2006 SL55 AMG bought on a whim during March 2020. Pure stock 2 owner car that was picked up from a dealership (after speaking to the MB service manager that services the car for the past 10 years and included all the records) that does not advertise in Missouri. Had the car shipped over, but since March, ordered parts and installation by some Mercedes shops around here. Here is what has been done thus far:
Motor:
77mm UPD supercharger pulley
UPD billet red pulley kit - Will at UPD if fcking awesome to deal with
UPD belt wrap kit
VRP titanium SC pulley bolt
Project B5 custom split cooling - http://www.projectb5.com/product/pb5...it-cooling-kit
CW100 water pump
PLM XL heat exchanger
relay to turn on water pump when key is turned
Needswings 3 inch intake with 5 inch air filters
Stage 2 tune by RaceIQ - Tony and Race IQ did a great job and fantastic support - support is what matters if you are shopping for a commoditized product, it's what's sets the product apart. You can get a ****ty product anywhere but, great support in very few places.
Future mod - VRP 92mm throttle body

Exhaust
resonator delete
secondary cat delate
3 inch t304 stainless steel tubing from front cats to the muffler
3 inch X pipe set up
MBH long tube headers (near future mod)
Kooks green cats (sitting here in anticipation of MBH long tubes)
550cc injectors (sitting here in anticipation of MBH long tubes)
stock mufflers
I sent a message to outer space with Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson about what's the Corsa Extreme muffler and how i can modify for the r230 body.....no aliens have responded thus far.....
radio silence.

Exterior
System X ceramix coating
19 inch staggard rims with the Punisher center caps
all badging black out with the trunk tri star emblem in carbon fiber
front 100% carbon fiber chin spoiler
rear LARGE FIN diffuser. not the small. The LARGE. I've sent a message to outter space about where to buy this or how to get this and again, no aliens responded so i took it upon myself to be patient and not settle for anything less. So not thank you to those aliens. FU and stay the F out of planet Earth because I have sourced the large fin diffuser. PM me and I will let the secret out. Build your own, don't depend on others,
100% carbon fiber trunk spoiler
100% carbon fiber interior - not plastic dipped....carbon fiber. don't settle for less.
ceramic tints including front windshield by Tintmax. Tintmax did an awesome tint job.
lowering links and tuning the computer (future mod)



System X ceramic coating. Next will be a lifetime ceramic coat.

Staggered 19 inch rims

Attention to detail, notice the center caps

The lips spoiler and the front plate logo are 100% carbon fiber.

100% carbon fiber

rear trunk logo is 100% carbon fiber. i don't care for the colorless rear tail light on trunk. there's bigger wood to chop.

All emblems are blacked out for contrast.

Yeah, that's it. the big fin rear spoiler. The one question I had asked about....and zero responses. Kept close to the vest like a trade secret protected by some kind of patent law. Well, patience pays off. PM and i'll tell anyone where i got this from and for how much. There are no secrets here.

UPD belt wrap kit with all UPD pulleys including 77mm super charger pulley. Thank you Will at UPD!

Needs wings intake kit. Thank you Needswings!

Split cooling kit but check out the billet coolant tank. Not your typical split cooling kit. Not cheap either. CW100 water pump also with relay to run when the key is turned on along with PLM XL heat exchanger.

Check out the bazookas, aka 5 inch air filters from Needswings.

there is is.....the large fin best kept secret....shhhhh

another view of the 100% carbon fiber large fin rear diffuser.

 

looks like some kids sprayed all over your tag

 

thanks for the reminder. the license plate frame is carbon fiber with glow-in-the-dark "AMG" insignia.

 

Congrats. Def look into powder coating the supercharger and intake plenums to clean up the engine bay! Great mods list

 

Fast forward to 2023:
MBH long tubes with Kooks green cats are now installed and they flow into the stock mufflers. What a world of difference. The car just wants to go!
Larger injectors (550cc) also installed

Mods coming up over the next two months:
82mm throttle body with snout ported to match by the local Mercedes tuner in Nassau County, LI. After speaking to some experts and drivers who have installed the 92mm throttle body, I've decided to be more conservative since the large throttle body may be a bit too much for street or highway driving.
72mm clutched VRP pulley with GripTec coating
New sparkplugs
secondary heat exchanger
Needswings custom fabbed oil catch can kit
Race IQ stage 2 tune update for the above mods
Carbon fiber side view mirror covers

 

Interesting cooling selection. Totally unfamiliar to me.

Do you data log engine outputs? If so, does your system deliver IAT's below ambient (main reason I went to Killer Chiller setup, also expensive, ~$6k installed).

