I was shooting the shiit with a buddy and fellow car nut and he asked a good question...(actually he has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from RIT and lots of experience designing and producing go fast bits so I tend to listen to him...lol)

"Has anyone tried to fit a bigger blower on the 55 engine?"

I said I have done a ton of reading here and never came across any info. Of course a search was no help. I have seen some mention of porting the stocker, but only briefly in one or two threads.

I know it would require some relatively involved modifications to get an off the shelf unit to work, but has anyone even tried?

 

I'd love to be able to run a whipple. but doing a single turbo may be easier and cheaper/

 

Well our logic is that you already have the engine set up for a blower. Maybe just need to make an adapter plate for the engine and work something out with the throttle inlet....of course the front end would more than likely need modified as well.

Just curious if anyone has even tried to line up a Whipple or Kenne Bell or shiits and gigs????

This is like the first mod the domestic guys go for when they want big power. I have seen plenty of cars with cams and head work, which cost like $8k minimum, and would think a bigger blower would make those mods pale in comparison.

Street King, are you listening....

 

it's been brought up several times over the years and if it was a simple swap like it is for the domestic guys it would be common place here!

 

Wasn't the problem that the ECU was set up for no boost under specific conditions, hence the supercharger clutch system? And since we have no real way to go standalone EMS, we have to work with the Mercedes ECU, and the ECU would pull timing/who knows what else if it saw boost when it wasn't supposed to.

 

Clearly this will not be a "simple swap", I wasn't suggesting that. Nor was i drawing a parrell between the E55 and a Mustang, simply using an example of another V8 platform.

My question really is has anyone taken this idea beyond the conjecture stage?

Yes we would need some type of clutch for the supercharger. While I haven't given one hint of a thought to how we would accomplish that, I assumed it would be required for proper operation of the ecu.

Outside of fitment and minor tuning what other stumbling blocks would there be?

 

No, nobody has because it's too damned expensive to do the ecu programming/tuning on your own. And it's not worth it for the bigger vendors to do because there aren't 250 thousand 55 kompressor cars available with owners who are willing to mod like there are domestics. It wouldn't be cost effective- think about it. To get an additional 100hp out of the 55k cars costs close to $6k- it will be a lot of research time and money to spend on not many end users.

 

I don't know the intricacies of the Merc ECU, but there are other cars out there which build a sheit-house of stuff into their ECU's. The Lexus IS300 comes to mind. To get around this, the stock ECU still sits in the car, but a standalone controls all core engine functions. It can be done I'm sure...but again, I don't know how convoluted the stock Merc system is so I'm not sure how hard it would be.

 

Someone photoshop this on an E.

 

+1 lol

 

Ok, Ok....I see where this is headed.

Jeez, I should learn to keep my mouth shut.

 

Haha, the internet is such a small world. I was just wondering if my buddy had started the thread we discussed the other night, and a quick google search landed me here

Anyway, I hope you guys don't mind me asking a few questions because I'm trying to learn more about this engine.

How about a bypass valve? Magnuson incorporates internal bypass valves on their roots type blowers for instance. TVS does this with their new Eaton TVS units as well (which is now original equipment on the Audi S4, btw). So, when you're cruising on the highway and the computer expects to see engine vacuum the bypass opens and the blower is freewheeling. Wouldn't that accomplish the same thing as a clutch as far as pumping is concerned?

Also, do you know what the ECU is looking for while cruising to determine if there's boost present? The BMW 135/335/535 have similar boost requirements, but they were actually pretty easy to get around once we knew what the computer was looking for. We just fed the computer the voltage it expected to see from the MAP sensor and it was happy

So tuning IS the limitation here? I'm not an E55 guy so correct me here but I thought that there were some companies offering flash tunes for these cars? If they're able to adjust the fuel and timing under wide open throttle, then why would it be so difficult to tune for a larger blower? Can you tell me a little bit more about what the tuning hurdles are exactly?

Also, do you know, has anyone tried using a piggyback controller to add/remove fuel and timing as necessary where flashes have failed?

You see, I just think you have more experience tinkering with this kind of stuff because this is the type of jazz I'm talking about



It sounds to me like stuff like this has been tried, and ultimately failed, but I can't find any info on the web. I'd love to read any links, or whatever info you can direct me to so I can see what's been done. Are there any projects you guys remember that I should try to dig up? Thanks!

 

Yesss...

 

phht. Go jet powered!

 

Hey, I saw your other thread...Unbelievable!!


By the way, did Kleemann tune you on the dyno, or just flash a tune and let 'er rip? How does the car drive now with the cams and ported heads? Any weird quirks to speak of?