bleek

Hey guys just wanted to share a little project with you guys that i've been working for awhile.

Many many hours spent research, learning and understanding what i was up against. Being a true drag racer at heart, and been turning wrenches for some time, this was a whole different kinda monster that i was up against and i realize how important it is to do things right.

I got lots of pics so please bare with me. Also there will be things that i will be sharing with you guys, so you don't get scamed or screwed out of your hard earned money.

I started off with my car fresh off the show room floor and sent it out to get a complete K4 set-up, the work was done in Atlanta and i had to then send the car out to Brandon (Kleemann) to fix some bugs, once it was broken in, it's made tons of power! The car made 580hp in Colorado, and that was with only 500miles on it in the super thin colorado air.

So as time passed the racer in me came out searching for more power! i won't get into what other tweaks i'm doing right now, but i will share later!

So back to the heads, i purchased a spare 55 kompressor motor out of a wrecked SL and i was gonna use the heads off that motor to port. But plans changed and now that motor will be my stroker motor (6.2)

I researched our 55 heads and i found out alot about them! PAY ATTENTION! There are some people out there that have never turned a wrench buying up E500 heads and selling them as 55 heads!!! Now here's where it gets tricky!!! From 430 to SLR's the heads all have the same part number! But here's what i learned, castings from real 55's are actually better casting, they have more meat in critical areas for porting and also runner volume, vavle size are different on real 55 heads! See older 430 and 500 heads have smaller vavles and smaller runner volume then our heads, and also the 430's and 500's have a thinner casting. I found out the hard way!!!

So here lies the grey area. Every head will bolt up the same and should work the same, but the potential and power is what will be different! Here's an analagy, kinda like using 305 smallblockchevy heads on a 350, or 289 ford heads on a 351w. Will bolt up and will run, but no room for improvement! Just some food for thought before someone gets stuck with crappy casting or worse yet buys someones ported heads that aren't real 55 heads.

So let's get back to the fun! I bought up 3 sets of real 55 heads, one set was off a N/A motor, and the other two sets where off wrecked kompressor cars.

For all you engine guys we all know air flow makes HP, so on a N/A motor it is important to get as much flow and not sacrifice too much velocity(losing throttle response) I can't even remember but on a N/A motor the intake is suppose to flow a certain percentage more then the exhaust.

For out kompressor cars and turbo cars, we need to get the most out the exhaust!!! I don't have any stock pics, but VRUS took pics of my heads before they were ported, so if you want to compare before and after shots of my heads go look at VRUS's head project post where he posted pics of my heads, you can see how small my stock exhaust ports were.

We spent alot of time sonic testing the heads with my cylinder head porter! He actually does alot of killer work for some big drag racing teams, so this project took time as we wanted to do things right! Once the porter figured out where all the thin spots were, and made all his moulds he began to reshape the runners for max air flow!

Here's a few quick pics and i'll continue the story. Enjoy!

bleek

First off i'd like to apologize, i forgot to get the stock flow number for everone to see! But i will get him to flow the other set i have just to give you guys a comparison of how much we gained!

The heads are about 60% done, as we are waiting for the valves to finish the bowl and radius area as well as the combustion chambers!

Here's the parts list for these heads:

-Real 55 Castings
-Brand new custom camshafts with more exhaust duration then SLR
-Brand new custom Ferrea Valves (1mm bigger on the intake and .5mm bigger on the exhaust)
-Brand new double springs
-Brand new Spring cups, seals, retainers, keepers, and shims

The heads for full inspected, checked for cracks, core shift, and wear on the cam bores.

I was only able to go 0.5mm bigger on the exhaust as we found out is we go any bigger we would actually start shrouding the valve and start losing flow!

Here's some more pics!

bleek

Here's some close up pics of the exhaust ports, and you can see how we haven't finished them because we need the new valves to shape the bowl area properly.

Also the valve job is gonna be ultra critical!!! Real cylinder porters keep the valve angles secret as just with a proper valve job will pick up lots of flow!

Heads should be done just before christmas, as we figure Ferrea will have the valves to us in about a week or so!

With all the extra flow and everything, i will be sending the car back to Brandon for a custom ecu tune, as i will also have custom SLR coolers installed on the car as well as even bigger crank pulley as well as some transmission work(extra clutch packs installed)

Guys it's one thing to get the parts it's another thing to get the car running right, that's why people will goto evo, or renntech, or in my case kleemann for there ecu tuning, i never have to worry about timing issues, A/F problems or anything like that! I will actually be getting a second ecu for my car programmed to run on race gas! So one ecu will be maxed out for pump gas, and i'll swap out that one when i run race gas. Little secret i thought i'd share with you.

