BenzoDoc

E55.

HeissRod

Dos it make a difference that the inlet on the S55 pipe is round as opposed to the E55's oval? Do you just use S55 inlet scoops?

BenzoDoc

That's another reason I doubted the effectiveness conceptually when I added my S55 pipe. The inlet at the pass through between the headlight and the radiator is still the same cross-sectional area as the old E55 driver's pipe, not to mention a different shape. However, mine is wedged on there so hard I actually doubt that the seal is inefficient once you get it on there.

I like this mod because it's aesthetically pleasing, it balances the engine bay, and when I wrap the tubes in exhaust wrap or reflect-a-gold [and then subsequently, di-noc carbon fiber vinyl], they will look damn good.

It's only a matter of time before we start seeing E55's running around with both headlights out like the supra guys so that we can stick cone filters there.

There's already a member here that put an intake through his headlight, looks badass. It's in his sig but his name escapes me [from somewhere in MD].

BenzoDoc

Oh, and I go to school with a guy you've been msg boarding with for like 10 years...Jake. He tagged me in a photo of your car today on facebook and told me I should seek out Shardul and get the same drop [he hasn't seen my car in a couple of weeks].

HeissRod

Yeah, he told me about how you needed a drop and, once he told me your screen name, I loled.

BenzoDoc

Sigh...might as well post these guys after much internal debate.

Worked on these over the weekend, finished them over the last hour. Fused the joints, coated the scoops in High-Temp Paint, then Primer, then decided I liked the incognito look of it against the radiator so decided against giving them a coat of black, so I just put enamel clear over the primer.

So, honest opinion: Ghetto as [edited for language], or worth keeping on the car? I removed the plastic pieces that were there in one piece so I can put them back if need be or for dealer visits. Please be honest. I'm not even convinced they do anything but separate hot air off of the radiator and cold air coming in the front grill, I don't think positive pressure will matter like on the M5's/M6's since we've got a supercharger.

As you can see in the close up, I need to put something that can withstand the temperature of the radiator to better seal off the junction between the radiator-pass-through and the scoop. Any thoughts?







Oh, and it goes without saying - the stencil AMG failed miserably so I'm going to hand paint it at some point. Just got done too late tonight and I wanted to check fitment/test them when I drive to the hospital tomorrow.

03'55AMG

ghetto, yes, stupid, no! those are TTM scoops! lol not really but i bet its a huge improvement

BenzoDoc

Those were too rich for my blood but I'm sure they're a wonderful product with great fit and finish.

These certainly fulfill my champagne tastes on a beer budget though. And with TX2K11 this week/weekend, every little bit helps!

I did some IAT and Coolant logging with the stock setup in another thread, so the next time it's 81*F I'll do some pulls and see if my IAT's are positively affected [hard to believe, since mine were <100*F on the 81* day for the most part. I'm really just interested to see whether I'm blocking too much of the radiator such that the drop in IAT's is negatively offset by the surge in coolant temps >200*.

My main question was, would you leave them on your car at this point...

BenzoDoc

Oh and when I was swinging the horn down, I noticed how much grill space it freed up for air to flow, in close proximity to the passenger side intake inlet. Literally, loosen 1 bolt, and swing the arm that it's mounted on down. It still clears the bumper, but if you wanted to move it totally out of the way behind the bumper, you probably could. You've got a second horn hidden on the driver's side anyway.

AWOL

I just cut up a broken snow shovel and used that

BenzoDoc

Mangineering at its finest.

Pics?

alextaylor29

TTM Scoops are my next mod after the exhaust and their not that expensive. I might just pull of those plastic things by the radiator to get this started if you all agree they are restrictive?

Alex

BenzoDoc

Depends.

I try not to second guess MB engineers. They made one heck of a car. But they're restricted by guidelines that I am not, such designing a car that won't get your filters wet when it rains, has a "luxurious" quiet engine, and producing a car that wouldn't overpower their flagship, the SL.

