DIY W211 E55 resonator delete
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Joined: Jun 2009
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Viking War Ship
DIY W211 E55 resonator delete
Stock cars are dumb.
That said, I took a little time yesterday to chop the stock resonator out of the Merc. It's a pretty popular thing to do based on the research I did browsing around this forum. I watched a bunch of videos and the sound clips were favorable so I decided to give it a go. A certain nameless vendor sells a resonator delete kit for $199. It's a weld-in kit that comes with pipes and...well...that's about it. Mama didn't raise no fool. I know the cost of pipe, and there ain't $200 worth of pipe in that kit. After ordering up some 2.75" 304 stainless pipe at the tune of $60, the fun began.
Stock resonator chillin' out. I soaked the connecting clamps with PB Blaster just so I wouldn't have any surprises removing them:
The shatty thing about this exhaust design is that the passenger side muffler is attached to the resonator, but the driver side has a separation clamp. Just makes things very cumbersome to man-handle by yourself. Here's the cat-back fully removed:
Stock resonator raped of it's inlet and outlet pipes:
I cut two pieces of the stainless 2.75" piping...each 17.25" long and TIG'd them in:
The car has just a hair more growl to it. On a scale of 1 to 10...1 being stock and 10 being open headers...it's probably a 1.5 or 2. Very subtle change, but a good change.
Next up, custom long-tube headers!
That said, I took a little time yesterday to chop the stock resonator out of the Merc. It's a pretty popular thing to do based on the research I did browsing around this forum. I watched a bunch of videos and the sound clips were favorable so I decided to give it a go. A certain nameless vendor sells a resonator delete kit for $199. It's a weld-in kit that comes with pipes and...well...that's about it. Mama didn't raise no fool. I know the cost of pipe, and there ain't $200 worth of pipe in that kit. After ordering up some 2.75" 304 stainless pipe at the tune of $60, the fun began.
Stock resonator chillin' out. I soaked the connecting clamps with PB Blaster just so I wouldn't have any surprises removing them:
The shatty thing about this exhaust design is that the passenger side muffler is attached to the resonator, but the driver side has a separation clamp. Just makes things very cumbersome to man-handle by yourself. Here's the cat-back fully removed:
Stock resonator raped of it's inlet and outlet pipes:
I cut two pieces of the stainless 2.75" piping...each 17.25" long and TIG'd them in:
The car has just a hair more growl to it. On a scale of 1 to 10...1 being stock and 10 being open headers...it's probably a 1.5 or 2. Very subtle change, but a good change.
Next up, custom long-tube headers!
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 253
Likes: 2
Viking War Ship
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 253
Likes: 2
Viking War Ship
Nope, not raspy at all. Still very mellow....but I do have both sets of cats and the mufflers fully in tact.
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From: Latitude 26.1695, Longitude -80.0997
my wife wild, but she loves every minute of it.
Peter Egan would have approved of your welds. Nice work!
What of the rear cats, as well as the headers? Custom - as in you'll build them? Smart, considering that the various vendors sell them for thousands and make them out of expensium.
More photos on the project!
Did I say nice work? Nice work.
What of the rear cats, as well as the headers? Custom - as in you'll build them? Smart, considering that the various vendors sell them for thousands and make them out of expensium.
More photos on the project!
Did I say nice work? Nice work.
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Joined: Sep 2007
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From: South Carolina
2005 E55 ///AMG
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 253
Likes: 2
Viking War Ship
Thanks for the feedback guys. I've been building custom turbo/intake manifolds and exhaust/intercooler systems for a few years now. Nothing on a mass-produced full production scale, just one-off's for custom applications. All the cars I've worked on in the past are full-out drag cars so this Merc is going to confuse me on more than on occasion I'm sure. Drive-by-wire wut? 
Anyway, for long tube headers, they'd be fully custom built. There is something to be said for the bolt-on simplicity and convenience you get from a purchased final product though. Don't want you guys to think I'm baggin' on the vendors here at all.
I ordered the piping for this application since I don't do much in 2.75" and we don't have much locally. For regular old 304 stainless straight and mandrel exhaust bends (not for headers), I typically order from www.verociousmotorsports.com. They have a good selection, prices, and shipping quotes. I also like that you can order smaller chunks of pipe for applications such as this and aren't forced to order 12' sticks or dumb quantities like that. I ordered the 4' stick and had a wee over a foot left. If you trust your exhaust guy, you'd be able to get away with ordering a 3' section of piping.
Anyway, for long tube headers, they'd be fully custom built. There is something to be said for the bolt-on simplicity and convenience you get from a purchased final product though. Don't want you guys to think I'm baggin' on the vendors here at all.
I ordered the piping for this application since I don't do much in 2.75" and we don't have much locally. For regular old 304 stainless straight and mandrel exhaust bends (not for headers), I typically order from www.verociousmotorsports.com. They have a good selection, prices, and shipping quotes. I also like that you can order smaller chunks of pipe for applications such as this and aren't forced to order 12' sticks or dumb quantities like that. I ordered the 4' stick and had a wee over a foot left. If you trust your exhaust guy, you'd be able to get away with ordering a 3' section of piping.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 253
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Viking War Ship
No torque loss that I can tell from my butt dyno. The stock resonator is straight-through as well so there's really no added restriction or back pressure with the stocker that I could see.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,069
Likes: 3
From: South Carolina
2005 E55 ///AMG
Thanks for the feedback guys. I've been building custom turbo/intake manifolds and exhaust/intercooler systems for a few years now. Nothing on a mass-produced full production scale, just one-off's for custom applications. All the cars I've worked on in the past are full-out drag cars so this Merc is going to confuse me on more than on occasion I'm sure. Drive-by-wire wut?
Anyway, for long tube headers, they'd be fully custom built. There is something to be said for the bolt-on simplicity and convenience you get from a purchased final product though. Don't want you guys to think I'm baggin' on the vendors here at all.
I ordered the piping for this application since I don't do much in 2.75" and we don't have much locally. For regular old 304 stainless straight and mandrel exhaust bends (not for headers), I typically order from www.verociousmotorsports.com. They have a good selection, prices, and shipping quotes. I also like that you can order smaller chunks of pipe for applications such as this and aren't forced to order 12' sticks or dumb quantities like that. I ordered the 4' stick and had a wee over a foot left. If you trust your exhaust guy, you'd be able to get away with ordering a 3' section of piping.
Anyway, for long tube headers, they'd be fully custom built. There is something to be said for the bolt-on simplicity and convenience you get from a purchased final product though. Don't want you guys to think I'm baggin' on the vendors here at all.
I ordered the piping for this application since I don't do much in 2.75" and we don't have much locally. For regular old 304 stainless straight and mandrel exhaust bends (not for headers), I typically order from www.verociousmotorsports.com. They have a good selection, prices, and shipping quotes. I also like that you can order smaller chunks of pipe for applications such as this and aren't forced to order 12' sticks or dumb quantities like that. I ordered the 4' stick and had a wee over a foot left. If you trust your exhaust guy, you'd be able to get away with ordering a 3' section of piping.
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,069
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From: South Carolina
2005 E55 ///AMG
Ok, got the res delete done and would agree with everyone else that the change is very subtle but noticeable. Just a slight elevation of sound which is fine by me.
Again thanks to KJ for the heads up.
Also, none of the muffler shops around me seem to do tig welding, but the welds they did were pretty good.
Again thanks to KJ for the heads up.
Also, none of the muffler shops around me seem to do tig welding, but the welds they did were pretty good.
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,069
Likes: 3
From: South Carolina
2005 E55 ///AMG