Please take the time to do the heads right guys, the more mods you do, the more important the heads will be! ON a stock car you might see an extra 30hp but same heads on a modded out car will be alot more!

Now inregards to cost on the heads, you get what you pay for, i hear how some people are gonna sell 500 heads will old springs and valves, and you can get them done cheap, what are you trading the life of your motor to save a few cents? Please Pm for details if you are concerned, i will share the recipe with you and explain in detail why i spent what i spent.

For now check out the rest of these pics and please ask if you got questions!

Vadim @ FD

Good Job!

Now get them flowed.

chiromikey

beautiful pioneering. i can't wait to see the results.

bleek

First off let me take my hats of to Vadim, for being one of those real pioneers here! You taked about heads, coolers, exhaust stuff, well before any of us had a clue, so thank you for laying the ground work! I only know drag chasis and small block chev stuff, but i know the theories apply! Thanks again for all the hard work Vadim!

chiromikey thanks man, you have no clue how much i had to research to find the difference with heads, and runner shapes and everything! What i'll probably end up doing next is once the heads are totally tweaked i'll ship them out to one of those specialized CNC head porting places to take a probe of my heads and always have my program on file so i can duplicate the heads any time!

The hardest part with the heads was optimizing the exhaust ports, on our blower motors exhaust scavenging is so important for power, but the two spark plug bosses protrude into the exhaust ports, so if you go nuts you port into the sparkplug threads, and guys that's where you spend alot of money, it's on experience!

Oh yeah i'll get some flow numbers up for you guys!

Grumpy666

Typically, on well-prepared heads, the exhaust should flow 70-80% of the intake - towards the higher end if a flow tube is used on the exhaust port.

Kudos on your systematic and well-thought-out approach.

On your race-gas ECU - are other mods planned for its use? Or are you just looking to optimize timing with your standard setup?

Rock

Has Cory/Brandon already done a custom ecu on a K4+ car like yours?

Please keep the details coming.

bleek

Ahh yes, i was waiting for you to chime in there grumpy! You definitley sound like one of those guys that still do or used to play with big blocks and small blocks, it's scary to see how many racers are here, but it's great cause there also a wealth of knowledge and experience! To answer your question grump, both ecu will be maxed out except one will have more timing for the race gas. See on our systems the memory in the ecu is all used up, so i wouldn't be able to have two programs on there, so we opted for a second ecu since it only take ten minutes to swap out, but both ecu will have the same SCN coding so the car won't know the difference. I know it's a bit on the extreme side, but i'd like to squeeze as much out of the car with out spraying her. On the stroker motor i'll spray because i'll have aftermarket crank, rods and pistons, but just don't have the ***** to spray stock parts.

Rock to be honest i don't try to ask Brandon too much on what he does on others cars, but i'm pretty sure he has, and i think he tweaked my ecu back in the day just because of the colder weather and lower altitude i have here in toronto. I don't think it's something they try to advertise, cause i guess everyone is gonna break ***** about custom stuff. With my car it needs the extra touch because of all the extra i'll have, from SLR coolers, to even bigger pulley, extra heatexchanger, and also transmission mods. Did that help or did i just make things even more screwed up? LOL!

Vadim @ FD

bleek:

Thank you, for the kudos!!!!!!!!


Man, do I miss playing with cars.

Heads and cams, are the last frontier, go for it!!!!

bleek

You said it my friend! Hey Vadim we need you back buddy, real guys that actually know stuff, not guys that talk but have never lifted a wrench! Let's do some camshaft work together man, or even a fuel system, heck i'm working on some chasis stuff.

It's so true with the heads and cam, see you can only tweak these cars so much until your heads and cams become a limiting factor. See in our blower cars camshafts aren't as critical, but they do become more critical when you got better heads and exhaust systems. Camshafts allow you to take advantge of those mods.

See from the very start with my car, i spent tons on time figuring how to maximize power and add endurance to it. Just an example with headers, before they went on my car, i sent them out to jet-hot to get there extreme coating put on. Even though they are stainless, you can gain horsepower through coatings and still add longevity! The coatings help keep heat in and this helps scavenge your exhaust gases i.e. clears the crap out and makes more power. I try not to over look any last detail, just like with race cars you try to take advantage of every last horsepower available!