With that said, I also trust Bruce's experience and development, and have yet to see a thread or post stating that this kind of modification would negatively impact anything, short of driving through 4 feet of water [which hasn't happened]. I just don't have that kind of money to burn at this point in my life.

I sat for probably 40 minutes trying to imagine airflow on its way to the engine with the stock dividers and scoops when I took them off to examine before moving forward with my scoops, but I failed to find a decent conclusion.

It looks like dividers are in there to separate rising hot air off the front of the radiator from flowing up and being sucked into our intake, with the corrugations at the top to presumably either direct hot air towards the center of the car, or to smooth airflow around the intake inlet. But if that were the true function/goal, someone has a fundamental misunderstanding of how pressure works. With a supercharger causing suction, there's no way to prevent diffusion toward the intake without some sort of hermetic seal medial to the inlets that expanded forward to the bumper and beneath the inlet, which is basically what the TTM scoops do.

Anyone in here an expert in fluids?

AK-AMG

By adding the TTM scoops and say python tubes will this case an error code on an untuned car?

HeissRod

With the s/c providing suction, I don't see how the TTM scoops make much difference over just trimming the stock plastic scoops?

timeToy

I agree, I even believe it can adversely impact performance, theses scoops looks very flat to me, as the air bounce off the scoops it creates a high pressure zone on the surface of the scoop that may impact adversely the ability for air to flow smoothly in the intake tube. But on the other end given the amount of suction generated by the supercharger or even for that matter any high performance 5+ liters engine, I don't think the scoops really matter.

Any one has run back to back 1/4 miles with and without the TTM scoops ?

BenzoDoc

If my garage-fabbed ones don't throw an error code, I'm sure that the TTM scoops dont. Just follow your intake tubes back, past your filters, and see where they join before the throttle body at the back of your engine bay. Any change in airflow dynamics before the junction shouldn't change anything, otherwise anyone with aftermarket filters would throw a code.

My conclusion was that their effectiveness derived from the change in air source, from hot air off the radiator to direct air from the front grille. If you trimmed the stock air pieces and extended plastic blockages/dividers all the way forward to the grille, you could achieve the same thing. My reasoning for NOT doing that was because I thought water would pool in my scoops in the rain if I created a complete connection all the way forward. Since you're local you're welcome to take a ride in mine and/or inspect them for proof of concept. My main goal was to form an arbitrary divider that sourced air from where I wanted it to come from. With that said, I did a pull or two this morning on the way home from the post office, and these are absolutely positively staying on my car.

The scoops aren't flat. I built mine with a >1" change in slope/curvature, with the lateral end of the slope flush with the radiator, and the medial edge a bit more than 1" off of the radiator. His sit a bit higher than mine along the edge of the bumper/radiator support on the upper edge. I left a gap as you can see in the pictures because my primary concern was not robbing too much radiator airflow. The TTM ones dont make contact with the radiator to the best of my knowledge, which is smart for heat-soak reasons. I know that Bruce has stated before that he spent a lot of time designing those bad boys. Perhaps some TTM scoop owners can chime in.

As for your statement about the "ability for air to flow smoothly in the intake tube," just go take a look at the stock setup- same curvature as these new scoops but shorter in magnitude. Also note the corrugations on both the grille side and the engine side on its way to the throttle body, along with the "gills" blocking off all your airflow.

timeToy

That's my point, you are not going to increase the ram-air effect by adding theses, air is sucked into the engine, not pushed.

Anyone has run back to back 1/4 miles with and without the TTM scoops ?

BenzoDoc

I agree that you most likely gain nothing from a ram air effect on a supercharged car. I didn't install them for that purpose.

TTMotorsports

I don't know where to start............

