stevebez

Well I been wondering why only one guy e.fifty.five has gone the route of changing the stock heat exchanger for one larger unit in the original H/E location? As both the RT and Evosport mods demonstrate there is loads of space ahead of the oem rad ... and by splitting the rads you just wasting space and creating more bottle necks...even so it is much better than stock.

So I am puzzled by this ...

Also when I ran my car on Saturday the engine coolant ran high - if I had a bigger I/C rad infront of this engine rad it would have gone up further but the shared system also contributed no doubt.

Basically I been d1cking around enuf and want a plug and play H/E replacement for the stock unit.

Yacht Master

Steve what went wrong? do you have pics?

stevebez

Well the W220 secondary unit is a touch too wide to mount easily and also in the W220 it mounts pretty low down. Also the power steering coolers need to be remounted / relocated - maybe these can go in front of the OEM I/C heatexchanger leaving a nice wad of space up top, but blocking the OEM h?E is kind of defeating the objective here ...

When you compare these pics its pretty clear which one should give the better results and keep in mind the bigger unit is one piece not linked by tubes.... this larger unit gave very good results even with a stock pump and linked circuit.

Bigger pump and split circuit is a must though either way I think.

Yacht Master

Wow the HE on the silver car is the largest I have seen yet. Sorry to hear the W220 HE had fitment problems. Are you going to have one fabed from your drawings or just buy a RT, EVO kit? I wonder what our buddy Finny is going to use.

stevebez

Well I desperately would want the large unit from the pic but alas I cannot get the dimensions. I think fitting isn't exactly plug n play either some chop-chop on the bumper may be requried.

Probably at the point now where I am prepared to leave the car at a shop for a while to have it fabbed up locally... still not sure yet. If you look at the Evosport piece it seems there was enough room for a much bigger unit.

EDIT: Finny will probably install a fridge for his beers and make it double as a cooling unit ...!!!! But jokes aside for those beautifull I/C to work a substantial rad will be required for sure ... he already had a decent unit fitted but I am not sure if this will be enough ...

vrus

Steve,

I will get some diagrams of fitment of the W220 core for you. I am in the process of getting the Intercooler setup done for another member who will be installing it on his car.

stevebez

I think what you could do is push the OEM rad further forward into the bumper area and angle it up at 45 degrees and have the W220 rad sit just behind it ... thats what the W220 / W211 diag thats been around looks like but not sure how the fitting goes ... The SL also has the OEM rad at an angle and not flat on like the E. I would have thought we have more space than the SL ?

Any help here would be much appreciated Vic!

Vadim @ FD

Steve, you still misss one of the most important design criterias that I used when evosport kit was designed.

The criteria is - no modification to the factory parts and easy conversion back to stock. 80% of US cars are leases. And this what evosport's kit does. It bolts in to factory brackets and only requires cutting one $20 hose. Which means easy installation and easy de-installation.

If you do not mind hacking up your front end on your car, than sky is the limit. Just pull-off the front bumper cover, cut off most of the supports which will give you room to mount a fairly big custom unit.

stevebez

Thanks Vadim, yes you are right I still don't understand. I dont see how swapping the stock OEM H/E with one larger unit to fit into the empty space is any different. You can just put the old H/E back when you are done with the car if need be ..? You can fit a bigger unit without any chop-chop to the bumpers or brackets. Anyhow ...

I did some measuring and you can almost fit two OEM heatexchangers back to back in this space. In the centre area there is even more space to fab a curved unit with even more volume...

Surprisingly there is some gap surrounding the H/E for air to slip by and air is not forced through this unit. I still got to understand why they did this.

I am also a little curious if a fatter high cap rad is better than a thinner smaller cap rad ... ? Any clues?

Vadim @ FD

There is only 10-15% of extra room. I know it looks like you can fit more, but you can not.

Additional H/E exchange offers 65% more.

blackbenzz

I have put a much bigger heat exchanger on my Kleemann supercharged CLK55 for less than $1k. If there is anybody local that wants to test it out on their car let me know. Worst case scenario is wasted time and a few hundred for a heat exchanger which you can return.

jcjmw

Bys chance, do you know what your IATs were before and after with the bigger heat exchanger?

SleeperX

Steve,
Whose car is pictured on the left? Do you know the specs of that heat exchanger. Thanks

blackbenzz

Sorry I dont. I know, I should've installed something to read IAT's before and after but this was a last minute project literally after I went to the track and wanted to go faster lol

jcjmw

Totally understandable, you were like a kid with a new bike wanting to immediately go outside and start playing. By chance, do you remember what mph and times you improved by at the track after the larger HE? Sorry to keep asking you questions and thanks ahead for any response.

blackbenzz

My time stayed the same and my mph dropped by about 2mph but it was 40 degrees hotter at the track so take that info with a grain of salt. I'll get a better comparison when there are cooler temps out. Yea, I'm not helping I know

stevebez

I been trying to find out the dimensions for ages. Its e.fifty.five's car and well I just cannot get the info from him !!! It was made in Dubai and I suppose he is not a regular visitor here...

Anyhow I am on the case here on fitting the W220 rad (have not given up just yet) AND a larger rad where the OEM unit is.

The W220 rad is just to wide and obstructs the air intakes... I was considering hacking the bonnet up and mounting some CF NACA ducts to over come this and at the same time get some decent air into the car but sanity is prevailing so far.... only just. The W220 rad would fit very neatly up top (assuming you trimmed the sides by 50mm or so) and you could relocate the powersteering coolers.

The OEM rad is interesting design ... the end tanks are a bit deeper than the cooling fin area and there is quite an intricate plastic mounting arm coming off the end of each side tank. Fitting a new custom rad will need new mounting points, otherwise it will be a complete nightmare to replicate the OEM mounting arms, unless the plastic ends can be used on a new fatter core. Still working on this.

Basically the core is 50mm thick and I think you can go to 75mm easily but trying to see if I can get 100mm out of it. For 100mm you will need to push the rad back slightly by 15mm and get the other 35mm from the front area.

Still on the case! By the time I have worked something out I am sure Vic will be ready to release something even better ... !

stevebez

What are the dimensions of your new rad ?

celsius

Guys, I'm just wondering why you call Intercoolers, "Heat Exchangers"?

stevebez

Well the 55K has an air to water intercooler mounted under the S/C - the water from the I/C is a presurised circuit pumped around to a radiator mounted in front of the car. The front radiator is called a pre-rad or simply radiator. We call it heat exchanger to differentiate it from the engine radiator. But all it is, is a water radiator.

NSM

What Steve said. The intercooler is the portion that cools the intake air. If it's water cooled, you'll also have a heat exchanger to cool the water...

Vadim @ FD

Steve, you have been talking about this for years.....................

You are right, Victor allready has something worked out.

Yacht Master

I know you can do it, don't give up! Have a beer everything will fall in to place

blackbenzz

I will take measurements for you after work

vrus

Hang in there Steve. You are almost there.

I really do think you should leave the stock one in place though. There is no point in removing it.. Just add an additional unit big enough to fit into that space without too much hacking of the car.. your combined surface area will be greater than just using 1 big core.

When I get my car on the hoist I'll grab some measurements for you of the stock heat exchanger.

Good luck my friend!!