KLR CLS

Hey All,

Had some exhaust work done over the weekend. First attempt was to cut out the 2nd cat and resonator and replace all with 3" piping and with a prefab magnaflow X-pipe. I also had the exhaust tips adjusted to fit better in the CF rear valence I added alittle while ago. Drove away from the exahust shop and though it sounded great. Nice sound incrase at part throttle and good tone. Hit WOT and all hell broke loose. Loud, angry, evil. Like scare little chilren and dogs loud. Easily twice as loud as my S6 V10 with full magnaflow exhaust. I drove home and surmised this was just too unrefined for a classy car like a CLS. Maybe a big block Chevy Nova, but not a CLS55. It really attracted too much attention, especially from the 2500 police outside my building for G20. I also noticed a substantial drop in low end torque, and really did not feel much up top so performance wasn't sufficiently improved to warrant the noise.

I went back to see my guy the next day, and we replaced the x-pipe with a 3" dual/dual Magnaflow muffler with integrated X crossover. It quieted the noise down tremdously( almost a little too much in the lower RPMS) and imparted a lovely tone to the exhaust over all. Most importantly the performance increase I expected was finally there. Hope to get another dyno in shortly to see what gains I got, but seat of the pants is very strong now and What I expect by dumping the nest of cats and stock resonator. I am certain that this engine prefers some back pressure to operate best base on my experience.

Questions:
1. Are the CLS and E Class mufflers that different? I can't imagine too many people driving around with that exhaust volume and tone. The clips I have heard on youtube of E55's with cat and resonator removals were no where near as loud as what I ended up with. I have headers so maybe that its the difference, but it was just not right for the car.


2. Are there any dyno's out there of people who have done Cat and res removal before and after.

Bellevue_E55

Headers is why

sneakyneon

There is a huge differance between the CLS and the E55 mufflers, The E55 is much quiter. I have magnaflow mufflers and no cats on mine and my buddys cls is no cats and stock mufflers and near as loud.

chiromikey

it's definitely not the headers. the mufflers on the e are more quiet than both the sl and cls for whatever reason...

Exotic-metal55

Plenty of dyno`s out there and these engines DO not like back pressure as with most Supercharged engines.. I picked up 16 RWHP from cat removal and adding race cats.. Secondary cats do not have much restriction and neither do the mufflers or resonator.. Sound can be very, very tricky to power feel ..


You want sound and power, then should be working on the other end of the exhaust.. Headers!

There is sooooo much back pressure at the stock manifold ,, that the other stuff makes very little difference..

See below.. Stock weener dog manifold next to just my header collector..

pearlpower

Pictures look good!

KLR CLS

Already did headers for 42whp gain, was looking to finishe up the exhaust end so went this way. Anyhow I will dyno next weekend and see if I picked up anything over the headers alone and let you all know.

Zod

I have to agree to this the E & the CLS sound different
CLS stock sounds way better, why i do not know, but it has to be muffler related

I raced a modifed E55k with full super sprint exhaust once (i mean the full system from LTs to X pipe, mid section and mufflers) all SS and my stock exhaust system on the CLS, at the time sounded better.

We stopped and he asked what exhaust system did I have....i said stock, he was in disbelief and said i was not telling the truth...until i took him to my car and made him look underneath. I actually liked my old sound better i think some times , as like the OP stated it gets too loud and people expect to see a big block US car coming....not a lux CLS55

my 2 cents

Forrest Gump 9

Can you CLS55 boys get a shot of the underneath of your car? We want to see what's the differences too.

dynomite05

Don't think you will get any real gains from these deletes..

KLR CLS

Well it feels stronger then before, but won't know for sure without the dyno.

MB_Forever

+1

I got a chance to hear an E55 with no secondary cats vs a CLS55 with no secondary cats during a track event a while back, and was surprised that the CLS55 sounded noticeably louder.

