GregMB

I've read several posts where people with BTDT experience (and a whole .sig line full of mods) said that if they were to start over with a stock E55 the very FIRST mod would be a set of headers. Interesting.

Has anyone here actually modded a stock E55 with headers & tune as "Step 1"? I'd be interested to see before / after dyno pulls and to hear any driving impressions (drivability, interior noise level, etc)


-G

ahmad0658

I don't know how to give you the best advise, but if you ask me, first mod will be 2 items at least , that would save you the tune price, so the first mod will be:

Headers + ( Pulley 172 - 175 as most people recommend here + HE + IC pump) + Tune

If it is about the money, then save and wait for a while.

skratch77

Bid on that renntech pulley on ebay!

I would run that with a k2 kleemann file and then down the road run headers.if you want more boost I might bid on that 168 and you can grab my bigger one.

Jakpro1

Not many guys go headers and tune first and after all these years, I have ZERO clue why!! I guess it's a cash thing as pulley is only 500$+ starting with used ones.

Here's the bottom line. Tune and Pulley seems to pickup about the SAME hp as headers with tune BUT you are aren't gonna have the heat problems with headers and tune.

Here is that vid of the guy with the long tubers only on a stocker picking up 33.5 WHEEL. Imagine with a tune. Gotta be over 60 wheel total pickup.

Here is Hooleys dyno of tune and pulley. 48 wheel pickup and that ain't shabby brotha!

skratch77

I built my car in stages,If you have the money go for heatexchanger,tune and headers.

I did it all with dynos but dont feel like looking them up.I had my car maxxed out with stock boost pulley.

had renntech airbox,python tubes,TB,heatexchanger,kleemann headers with primary cat delete and tuning.My best time was 12.01@119mph and put down 430whp(my dyno reads low) and then installed jakpro1s old evotech pulley and retuned it and ran under 11.5 3 runs back to back at the drags and then did a retune and put the car away.

I cant wait to take her up the the dragway in a few weeks.

I pretty much maxed it out with stock boost and also had a 168.172,175,175/78 and a 180 pulley lol

Speedriven1

First step, I think, would be cooling.

theeddie

cooling coooling cooooooling

BenzoDoc

My first mod was tune and my second mod will be long tubes, probably in mid-June, promptly followed by a re-tune. I'm warrantied and need to look into terms of the renewal I'll be making in July.

Having logged my IATs under load, there is absolutely zero indication to improve cooling, nor do I want to mess with a working system with a pulley [or prophylactic H/E]

Shifter

Ive been wondering, has anyone put methanol injection on these cars?

skratch77

Yup

Turbo 6

If I had to do it all over again, I would have done long tubes first.

Hammer Down

Long Tubes is the way to go for your 1st mod and then get it tuned You may not be in such a hurry to do anything else. Pkenty of choices out there: MBH, FF go Kleemann if you want a mid length header and if you want to keep your primary cats then go with Evosport,Renntech or PLM shorty headers. Good Luck...............LT's FTW!

BenzoBoi

Abso-f'ing-lutely! What I tell everyone should be their first mod.

BenzoDoc

Attachment 450152

I'm not really feeling pulley/ H/E at this point

But absofackinglutely would agree that if you don't control your IAT's you wont make power! Not to mention protecting your [substantial] investment.

BenzoBoi

+1 on the second part of the thread. No point in adding more power/heat when the car in stock form can't handle it.

cal1

You need to check this link out. https://mbworld.org/forums/sl55-amg-...ml#post4313664

I'm in the LT headers and Tune camp as the first round of mods. then cooling, pulley and new dyno tune.

Hammer Down

you also have to remember that with headers you are not adding heat, only hp & tq, also with headers it drops the supercharger boost so in my book it doesn't have to work as hard.

I will say this, if you add anything beyond headers then yes I would without a doubt upgrade the cooling.

GregMB

Thanks everyone...

I guess I should have said that my first "real" mod is some form of data logging equipment.... Hence my other thread asking about the kiwi /iPhone rev app.

The thought is that I can quickly confirm my H/E pump is working by watching IATs.... And maybe even get some basic HP/tq estimates from the software. Not as accurate as a real dyno perhaps, but they will give me a "relative number" that I can compare easily to numbers I get later on.

Today, i just spent about 4 hours behind the wheel of my E55.... The longest amount of time I've had so far to just evaluate the car and the way it feels and sounds at highway speeds. There is a VERY slight drone at 2k RPMs (around 70mph) which i can live with, but I'm reluctant to do mods that are going to make this car substantially louder or more droning on highway trips. I don't mind more noise at WOT, but when it's time to just relax and cruise i don't want to feel like I'm in an echo chamber. IMHO the whole appeal of the E55 is that it is a comfortable and luxurious car that also happens to be brutally fast.... If you trade away the comfort and luxury in the quest for power, you really lose a big part of the cars original appeal.

Cooling is not "sexy" but I agree that it needs to happen as close to the beginning as possible or you just end up cheating yourself out of the "real" gains that other mods can provide...



-G

skratch77

My car is a sleeper,it sounds 100% stock with zero drone.Ill let you hear it some time Greg since your local.

BenzoDoc

The sound/luxury is a valid point.

However, the cooling is not. As I have demonstrated with the log I posted, there is no advantage to adding any cooling to my car at this time. I'm running around in one of the hottest environments [Houston] which compounds the fact that my car is adequately cooling at this point.

You're right about getting a datalogger. If your car is different from mine, absolutely fix the IATs stat, and with each subsequent modification you will be able to responsibly watch the important numbers. But if your IC pump is working fine, headers wont necessitate any additional cooling.

If it's not broke, don't fix it. [as in, without adding a pulley, you're just adding prophylactic cooling for down the road] If you're absolutely against changing your exhaust tone, headers probably aren't for you.

skratch77

Benzodoc your intake temps never go over 100,I think your scan tool is not reading them right.there is no way you are hitting under 100 full load with the weather you have.

your coolant is supposed to be at 190-200 on a bone stock car,either you have a lower thermo stat or the car has the 10c mod done or you did this pull on a cold engine.

I have over 40 hours of data logging my car and even stock I could not keep it under 100(well with outside temps over 70)what is the ambient temp on the pull you did?

your start engine temp was 140degres on that log also.

BenzoDoc

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...eed-input.html

All your questions should be answered there, along with coolant temps.

When Shardul star dropped my car, he noted that my -10C mod was NOT performed when I got my tune, so he performed it. Thus, he can confirm that when this was posted my cooling was 100% stock.

The graph is entitled "First run" because it was the first run I made, 79-81* ambient, after I got on the highway approx 2 miles @30mph from my house.

Subsequent runs yielded 140 spikes which resolved within 10 seconds or so.

skratch77

I get about 15-20 above ambient temp off boost,was that log you posted a full wide open throttle pull?

When I talk about temps I ment on full boost and not just cruising around.Even if you recover fast once that ecu sees 140 temps it pulls timing so a bigger heatexchanger will help out even a stock car.

BenzoDoc

I'll do 3 pulls back to back for you to see how quickly the IATs recover. That's the true test of a cooling circuit. As you can see from the other thread, my intent was to get a quick and dirty analysis of my engine temps being in the 200* range, as opposed to cooling recovery.

BenzoDoc

I believe I had it set to gathering at 1/10th of a second intervals. So 23 should correlate to 2.3s This literally occurred on the on-ramp, yes WOT.

Either way, you're right about cooling. It is a paramount priority for those who either have an old pump that needs replacing or want to get more power out of their motor. I'm not trying to advocate against either of those things.