Even with camshaft selection, i could have just put SLR's in or something else, but i researched many things and realized just because certain things bolt up doesn't mean they will last long. I went with camshaft taylored for our motors, made to bolt in, no shims, no clearence problems, and more importantly no longveity problems. The most important thing i can share with you guys is take the time to figure things out, because if you don't and just assume things will be ok, it will cost you more then you know, maybe not now, but forsure down the road!

Here's a pic of my hotrod!

jamusa

It seems as if the e55 cars is beginning to move upward in hp again.For a while we were stuck at K4,but now since some of the cars are coming off warranty,people are beginning to push the envelope further in a quest for more hp/tq.
I am wondering if tuners such as Renntech and Kleemann will step up and offer custom tune for the e55 motors?
If they do i can see the E55 being another Toyoya Supra,but only with a four door.
Lets hope these motors will stand up to mega hp.

bleek

jamusa your right about the cars moving up in HP again, but i don't think it's a warranty issue, i sent my car to get modded with only 500 miles on it, but i think as more time passes, real tuners are discovering more potential in these cars!

See the tuners never had to change there tuning packages because they were just that, a package! So why would they come up with new programming when all people are doing is bolting throttle bodies, pullies and exhaust systems.

So now there a hand full of crazies like myself, that don't care what it takes and realize things like cylinder heads haven't been tapped into as well as stuff in the chassis and transmission, so the potential has always been there but just never looked at!

Heck after all this, i'll be finishing the stroker motor, with coated pistons, crank rods and lots of other goodies!

See one of the things we need to first look at is how a motor works, it's a big air pump, then we need to understand how to keep it together and how to make thing more efficient, thoeries are all the same just different car. But that's where it gets dangerous, some people kinda understand theories but don't understand how important clearences and tolerances are and just assume this will work or that will work, but yet alwasy have an excuse why there cars don't run right.

Guys always work with real people in the know, i've worked with Brandon from day one, and now we are gonna use his SLR cooler design and some of my ideas and build a real killer one to put on my car. Just the cooler itself has added an extra 50-70hp! That was his original design, now we're gonna tweak that some more, add the cylinderheads i got done, plus bigger pulley and some other stuff, and we can only imagine what the car will make!

I will apologize now, as i won't be able to show you guys dyno numbers after each mod.

A. I don't like doing too many pulls on the dyno if not necessary
B. I'll post numbers of the car as it sits now, and then post number with all the mods, ie. heads, SLR coolers, ecu etc.........


One other thing i forgot to answer with jamusa's question about the motor's holding up to the extra hp. Remember one thing, RPM is the killer, we are not spinning the motor 7000, and there are many things we can do to add more longevity to the motors. One thing is proper harmonics, and not doing excessive pulls on the dyno if you don't need too! Anything you can do to make the motor work easier, will make it last longer and make more power, the less it works the less wear and tear, eg. friction, heat, etc.....

stevebez

Fabulous dedication - and I think you are the envy of many guys on the board who wish they had the time to do this research and development...

If I won the lotto - thats spretty much what I would love to do instead of a friggin' spreadsheet jockey (aka trader) at an investment bank. I miss working with my hands too much.

Anyhow ... thanks for letting us gain an insight into this project and hope you keep us all up to date - we all rooting for you !!!!!!!

Good Luck!

rflow306

Excellent work. Thanks for posting that information for all of us.

NitrogenBalance

What are the chances of getting in touch with the shop that did your work?? and I wonder if they would take on any other MB heads?? If you could, please PM me or reply with a little more info like, cost, location, and what you see fit as info, you've already done great at that!!

I know myself(C43), blackbenzz(CLK55), and a few others would be very interested.

blackbenzz

Yup, I want some head work done

bleek

stevebez Man i'm flatered, but honestly guys nothing to be envyous about! You guys know everything i know, i was just nuts enough to do it! Man we all won the lottery here, cause it takes alot of hard work and sacrifices to have what we all have, so my hats off to everyone here for working so hard to get a benz!

rflow, no worries man, just hope you enjoy the info.

Nitrogenbalance
I'll drop you a pm just now, i have two more sets being worked on, i am not sure how much more he will take on, as he has responsiblities to big race teams, but i can probably arrange something for you. Anyone else just drop me a pm.

bleek

Guys just a quick note in regards to cost and everything. How i did these heads saves me money in the long run by using everything new, that way later on i don't have to upgrade my parts. You get what you pay for and when it comes to something i cannot easily take on and off to upgrade i'd rather spend my money once then to go back and forth.