Bill

 

Since most or all the folks I spoke to said that my current cooling mods - split cooling, PLM XL heat exchanger, and soon-to-be-installed secondary heat exchanger, in addition to that fact that I don't track my car, said that I should be or would be ok with the standard cooling mods and a 72mm pulley since I don't race the car. I think I've put about 1,500 miles on the car since 2021 as I have a few other daily drivers including my E Wgaon (e320 4matic wagon).

I don't data log it since I haven't gotten to that stage yet but future plans include installing some type of data logger or a screen which will provide me with data such as IATs. If you have any suggestions of such devices that would be a good or seamless fit, please let me know.

 

It's not possible for an air-water intercooler to deliver IAT below ambient. You're using ambient air to cool the system, so it's physically impossible.

You could install something like a water misting nozzle system setup to spray the heat exchanger, using a reservoir filled with ice water. Or to go even further, spray it with CO2 or N2O. CO2 is, of course, kinda bad for the atmosphere. N2O (nitrous oxide) is OK for the atmosphere. But since you'd also be spraying through all the other heat exchangers in the front of the car, using something like CO2 or N2O could wreak havoc with your engine radiator, power steering cooler, ABC system cooler, etc. if you're not really careful with it. Of course, if you've installed a secondary heat exchanger as @Ajai Thomas has, you could easily spray only that one.

The intercooler system mods that @Ajai Thomas has installed are exactly what I'd recommend for the SL55 - split the system off to be separate from the engine coolant system (most important), upgrade the pump system (use a better, brushless pump like Pierburg and set it up to run full-time), and add an additional heat exchanger (the factory heat exchanger isn't very big and can use some help). It's actually surprising to me that Mercedes didn't split the SL55 system to begin with, since they did split it for the M275 (SL600/SL65).

If you really want minimum IAT/maximum boost, the way to go is water/methanol injection. But before you get into this level of stuff, make sure you understand how they work and what can happen if things go wrong (BIG BOOM! ).

 

The system I had installed uses a cooled liquid, refrigerated by the AC system, to achieve IAT temp cooling. I find it quite remarkable in it's performance here in sunny south Florida, typically delivering operating IAT's 10-15 degrees below ambient (I've data logged temps 25 degrees below ambient). And did I mention recovery times after a long pull? They are equally remarkable.

You'll never acheive temps below ambient with the system AJ installed as you correctly stated it's physically impossible.

No nitrous, etc.... for me. I'll stick with the KC.

Bill

 

Yeah, I'm familiar with the Killer Chiller setup. Neat system.

Have you noticed any effect on the normal functioning of the AC system? Does it still blow as cold as a stock system? I'm in Houston, so I get the same brutally hot summer days as you in Florida and I don't know if I'd give up cabin cooling capacity for lower IATs. I've got the panoramic roof option so the AC system works pretty hard on the hotter days as-is.

Funny thing - the ice water/CO2/N2O sprayer thing was just an idea that popped into my head. I'd never heard of anyone actually doing such a thing. So last night I'm looking through my DirecTV stuff, I've got a lot of shows set to automatically record from the Motor Trend channel. One of them is Engine Masters, where they have engines on a dyno and they test the gains/losses of all kinds of modifications, and I see last night that the newest show is about testing a CO2/N2O sprayer on an air-to-air intercooler system! Crazy. Turns out there's quite a few off-the-shelf systems out there. But all the information I'm finding online so far is people with air-to-air IC systems, none with air-to-water systems.

The Engine Masters episode testing was flawed - they tested and compared with no intercooler, with intercooler but no airflow, with intercooler and a big fan, and then with spraying the intercooler with CO2. But they didn't test with CO2 and a big fan at the same time. They found that intercooler with CO2 had a similar HP gain as the intercooler with fan setup. So I would assume that CO2 spray would have a significant gain in a normal vehicle moving down the street/track and so having normal airflow across the heat exchanger. But again, this is all air-to-air system, no idea how this would go with an air-to-water system. Engine Masters didn't do N2O because they didn't want the possibility of the sprayed nitrous finding its way ti the engine air intake and influencing the air-fuel ratio. No reason to think N2O would be any colder than CO2 for this purpose anyway. Final results were about a 30HP gain for both intercooler w/airflow and for intercooler w/CO2 spray, on a ~400ci Chevy running about 8.5psi boost. HP for no intercooler was about 780.

 

AC blows cold, no change, when in motion. When I lived in NC and experienced similar ambient conditions, no noticable reduction in cold air temp even at idle.

