As some of you may know, somehow my power steering pump broke the tabs off the timing chain cover and dislodged itself At this point I would like to use the situation to make the car better. I did a compression and leakdown test and engine is fine. It runs and drives but I have no belt on the car so I can't get into boost. In order to replace the timing chain cover I have been told it would be easiest to remove the motor So here are the following options I have come up with...

1) Just fix the cover and run it as it was. Mid tens on pump gas is good enough. Never got a chance to run it with ice resevoir.

2) Put a 55k bottom end in it and turn up the boost with Kleemann charger

2a) Get a custom sc pulley made with elongated shaft to line up with where 55k sc pulley would sit and run 55k crank pulley so that I have a dual plane belt system and not overspin the accessories.

2b) Get all the accessory pulleys custom made to offset the bigger custom crank pulley (8 rib vs 6 as well) and stick with the same stock single belt setup (if clearances allow it).

2c) Just overspin the accessories with bigger crank pulley.

3) Drop 55k longblock in the car with 55k sc. Obviously do bigger crank pulley and all the bolt ons as well (already have PTE cams, 82mm TB, custome intake, ice res, heat exchanger, SLR injectors, built trans, torque converter etc). Tuning may be an issue here as well as the sc clutch control etc etc. Although my friend has a 55k longblock in his C43 and it seems to run fine with a stock C43 ECU in it

4) 55k shortblock, standalone, and custom turbo setup. Would take forever to do.

5) And the last and least favorable was given to me by my friend who owns an import shop. Put a 2JZ-GTE with a 42R and standalone in it


What do you guys think? I know there are alot of gearheads on this forum and I like hearing other peoples opinions

 

#4.

I'd really love to see if you could make #2 work.....

 

Option 1 is not acceptable... LOL!

Option 2 would be a great option.

Or you can just fix the tabs on the timing chain cover and install stronger internals with a bigger bore and/or stroke??

Good for you to use this unfortunate situation to make your car better.

 

Option 5 is unacceptable. Keep it AMG please

If you can afford the time and $$$ I'm pretty sure option 4 is what would take you where you want that beast to go... Deep into 9's.

Option 2 sounds tasty as well.

Which way are you swaying?

 

Don't know your budget but would option 4 with underground racing work for you? Maybe they could do the tuning? That's a big bite into the old budget but you brought it up

I think that or a custom big pulley with top mounted intercoolers on a 55k block would be the bees knees (whatever that actually means).

 

1 for now and maybe run the n2o to see how low she can go. while you're playing with that start working on project 4 on the side.

 

You know #4 is my dream.

I think I can make it work! I'm actually very confident I can
Haha, my pockets aren't as deep as yours buddy. I wish they were. But you know if it breaks I will have this spare motor sleeved with foged internals ready to go!
Haha that's what I said. His response was, it will be cheaper and faster than anything AMG. Which is true.

That's the problem, time is unkown and $$ is unknown to take on a project like this. There are lots of events I would like to attend and if I do go down this route I am looking at a very long down time and very costly bill. Although I know enough people to get it done for less than what most people would spend. If I do go this route it would be best for me to forget I even had the car until it's done lol.

I am swaying towards option 2 with a very hopeful drive towards option 4 (have some people working on possibilities with this now). At the same boost level I'm at now, just switching to turbos would gain 80hp form the parasitic loss. And you know I will DEFINITELY be using higher boost with turbos. M trans is supposed to hold over 1000, it may be put to the test!
UGR charges a **** load of money. I believe their kits start in the high $30k and go up to above $100k. That is out of the question on a car that is worth less than the mods I already have in it lol. I have an excellent tuner not too far away from me that does tuning for professional rally cars and many other cars/bikes as well. He will be taking car of the standalone wiring and tuning should I go that route. But as you probably already guessed, it aint cheap!

Top mount intercoolers would not be a problem. I may go the 55k route and if I do you know I will have top mounts .
I could do that as well. Project 4 involves having the engine in and out of the car several times for fitment purposes. CLK engine bay is very small and fitment of the turbos and piping will be a royal pain. The car would be down during the hardware fabbing.

 

I saw #2. That sounds awesome and of course bring over all the good stuff from your current set up too!

 

Option 2 is a good compromise: not too simple, but not too complicated or lengthy either.

How about option 6: buy a high-mileage E55 for dirt cheap and mod the crap out of it, then take the record and call it a day

but seriously, with your modding success, many E55s will be scared out there

 

Yes it is very tempting. Not sure which route to use on 2.
Lol @ option 6. Thats probably the most expensive one of them all! My car would be much faster with the same mods. Matter of fact, I think with my car fixed it would take the record as is.

Haha, I don't think anyone is scared. There are a bunch of very strong E55s out there. Thanks though

 

The option I would like you to take is not listed there...which is Take a V12TT and stuff it in that CLK. End of story.

Then it's lights out!!...even for me.

