dpavid

I have a bone stock E55. When I first got it, the torque and HP was mind blowing. After one year, I'm getting used to it and I'm yearning for more.

First upgrade was 20" wheels and now the car literally feels heavier both acceleration and braking. Although it looks hot, I'm seriously considering going back to stock wheels of selling 20's for 18 or 19's.

I'm going to keep it simple. I have a plans for a Pulley Upgrade (Evosport Kit, VRP Kit, ASP, etc...) and Cooling Kit (Evosport Kit, Code 3 HE, CM30, etc...). It seems that these are the best bang for the buck. Considering maybe an exhaust mod too but not sure if the gains justify the price.

What is the best Mod(s) you did for your E55?
What was mod(s) were a waste of time and money?
If you could do it again, what would you have done and been content with?

Thanks in advance for feedback!

Hammer Down

20's look great but your right they can be heavy. I have 3 piece 19" Maya's and they do not feel that heavy.

It seems that the best mods are #1 cooling upgrade #2 pulley & ecu #3 80mm TB #4 shorty headers #5 Resonator & Secondary cat delete and place the X-pipe in the correct position and throw in a good set of air filters!

can you say 600hp

Zod

how many here have done the evo pulley kit for the 55k?
I have a few questions...

The Godfather

Wheels and drop were my best mods. Followed by head unit swap with Comand and subwoofer addition. Then the euro trunk lid. Oh and the colormatched sidemarkers were a priority, as were the 6000K HID bulbs.

veryfasteclass

I found the headers and intakes to be the best mods. The mods that usually starting questioning are the exterior mods. I just went with the E63 body kit, the 19" CLS 63 wheels, black grill, which were quite $$$, but I wanted my car to look like a city sleeper. I got Quaife LSD coming in very soon, and I heard lots of good stuff about it so I can't wait to get them installed.

Zod, I'm using the EvoS. pulley kit right now.

MJ50

MBenzNL mods
none
got other new mods on to-do list before "doing it again"

Zod

I have to agree that the best mods are headers and intake as these mods cause no ill side effects and just help your car breath more

also you have pm

lane_change

I am interested in this as well. I also recently picked up an 05 E55 and am debating the right path to go down as far as mods are concerned. I come from the RX7 community and weight has always been important to me, and I was debating the EVOsport rotor kit and some lightweight 18" or possibly 19" wheels to free up some rotating mass which to me is just as good as adding whp. I always felt my cars stopped better, accelerated better, etc...everything from leaving a stop sign in a neighberhood to flat footing it on the hwy...less rolling inertia always felt good. Now the E55 is quite a pig for me, my cars were 2400lbs or so with 400-450whp and felt good. The E55 is 4000lbs+ and has 400-450whp...so I don't know if the rolling weight will make as direct of an impact or if I should look at some hp mods to truly notice a change.

I have looked the VRP Pulley (ASP is stock and has negligible hp gains), and a tune...which I beleive will net around 45-55whp. The shorty headers are worth another 10-15whp from what I have read...and then just freeing up the intake. That is my plan as far as hp mods go for now. Then just do some reliabilty mods such as improving the cooling system, thermostat, etc..

I do not want my car to sound loud at all though...I like the daily driver, quiet, comfortable feel. If anyone can let me know about the rolling weight and what type of improvements you felt from that, as well as the hp mods, and which would be the best direction to go in when you are first starting off with these cars. Sorry to hijack the thread, I felt this information would help the original poster as well and there was no point for two threads with similar requests.

I already did all my service stuff to the car yesterday. Tranny flush, new tranny sensor (leaking), full inspection, oil change, brake fluid, etc.... I want to make sure I know that I am working with a solid foundation before I go any further down the modification road.

Fast55

If you want to stay out of the motor, ditch the POS heavy wheels and go with some super light 18's, or 19's max. Next, do the EVO brake upgrades. That alone will make it feel as if you added 50-60 HP. Motor mods should go in this order IMO:

1. Pulley and ECU. Don't buy the latest biggest whatever, there's not much to be gained over the smaller pulley's, and they make a cooling upgrade nearly mandatory.
2. Headers. No need to go Kleemann or other long tubes and butch your exhaust by removing cats. The big gain is the headers themselves.
3. Throttle body. At this point, you'll be looking to re-tune the ECU to better take advantage of the headers and throttle body.
4. Cooling upgrade. Especially if you drive it hard. If you live in a hot area, you might bump this up to happen at the same time as the pulley and ECU.

There is no "intake upgrade" as suggested by others. Airboxes are a waste of money, they do very little over just a set of K&N's. I still have not upgraded the cooling system on my '06, and it takes several pulls (on the road, not a dyno) to get the ECU to back off timing and fuel. I've never had the SC shutoff completely.

Marcus Frost

Aftermarket steering wheel, tint, drop, and euro impact strips. All essential.

None that I have done. You have to be very careful about any mods you do and try to mitigate any downsides. Modding cars is never 100% straight forward, but doing things right can often get you to the right place with the least amount of drawbacks.

I already have 19s for my car. I'm very content with it's performance at this point and for now the only other mod I'd really like to do are headers. I have already begun work on my SL so I'd like to focus on getting that car to it's potential and don't want to get too crazy with the 55. Honestly with the mods I have + headers I feel I'll be very comfortable with it's performance. The car is ridiculously fast with what I've done thus far.

-m

JBFMCAR

I went down the road that i thought was most cost effective but still superior products without spending a ton of money. I would first do the pulley/tune and would suggest Stg #1 from LET www.letmotorsports.com they have proven to have the fastest stage 1 car and there customer service in unreal (jerry/wayne) as well as there products VRP is another good choice but will cost you more money and LET now makes a great aftermarket pulley now that is not a OEM pulley with add on. I believe you can get there pulley ecu tune for $1500ish on specail right now if you buy them together. I then got a new never used Code 3 HE for $400 shipped. New on special now for $529 at Code3 and then got a johnson pump for $100 so for $2100-2200 dollars you will have a 480rwhp-490rwhp car but thats if your looking to start with speed. I also think painted front relectors,flat hood badge, tints, & Star lowering are a must in my eyes but thats with every car i own.

Justin

bobgodd

I'm curious what you mean by this??? You say the gains are in the headers, but don't chop up the exuahst... So are you recommending shorties or what?

reeper6

At this point having owned my car for a year now also, the best mod to date has got to be the extended warranty I bought.(thank God!)

blando

Tell us more about that in the warranty thread that's active here: https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...-2003-e55.html

Fast55

Yes, shorties are fine. Hacking the cats, adding "X" or "H" pipe, deleting the resonator, all together is quite expensive and add up to about what the headers themselves will give you. It also makes it a lot easier to put the exhaust back to stock if necessary. A few have had issues with deleting the cats and/or relocating the O2 sensors. IMHO, it's not worth the expense and possible hassles for the extra 10-20 HP over headers plus stock exhaust. A full replacement exhaust with race cats (or none), is probably the last mod I would do. I only deleted the resonator on my car for a little more sound and cure a "droning" on the freeway.

BlackHammer

Don't laugh at this but it worked and ran 12.1's with my car on the strip...
I put Toyo Proxy T1R's on it. They were really sticky compared to the Continentals and always got me out of the hole strong. Even on the street they helped me.
Most will say to do a pulley, ECU, and some cooling mods and should get you another 25-40 RWHP and even more torque.

2K6E55

All MODs are good for my 55Ks.

It's an addiction that can NOT be cured with any medications!