As many of you that know me, I wear my heart on my sleeve, have an unbridled passion for building BAD A$$ cars and always strive to do my best to help the MB community with innovative products and my technical experience to any member that pm's me or calls my office or cell. With that being said, I was taken back by what some members thoughts on my scoops were and I just wanted to address a couple of things. I don't want to come off as an a$$hole but some things need to be said.

1)$300 for a set of powder coated and CAD designed intake scoops is too expensive? I guess no one realizes what goes into the design and machining/welding work to make these happen. Have any of the critics even seen a set in person or looked at the way they had to be built? The TTM Intake Scoops are manufactured with 4 pieces that are stamped out of a plate of material and then they are put into a jig and welded. They are then cleaned, sand blasted and then powder coated. $300 is too much for them....PLEASE! How much do you think they should cost?

2) The whole theory behind the scoops is to get more volume of air to the opening and not to implement a ram air effect that you all seem to misunderstand. The intake openings are shrouded by the factory with restrictive plastic vents and there is only ~ 1"X4" opening for the air to get to the intake tubes. Also the intake opening, even with the plastic shrouding removed, sits behind where the top of the bumper attaches so there isn't a lot of volume of air that is directly forced to that area. The only air that is drawn into the intake is through the vacuum of the engine. The TTM Intake Scoops were engineered to funnel and smooth more air to the intake opening to help feed the need of the supercharger and intake tract for increased volume. If you ever had your hand in the intake opening and revved the engine, it wants to pull your hand in. It isn't about ram air effect, it is all about smoothing and funneling more air to the intake openings. There is even less air for the intake when you are at speed so the scoops main purpose is to direct more air towards the opening. Besides that they do look very cool!!

3) Imitation is the best form of flattery but to take a theory that a few of you do not understand, copy the design that has a large amount of R&D incorporated into building the best design for my clients and then attempt to build there own scoops(because at $300 they were too expensive) is very sad. And yes they do look GHETTO!

The demographics of the MB owner is sinking faster than the Titanic! It is sad to see!

BenzoDoc

I think you should have chosen your words more carefully.

Out of respect for you and your product, I was nothing but complimentary.

As for 1) once again, out of respect for you and your livelihood, I didn't mention how much it cost to make mine. I can if you want. I'm not sure if you think you invented the idea of finding a better air source, but people have been doing this since the second car ever came off the lines at Ford.

As for 2) I already stated everything you said already in this thread. You act as if I did this for ram air, which I have repeatedly explained is false.

As for 3) I've built scoops to route air to the intake on all of my previous sports cars. You didn't invent this. Your customers are happy with your product, and I respect that, but when it came down to cost/benefit, $300 wasn't worth it to me. That's fine. I didn't emphasize that in my post but once again, I don't want to undercut your livelihood because of MY decision.

As for your last statement, that's extremely insulting. I don't know if you're just emotional and not thinking but I wouldn't advise insulting future customers [was interested in your fuel rail...until now]. I'd get fired for insulting my patients.

timeToy

I'm with the Dr. on that one, WTF was that TTMotorsports ?

This is an enthusiast forum, allow us to question the validity of your unsupported claims, again, where are the back to back, scoop/non scoop, 1/4 miles times and ET ? As a vendor you need to support your product performance claims, you can't expect us to trust you blindly.

You price your product as you see fit, we spend our money as we see fit, $300 can buy a lot of things theses days, including, I guess, 4 stamped pieces of metal...

And if you think the MB owners are too ghetto and poor for you, then move up, I heard Hyundai is killing it these day...

HeissRod

No kidding.

BenzoDoc

Thanks for the support guys.

The Titanic took over 15 hours to sink

chawkins2001

Common dude, that is a very bad attempt at scoops. Do yourself a favour and get rid of those things ASAP, you are driving a benz, not a civic. Have a little pride, you are also representing the AMG community as a whole here.

On a more serious note, I noticed a big difference in sound and performance once the beast got up and running with my TTM scoops:




The craftsmanship is untouched, and they are the first conversation piece when I raise my hood at shows