Had to replace compressor once in FL, since then it does not blow as cold at extended idle. No idea why as OEM compressor was the replacement.

I have the glass roof as well. IMO the cool vs. ice cold air at idle is not a big deal. Run with top down most of the time anyway.

Please post results if you do the CO2 or CO2/N2O systems. Would love to hear how they work. N20 should be a more effective coolant as it delivers about 162 BTU's lb upon vaporization. The CO2 latent heat of vaporization is only 109 BTU's lb.

 

I'd love to install this type of set up. Was the work done in South Florida? Can you recommend a shop?

 

The car looks great I had a 2005 SL500 for past five years but just bought a 2007 SL55 AMG It is not even close to the same car lol. Love it but looking to do same upgrades as you. Was looking a VPR for most stuff only concern I would have to do most work myself. Live in Canada a couple hours north of Toronto but not many places around to modify they car. With the mods is it still ok to drive on the street as a summer car. I do not want to track it but want a little more power just to show the new cars the olds one still go.

Bill

 

Work was done in Apex, NC. The shop I used was CW Performance and the owner's name is Curt Wheeler. Suggest you give them a call and see if they know of any shops close to you in Canada.
Bill

 

@SuperBill the car is perfectly fine to drive on the street, highway, and around town. I haven't had any issue with reliability because my main purpose was to build a streetable car that i can tool around town on the weekends as opposed to track or daily driver. Even as a daily driver, this car would be fine, but, i have an E320 4matic wagon and an ML55 AMG also so the wagon does most of the daily driving duties. I probably put about 1500 miles on the car in the past close to 3 years. As opposed to just depending on one vendor, i would look around so your not at the mercy of or held hostage by one vendor. I've had little to complain about with VRP since I usually buy parts that i really can't source from anywhere else like a secondary heat exchanger or the 72mm clutched pulley. The intake I bought from Needwings and they were gracious enough to fabricate an oil catch can kit even though they stopped making this, but, at half the cost of the VRP kit. For the Thermonator gaskets, i went to them direct even though VRP sells for a markup. Good luck with your build and you have a head start since the 07/08 already came with the larger throttle body. You can use that $$ for other upgrades.

 

 

Nice going, I like it! debating on what color to go with on mine.

 

Fabtech in Floriday did mine. They offer an array of colors and nice solution, quick turn around.

 

Race IQ has updated the ECU tune to match the current mods.
MK TCU tune by TJ Merry has been installed.
RU Carbon flat top and bottom steering wheel has been installed with red carbon fiber shifter paddles with the module to make them work on my SL.
VVK front and rear sway bars have been delivered.
Now I am waiting for a set of Silver's Neomax with SWIFT spring upgrade in order to swap out the entire ABC system and move over to full time coilovers.
I'm also swapping out the current Needswings intake to the Needswings SRT6 intake whereby the air filters are relocated in front of the radiator.
Next up I am considering the FI Interchiller before installing the 72mm pulley.

 

Please post your impressions of the Neo Max setup after installation. I am considering the exact setup on my 03 SL 55. Thanks.

 

Did you get the VVK sway bars? Most folks say that we don't need this, but, I like to err on the side of caution and ensure that the car stay as flat as possible. Next up, I will see how i can lose some of the 4k weight off the car.

 

I have not purchased yet. Also not trying to make this a coilover debate. I ask for your impressions when completed as it seems most say sway bars are not necessary, even without the swift spring upgrade.
I have ABC issues and am exploring my options.

 

Cool build.

As for sway bars on an ABC-delete, people can claim whatever they like.

MB themselves, however, had 2 versions of the R230 designed without ABC: the SL350 and the SL65 Black Series. Both have sway bars.

 

Air Cycle Machine air conditioning can supply conditioned air as cool or cooler than compressor cycle air conditioning. It wouldn’t be very practical for inter cooling as it would require 1 to 2 more turbocharger style turbines, and all the associated plumbing. In my engine bay, it doesn’t hardly have enough room to fit a toothpick in there. Now if I had that 600 hp 3 cylinder keoniseg engine in there, I could fit it.

 

@ajaiThomas you have done tremendous power upgrades to your car! All looks amazing. Especially from one who claims they don’t track the car. Which goes back to my requesting your Silvers evaluation. Surely you can say with your experience whether it even compares to factory ABC.
I like my car stock at this point from an engine standpoint. I understand the power potential of this fabulous motor. My experience with chasing power in motor sports equipment is it comes with a price. Reliability suffers.I should probably start another thread for the people who have chased horsepower and how it has complicated reliability….