Boom!



Well, we've all seen my engine destruction thread and the good news is that it's all behind me now. Only looking forward from here.

I've got a long list of people to thank, so I'll start in somewhat chronological order.

First, thanks to the independent Mercedes tech in Austin named Patrick Ekstrum. He opened his shop to me, helped with the initial inspection, and let me store my car there. He totally could have taken me for a ride financially, but didn't. Real stand-up guy and worth checking out if you're in the Austin area. He has 10 years experience at Benz dealers.

Next up is my man Scott W (Silent_762). I met him in Houston and he offered to drive his truck up to Austin, 3+ hours each way, to get my car. He refused to even let me pay for gas! An amazing act of kindness and one of the reasons Houston is so awesome.

Ted at M.Power in Houston gets a big thanks for giving me a very, very fair rate on the engine swap, which was done extremely fast. He called me frequently with updates, was great to work with, and even used his truck to go pick up my new engine. I definitely recommend him for anyone needing any kind of service.

Shardul and Brooke are getting lumped in here together because they are practically always together... Or not far away. I probably have exchanged a thousand texts and phone calls with these two over the past month. I hold them both responsible for activating the Texas emergency reaction crew when I had my problems. Within an hour of my engine problem, I had a contact in austin who was ready for me. That's powerful networking. I was also treated to many beers and was not able to pick up very many tabs. I had to demand the tab last night. Oh, and they did a little last-minute wrenching on my car for me to make sure she is in perfect shape. You guys are great.

Jerry at Eurocharged and Scott (AUS E55), my personal superheroes of the day. Jerry offered to open his shop for me to help me out of my bind. They spent an entire Saturday in a hot garage working to get my car back in proper working condition. I had a problem with my cooling system, which is evident in the below dyno graph. Scott had the flu, Jerry had not eaten since the night before, and they were rolling around the floor in my coolant, busting knuckles and what not. They would not let me leave without a properly running car and I am eternally grateful. Scott even donated a set of plugs towards my car, which is awesome. And Jerry let me drive his CLK63 Black Series. Love it!

My friend Adam (AdrockTT) and his fiancée Dee who have opened their home to me twice now. Great friends, a fellow Benz owner (a beautiful SL65), and really, really fun to hang out with. One of the reasons I will come back for a visit.

The rest of the houston crew, thank you for the drinks purchased and the uplifted spirits when I was down in the dumps. Jim, Sterling, Khauve, and anyone else I missed, I've had a great time hanging out with you all. I plan on coming back in September for a visit just because I didn't get enough time with a lot of you. Many burnouts will be done.

As for the dyno graph, I think we were all too exhausted and hungry to even bother with it. I took a picture of the second to last run and you can see where we had the cooling issue:



We didn't even check out the final torque, but it's around 550lb/ft. Jerry can elaborate on that later. Final number was 527.6hp in 94 degree heat on the heartbreaker!

And here's a quick, crappy video of a pull I made when I dipped down into Mexico
http://youtu.be/GAyMN5_0d3s

At the end of all of this, I am out a good chunk of change, but I'd say it's worth it. I've forged a lot of friendships in the process and have my car running better than it ever was. A good deal in my book. Happy driving everyone.

 

I'm glad your car back and running. You were definitely in good hands with the Texas crew. Good luck and enjoy the car.

 

NICE! The community on this forum is like none other. Over the years I have had several people help me and I try to repay the favor. It is really cool to see sponsors on this forum jump into action and help with the repair as well.

Sounds like the Houston crew is a bunch of stand up guys

Glad to hear your back in action

EDIT: What is a CLK55 Black series?

 

Glad to hear your back up and running. It's great to have fellow MB enthusiast to help pull everything together.

 

Good to hear you made it through and are on the upswing

I bet having that stress gone is such a relief.

 

Happy you're up and running Dennis ... and good on you for focussing on all the positives that came out of an otherwise unenviable experience. Good luck with you're "new" ride brotha

 

Oops! A63, I meant. I just love the 55k engine that much.

And it's great to not be in a rental Focus or Cruze any longer.

 

Good to hear for sure. Can't wait to get mine back together one day. Does it feel stronger than it did before?

 

That's what I thought, you must of had the 55k on the brain

 

Congrats Denroll. Time to get some west coast track days going when you are back!

 

Oh my, it's a completely different beast now after fixing the cooling system. Since it had always been jacked, it was hard to tell that anything was wrong. It always made good low end power and kinda pulled up top, but not much. Now I know what I was missing. It pulls so hard up to redline now. I was absolutely amazed. I had Jerry in the car for the test drive and couldn't believe it. I also had a little bit extra done to it while it was down, which is helping up top. I love it!

Oh, and compression test on new engine showed 180 across the board. I think one cylinder was in the 175 range. Good to go!

 

Awsome! Glad you are up and running brotha.

 

Little bit extra hehehe

 

Congrats again to everyone who helped out Denroll during his time of crisis.

Good thing Jerry and Scott caught and repaired the cooling issue. You would have gas washed those cylinders for sure. It looks like you bottomed out the afr meter on the first dyno run.

 

Like everyone else, its great you have your car back and better than ever! Its really nice to see the generousity and even more the fact that you truly appreciate it. I think its cool when people go above and beyond by choice. Like the ol' saying what goes around comes around, these guys all led be example. Good luck!!! .....now lets see some times!!!

 

Happy for you bro!

 

Looking at your graph Dennis, you have one fat top end man, major props. Other than what you said was your secret mod, are you running meth?

 

. That is awesome

 

No meth... Yet.

Jerry just sent me the dyno. The one with the torque dip was the full throttle run and the other was rolling on the throttle. I need to get the updated TCU to get rid of the dip.

And I am amazed at how hard this pulls right through the old redline. Feels like it would spin well beyond 7000.

 

welcome back!!!

 

Not a bad bunch of guys to be friends with....not bad at all. I've met some of those you've mentioned. They treat you like family from the the get-go.....

Did you get to meet Scott's pet emu?

 

 

^^^ LOL...

Raptors...friggin raptors....

I still crack up about that night.

 

Nice to see you got the car back!! So are you staying with the EC tune or going back to OE Tune?

 

the graph shows your car pulling to 7300rpm. Is that right or was the tach signal off?