Leone55

I'm sure everyone is aware that the standard air box is abit restricted some people say then renntech is the best option but is it? And how can really afford it! So I made my own using the following parts:
1x K&n Rc5165
1x straight 3.5" 300mm alloy pipe
1x 45 degree bend 3.5" 150mm leg length alloy pipe
1x 3.5" straight silicone joiner 3" long
1x 3.5" 90 degree silicone elbow
1x500x500mm alloy sheet
1x 1m weather proof stripping
1x 102mm cold air feed 1m length
1x500x500mm or card board for the template
4x 85-100mm hose clips

First thing to do is the heat shield use the cardboard as a template and trim a little at a time untill it fit prefectlythen when you happy with it cut the aluminium to the template and fix to the car next you will need to trim 2" off the 90 degree elbow and 3" off the straight joiner then just and little messing about with it to get it right, before fixing the intake used the cold air feed in the original place and put another next to the fog light.
After doing all this I took it out for a test drive and wow it's a totally different animal and the sound it makes! A worth while upgrade that only cost £150 all in:grin

Leone55

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Leone55

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Leone55

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Tall Paul

Interesting.

benzokirk

+1
to say the least.

ob1kenobi

ghetto.

Tall Paul

Could you not duplicate the set-up on the left, to make it a dual intake?

Just looked at pics again. Probably not enough room on the other side.

cm60k

Good set-up Leon,

but the problem is; when you close bonnet, air will comes more hot in the air cone, even if you insulate it from Ex. manifold,

also MAF was sucking air from 2 sides, now, only one side..!,,

personally; i prefer E55K/CL55K/S55K/SL55K airbox, it's more reliable for air bath breathing, just my IMO..

ZAYED,,

illest

looks similar to the stock setup on my e320 but would likely work better.

benzokirk

umm... okay... I don't want to be the only one here to respond responsibly but I mean, after all, we're in a forum where we come to learn. My personal thoughts about how it looks aside, because everyone who owns a car should feel free to do what they please to it - it's their money and their car - at the same time I think the most responsible response I've seen here is from Zayed (even though it started out encouraging, citing the "good set-up"). I think we mostly want to be nice to the new guy, and I'm with that... but mods that don't add measurable whp or torque should be deemed dubious, at best. Lest we find ourselves, by default, encouraging others to waste an equal amount of money and time, no matter how small an amount was spent on either.

I don't claim to be the most knowledgeable e55 owner here, but I do know that mod is the most unorthodox I've seen here. We should probably talk a little more about why that is true. I would love to find out that I'm wrong about this mod and that the gains in air intake are measurable.

cm60k

^+1^,

Good Input..

ZAYED,,

Leone55

I done this mod as another member done it similar on his car and made proven gains iirc around 9hp, I wouldn't have waisted the money if I didn't belive I would make any gains needless to say the car definatly pulls harder with this mod, I will be going for a dyno run in the near future to see what I have gained weather it 3hp or 10hp who knows but I know it has gained something!

giovany2429

This mod looks interesting. I would make it look cleaner and route the filter down by the foglight for better air flow so it doesnt suck in hot air?? Possibly wrap the piping to keep the air even cooler??

giovany2429

I want to try something like this except i want to take the filter down by the bottom grill.

cm60k

It's better than keep the cone in Engine bay, but you will need to clean it always..

ZAYED,,

Tall Paul

Stupid question time. What is the purpose of doing this? Are the filters you can see in the pic a better quality, ie, more flow and less restriction than the stock set up? Is it because the air box is too restrictive? If you do mount the filters externally to the air box, do you gut the airbox and remove the baffles inside? Does the length of the tubes between the filters and the air intake on the engine matter? Do they have to be equal in length? Sorry for so many questions, but I was wondering why you would do this.

cm60k

I agree with you, many ques. need to be answered..!,

I don't believe W202 C43/W208 CLK55/W210 E55 air box is restrictive, if it true, then we have to replace the MAF every at least 2 months..!??!?

IMO; don't think External filter will give anything, it might be when car is cold, but after get hot, it will be useless, and less age for the filter with less clean air than boxed filter..!,

MB gives you good solution to go with, better than cone filter theory,

you can see good Examples like all N/A 55's/all55K's family/BS versions/SLS/SLR,,

I could be wrong but this is my own opinion..

ZAYED,,

Fabio D

1+, best idea = go for some BMC's or K&N's in the stock box. trust us is pretty good designed. with conical filter or this set-up you are joking with your mind cause you got an agresive intake sound. but suck a lot of hot air to the bay. it's not good.

The only way to put better set-up than oem is renntech carbon or gruppem (i know is not cheap) but try to find a used renntech box is one of the best mods you can do in this engines. Also Klemmann headers & X pipe

Fabio Daniel

6spd

I think your on the right track as far as the setup goes. The filter is TOO big. I say that because If you were to use a smaller filter you could create a better heat shield to better isolate the engine bay heat. Also, it looks pretty bad with that air duct there. There is a port at the the bottom of the headlight where you can run fresh air tubing. it would look better and be way more functional than the vent by the grill as it has an obstruction in it as well. The hole by the headlight goes down in the bumper where the foglight/grill is. Plenty of cool positive air pressure there.


As far as everyone saying how great the stock box is and that this won't make power. I've built a similar setup and so have others on the forum. I had positive results as well as others. The sound alone was enough for me. On the flip side I also understand that these are Mercedes; AMG's at that, so people can be apprehensive about the appearance of the engine. I get it, and that's for the owner to decide.

The stock box's weak point is the neck/lip where it mount's to the MAF sensor. I first gutted and sanded smooth my stock AMG box. I removed all of the baffles and then used K&Ns. Definitely more power and a little more sound. But after a while, I wanted even more but wasn't willing to pay the premium for the carbon fiber box.

The other thing is, the stock amg box holds in engine heat like an insulator on top of the motor. The theory is that if you took it off it would allow for cooler temps under the hood, but this is just a hypothesis.

I'll take pics of my setup when I get a chance.

eFifty5AMG

Have any pics of this setup?

Interested in seeing this as well.
Or are they the same setup?

cm60k

I agree, removing mesh from MAF & airbox is great idea, it's slightly gives more air efficient..,,

IMO; K&N is oily filter, which i don't like & not recommend, dry filters are more safe for the MAF age..!

ZAYED,,

6spd

This is the only pic I have on my phone right now. But you get the idea, its not pretty but I like it. It breathes well.

And as far as the K&N's I havent had any bad experiences with them. You just have to make sure you don't over oil the filters. People say their MAFs go bad when they use them, but MAFs go bad on these cars even if you don't use K&N so i'd say use your own discretion .

PVC piping

cm60k

Professional photo..

ZAYED,,

6spd

Lol I'll post some better shots later today