I’ve had a Code Three Performance heat exchanger sitting on the shelf for awhile now, and decided the long holiday weekend was the perfect time to finally install it.

I’m going to focus just on the heat exchanger install, but know there is a fair amount of disassembly required to do this correctly. In a nutshell, before even tackling the heat exchanger, you must remove the front wheels, the front wheel well liners on each side, and of course, the front bumper cover.

Here’s a shot of the right front wheel well with the liner removed:



It’s amazing how few fasteners hold the front bumper cover on. Following the removal of the cover, I had to figure out how to remove the factory heat exchanger since at least to me, it wasn’t immediately obvious. Basically, you remove the two small bolts holding the lower fluid cooler, and then you can slip the heat exchanger out of its mount on the driver’s side. Once it’s loose, clamp off the two hoses, compress the hose clamps, and remove the exchanger. Have a bucket ready to catch the coolant that will drain out.

The Code Three Performance heat exchanger is designed to mount to the bottom of the bumper, using the existing factory bolts. It’s an intelligent design, but whoever was doing the fabrication for Code Three Performance must have been smoking crack when he drilled the mounting holes on the mounting brackets.

Here’s the hole misalignment on the driver’s side:



And here’s the hole misalignment on the passenger side:



Needless to say, it really sucks when you pay a significant sum of money for a part and the frickin’ thing doesn’t even fit right. I had to bore out the two mounting holes a significant amount to get the frickin’ thing to actually bolt in place. Because the Code Three Performance heat exchanger didn’t fit correctly, I probably had to waste at least close to an hour grinding, test fitting, removing, grinding some more, etc. Whatever happened to quality control?

Anyway, once I fixed the mounting holes on the mounting bracket, the rest of the install was easy. Here’s a shot of the new heat exchanger in position before reconnecting the hoses:



Here’s a front shot with everything hooked up, ready for the bumper cover to be reinstalled:



Next step was to refill the cooling system and bleed the air out of the heat exchanger circuit. There are several other posts on doing this, so no need to repeat here. Once that was done and I had confirmed no leaks anywhere, I reinstalled the front bumper cover. Here’s a shot of the Code Three Performance heat exchanger in position as viewed through the lower grille:



Even though the part didn’t fit without modification – there’s no excuse for this at the price point of this part, an upgraded heat exchanger is still superior to the factory supplied one.

 

Congrats on the mod! Much respect to going the DIY route

 

nice work, i had the run my pump for more than a hour to get all the air out.
can you post some IAT finding after the upgrade heat exchanger.

 

Any way to see the photos?I'm getting mine tomorrow and was hoping to have some reference. Thanks!

 

I hate to break it to ya but this thread is older than Airwolf reruns
Besides the Code 3 Heat Exchanger is no longer made as Code3 went under

Here's a link with some pics
https://mbworld.org/forums/2468136-post17.html

 

Your pics are not showing

 

lolz. Airwolf! Season 1 on Amazon now! http://www.amazon.com/Airwolf-Season.../dp/B0007YMWFK

 

http://www.eurocharged.com/documents/documents

 

oh yes this is what i used when i installed mine.

 

Airwolf..LOL

Either way, was a great thread in the day by Komp55.

 

Those instructions do not apply for 55K cars.

Please see here:

https://mbworld.org/forums/cl55-amg-...ml#post5477251