mods... thats where i would talk to centrline, he's the 1/4 mile champ around here.
Id say talk to shardul first, he might get you a deal at eurocharged. Then ask them what they think about your fuel injectors based on their tune. They might recommend an upgrade for 77mm, not sure. You can get those and a split cooling kit from fabtech pretty cheap.
Lastly, check up on the car, make sure there are no leaking abc components or valve covers, might wanna get new spark plugs, brake pads, and suspension bushings before really pushing it.
Id say talk to shardul first, he might get you a deal at eurocharged. Then ask them what they think about your fuel injectors based on their tune. They might recommend an upgrade for 77mm, not sure. You can get those and a split cooling kit from fabtech pretty cheap.
Lastly, check up on the car, make sure there are no leaking abc components or valve covers, might wanna get new spark plugs, brake pads, and suspension bushings before really pushing it.
After some more research looks like I want to do the cwa100. I can't seem to find a place to buy it though lol.
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2003 SL55
I wanted the cwa100 as well, but honestly for double the money it only flows 50% better in ideal conditions, more likely around 20%. I went with the 50 because i needed 2 and got a deal on a pair of them.
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2005 sl55 AMG
I am still having issues finding the 50. Everything is out of the states which I am not used too. I don't know how this forum works, I know my duramax forums you can't post link to parts that aren't vendors of the forum so don't want to be breaking any rules.
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2005 sl55 AMG
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2005 sl55 AMG
Ok so after doing more research I'm not sure the 77m pulley is real good idea. Sounds like the car can run to lean and will need injectors and fuel rails.
So I think the first mod should be a intercooler pump seeing how picky these things are with heat. Will a cwa-50 be a drop in replacement and no tuning needed? Just help heat tremendously on a stock car?
Then maybe thinking about a 83mm pulley with a tune. Should be a pretty reliable not overboard setup?
Also what's better? Fixed sc pulley or clutched pulley?
So I think the first mod should be a intercooler pump seeing how picky these things are with heat. Will a cwa-50 be a drop in replacement and no tuning needed? Just help heat tremendously on a stock car?
Then maybe thinking about a 83mm pulley with a tune. Should be a pretty reliable not overboard setup?
Also what's better? Fixed sc pulley or clutched pulley?
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2003 SL55
Yes, cwa 50 alone with no other mods or tune fixed everything in my stock heat soak. Never happened again.
I was just reading how much success people have seen with the 180 crank and headers without fuel mods... where did you read a 77mm alone was a problem?
Fixed is a bit of a gamble. I personally hate the disengaging supercharger, and the potential grenading of the clutch pulley.. but i dont hear very much good about tuning for a fixed pulley and a 82mm throttle body combined... im gonna try it but i cant recommend it until i do
I was just reading how much success people have seen with the 180 crank and headers without fuel mods... where did you read a 77mm alone was a problem?
Fixed is a bit of a gamble. I personally hate the disengaging supercharger, and the potential grenading of the clutch pulley.. but i dont hear very much good about tuning for a fixed pulley and a 82mm throttle body combined... im gonna try it but i cant recommend it until i do
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2005 sl55 AMG
Yes, cwa 50 alone with no other mods or tune fixed everything in my stock heat soak. Never happened again.
I was just reading how much success people have seen with the 180 crank and headers without fuel mods... where did you read a 77mm alone was a problem?
Fixed is a bit of a gamble. I personally hate the disengaging supercharger, and the potential grenading of the clutch pulley.. but i dont hear very much good about tuning for a fixed pulley and a 82mm throttle body combined... im gonna try it but i cant recommend it until i do
I was just reading how much success people have seen with the 180 crank and headers without fuel mods... where did you read a 77mm alone was a problem?
Fixed is a bit of a gamble. I personally hate the disengaging supercharger, and the potential grenading of the clutch pulley.. but i dont hear very much good about tuning for a fixed pulley and a 82mm throttle body combined... im gonna try it but i cant recommend it until i do
https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/516924-pulley-size-boost-calculator-3.html
Will that Johnson cm30 keep up with a stock car and keep it from heat soaking? For now he just wants to bring it to the strip and be able to hot lap it or take a 30 min break if needed. He just wants to run it stock for a little while.
I just can't find that cwa 50 in stock anywhere