Zod

from what i recall only the muffler are different, might also be the resonator
length on some parts comes to mind to..

might want to look up the MB tool thing n compare both the E n CLS to see the differences in exhuest

chiromikey

just to follow up, i was able to compare an e55 and sl55 muffler today. the e is a chambered design while the sl is a straight through design. BIG difference and why our e's are so much quieter. now i just gotta get my hands on a removed cls55 muffler!

beauphus

Well im in similar pickle...

i have quite a bit of mods. im running higher boost with the 190 pulley, creating more flow with the pnp heads, pnp SC, cams, intake, 82mm TB, and long tubes. i have my primaries removed and it sounds great BUT im wondering IF i am losing much power with the secondaries. I have heard a million opinions but not many i know have "opened up" the flow on their car like i have so i am wondering if my car has exponentially more power to be had by removing the secondary cats/resonators. I dont like loud obnoxious cars BUT if there is good power to be had by removing and replacing with an X pipe i might consider it. This is a CLS so i guess its louder already. I dont know enough to know whether or not it would be worth doing. im getting re-tuned next week so ideally i would have this mod done soon in order to properly tune for it. what are u guys thoughts?

MBH motorsports

IMO The CLS55 has the meanest sounding muffler out of all the AMG's. In the videos below all cars are fitted with MBH long tube headers, primary cat deletes, resonator deletes. Secondary cats are intact in all 3 cars. The SL55 (mine) and the CLS55 (My brothers) have only headers for mods. This E55 makes 580whp on 100oct. The E55 is noticeable much quieter than both the SL and CLS.


CLS55
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaXa_o-fO6Q

E55
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KehqtAU6ecs

SL55
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOaGf6EE0Zk

cmn130

just a dumb question but i have a stock e55. if i were to remove cats and put straight pipe will i pick up hp? sound better? i have been thinking about doing this but was not sure how it worked.

Ali_E55

the diffrence between E muffler and other ones is that, in the E there are 2 pipes with holes going into the sponge/cotton/fiber (whatever that is) which makes it quiter, while the CLS/SL the two pipes are without holes and direct but covered with a so called muffler. lol, so if u want CLS sound, just open the mufflers replace the pipes to direct ones and u will have a better sound than the CLS/SL. if u want a CLS sound, then get the CLS/SL muffler.

we did it, and alot of my friends are doing it.


please notice that if u replace the 2 pipes with direct ones inside the muffler, it will be a bit louder then CLS, and more enjoyable then the CLK BS.

griza

So what is the final consensus on resonator/second cat removal?? I love the sound of my cls stock but would like to just increase that same sound. What would be the best way to go about that? I want the same deep growl, just louder.

gazosnic

So can someone confirm with resonator/second cat removal is there any loss in power? This is my only concern with this setup.

AKnight55

I just had the secondary cats taken out and I dont feel any loss of power at all.. Definitely gained a deeper tone too

gazosnic

What x pipe is that? Would that help maintain some backpressure vs. straight pipes to replace 2nd cat & resonators?

AKnight55

Just a generic 2.5" x-pipe.. You can find some magnaflow ones on ebay, but this shop had some in stock.

Im actually very happy with my set up.. above 2,000 rpm you can hear a bit more bark than stock.. Takes some weight off the car too..

keksixsigma

Here's my 2 cents. Me and buddy had the exact same stage 2 setup with kleemans and I can tell you the sound on his E55 compared to my CLS55 was 2 different leagues with stock exhaust. Then i deleted the cats and resonator, here's a pic and it is "out of bounds" to use a triple D term. I noticed no seat of the pants drop in torque as I was making close to 700 lbft before the delete but the top end was much more strong. It just wales and is scary loud. I may go to different setup but the loudness tends to keep me paranoid enough as to keep my foot out of it most of the time. here's my pic

Toadster

I kept my 2ndary cats (shop wouldn't remove them to be honest) - but removed the resonator - but left it straight pipes (no x-pipe) - it has a nice rumbly growl now, but I may add an x-pipe as it should bring more power