 

I was actually going to suggest that, but didn't know if it would fit on his CLK

 

Well if it was me I think my decision would be based on how long I could stomach the car being down.
Also do you feel over spinning the PS pump led to the failure and that this issue may prove to be a significant reliability issue in the long run??

I tend to be somewhat conservative now that I am older, to much time with cars being down trying to break the ceiling. So I would probably just fix the issue and get back on the track...lol.

That said you could always get the car running and start the swap to the turbo set up. Build a bullet proof E55 bottom end with forged internals and stroke that ***** to 6 liters Then in the winter months (after you broke the overall record) pull the current engine and sell it, leaving room for your new 1000hp, GT45 Stroker!

 

Haha you guys are getting carried away, I don't have Jody money!!!
I am not currently overspinning any accessories. I have a stock crank pulley. If I were to increase the boost then I would need bigger crank pulley and that would overspin the accessories unless I went to a dual plane belt like the E55

I would love to have my car up and running right now for events like muscle car weekend in ocean city but I;ve always wanted to have a V8 twin turbo. Decisions decisions...

 

I vote for #4...

 

I think #5 is the best and u will never look back.

 

Option 2!
Please scratch option 5 off your list of considerations. Your car should remain an AMG or I will personally request the perma-ban...

...JK of course

 

I vote for #4 too. Gonna be hard to make it a reality though. I want it really bad
I might do that to my daily driver CLK430 but I've gone too far with the 55 to do that.
Hahahah. Yes sir!



ASP said they canmake the pulleys but they are not doing any custom projects since they are moving and I would have to wait til the end of summer! People that know me know I am very impatient! I'm all about instant gratification lol

 

I will stop talking to you, if you will go with option 5!

 

Ok I'll begin with that I'm not a MB expert but have a pretty good working knowledge of engines and the aftermarket performance industry.
I'm not sure what your skill level is? But if you do most of your own work here is what I would do..
Pull the engine, fix the cover.
Have custom forged pistons made, JE, arias, Ross ect(not much more than off the self stuff)
Dump the SC
Twin turbo’s, this is by no mean have to be super high dolor option, there are some good reasonable priced parts out there.
I'm not sure why you would need stand alone? Yes its better and way more user friendly but boost is boost, your engine not going to know the difference, If you can tune if for your current level than I don’t see why you could not have it tuned for turbo’s.
The only real difficult part might be the intake manifold, I don’t know what the stock on looks like or what the aftermarket you have now is like, but if its like the 55k with surge tanks than its to easy. You could run Air to air or air to water or chemically cool it with WI. Also keep in mind that the air quality will be much better than a SC.
I’m willing to bet that the parts could be had for under 5k, now if you can’t do your own fab work its going to get expensive plus you need to find someone who has the skill and knowledge to do it.

 

Ok ok!
Unfortunately I can't weld and my profession has nothing to do with cars. I have pretty good knowledge about cars as well as pretty good at wrenching but I can't weld yet. Luckily I have alot of connections with fabricators, etc. Taking my daily to the shop friday or saturday to put on lift and find out where to place everything. We are thinking twin 35R's for now In terms of building the motor, it would need to be sleeved to throw pistons in it. Not sure how much the 55k bottom end will hold but it will have to do for a while, I may build my factory motor while the 55k one is in the car and sell it once my other motor is done. In terms of tuning... turbos don't come in the same as a twinscrew. I'm sure you've noticed that MB tuners are few and far between. Which brings me to the fueling aspect. I will probably need to upgrade fuel pump/s. My intake manifold is integrated into one piece with the Kleemann supercharger. This will take alot of planning and will end up taking a long time. I do appreciate your input though, thanks!

 

What about dual forced induction with rear mount turbos....now were talking

 

I am a firm believer in the "if it's not broke" philosophy and your car is far from broke. I would fix the cover and get that ice res cranking. I really mean it Ahm, it was just wild to watch what it did on Mikeys car. I wanna see your car with full tank of ice and race gas fully in the system before you start ripping it down or messing with pulleys.

Guess the only drawback is we are getting into the "too warm for records weather" but I still am hoping for a chilly weekend and seeing that thing set the US record!!!!

After you set the record, then I say have fun and tinker around with either long blockin it, or cranking up the boost on the Klee.

 

I agree with Jim. Get the car fixed and break that record as is. We all know the car will run fast and quicker then ever before. It might just end up performing better then you ever expected and you could just relax and enjoy your beast. At least until I end up catching up...lol.

 

Ahmad if I was in your position, and as crazy as you are (even though you don't think you are crazy) I would do turbos. I agree with sneakyneon... It is not THAT expensive if you know what you are doing, have the time to put towards it, and have access to fabricating/etc to pull it together. You don't need big turbos to make a **** load of power with 5.4L, and the 55K block will do just fine with the right tune. You aren't going to break it from too much HP or TQ...

-m