There are lots of solutions, and perhaps many will not want to go as nuts as myself, the porting part isn't the ultra expensive part, it's more the parts, R&D, and the frikin castings! But again, there could be a guy around the corner willing to do it for $1k or even less but i went with experience. I know my guy understands fuel shearing, velocity, shape, valve angles, etc.....

Only advice here take your time a research and do things right, bolting on a throttle body from any tuner is a given, but you never just bolt on a set of heads when there's no R&D behind it!

Vadim @ FD

[QUOTEYou said it my friend! Hey Vadim we need you back buddy, real guys that actually know stuff, not guys that talk but have never lifted a wrench! Let's do some camshaft work together man, or even a fuel system, heck i'm working on some chasis stuff.

It's so true with the heads and cam, see you can only tweak these cars so much until your heads and cams become a limiting factor. See in our blower cars camshafts aren't as critical, but they do become more critical when you got better heads and exhaust systems. Camshafts allow you to take advantge of those mods.

See from the very start with my car, i spent tons on time figuring how to maximize power and add endurance to it. Just an example with headers, before they went on my car, i sent them out to jet-hot to get there extreme coating put on. Even though they are stainless, you can gain horsepower through coatings and still add longevity! The coatings help keep heat in and this helps scavenge your exhaust gases i.e. clears the crap out and makes more power. I try not to over look any last detail, just like with race cars you try to take advantage of every last horsepower available!

Even with camshaft selection, i could have just put SLR's in or something else, but i researched many things and realized just because certain things bolt up doesn't mean they will last long. I went with camshaft taylored for our motors, made to bolt in, no shims, no clearence problems, and more importantly no longveity problems. The most important thing i can share with you guys is take the time to figure things out, because if you don't and just assume things will be ok, it will cost you more then you know, maybe not now, but forsure down the road!

Here's a pic of my hotrod!
][/QUOTE]

Nice car!!!

December historically is very busy month for car sales. However, I should have more free time in January.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions or ideas, you are allways welcome to bounce them of me.

Good Luck!

bleek

Vadim, I can still see the twitch in your eye my friend, honestly guys like you and a few others are rare to find, and we need you back buddy, come january i'm gonna fly out west tie you up and hold you hostage in the lab and force you to make hp!!! LOL!

But honestly, thanks man, and i understand what your saying about sitting on the side lines watching but not being able to twist them wrenches. V i know you still got lots of tricks up your sleeve, drop me a pm, i fund the projects, lets have some fun. I got a Star Das, and access to whatever else we need, plus i'm a fabricator by trade.

Guys just think about how killer it would be to get guys like Vadim and other nut bars to all work together making more parts for the 55 and other cars, we need more people that actually know, not more people that just talk.

Guys thanks for all the positive comments, and thanks for listening to me ramble about theories and stuff, please feel free to ask questions if you don't understand, no such thing as a stupid question, there's lot of smart people here, so please ask away.

Mad TKD

now that stroker should be a complete beast if you are doing everything to that one also. With that you will probably need more fuel? Awesome. Have you started the stroker yet? Just wondering how its coming and how much clearance you have?

bleek

Hey Mad TKD, i've already sourced out all the parts, so that's no problem, since all the parts are custom, i'm gonna take advantage of that.

I gonna end up using smaller rod bearing journals just for the frictional loss and a bit of weight savings, i don't have to worry so much with strength as that is one of the luxuries of customs parts, pretty much all super high strength!

Clearances aren't as big of a concern as i'm not gonna go too crazy on the stroke, the problem lies with the cylinders! From the factory all out blocks have a special anti-wear coating on the cylinder walls and it is only a few thou thick! So i will end up removing this coating when i sleeve the motor, but i will have aftermarket coatings applied to the cylinder walls and piston skirts for wear. The other problem is the bore spacing, on our motors there is not much meat between the cylinders, so i'm working with the machine shop to figure out if we can sleeve the block and still be able to keep things stiff.

Man i can't even begin to explain all the things i had to research for this project, hearing people talk about it is cool, but that's all they do, this stuff costs money and time, and trust me my *** is sore!

vrus

Bleek,

Those things look sweet!!!! Cannot wait to see them fully assembled and installed.. Should make killer power on that car of yours. It's gonna be a great Christmas that's for sure!!!

Mad TKD

Yes Bleek thats why I was wondering how you would get around the cylinder walls. I know they have the silicon coated walls and boring it out would eliminate it and really hurt it. Cant wait to see it.