CLS55 Weistec
 

In the way of intro, I've joined the Weistec camp. Some of you may know that I had a Kleemann E55 which got totaled by a rogue SRT driver (rear-ended me at speed and BLASTED the car into the guard rail--totaled). So, found a sweet CLS55 and purchased it the next week.
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Since I was used to a Kleemann-tuned car, the stock CLS felt a bit lazy. As I pondered my upgrade path, I decided to go for it, and start by adding the Weistec blower. So, I ordered it from Jerry at Euro (fabulous communication, service, delivery and easy of purchase...thanks Jerry). I have a very long history of working/playing with forced-induction cars that dates back to the mid-80's, but had take a break from wrenching the past several years in order to buy a house, raise a family and grow a business (no, you didn't do it Obama).

When I opened the box, feeling like a kid and Christmas, I was immediately impressed with the completeness of the kit: fit and finish is great, very detailed and precise instructions, even zip-ties for tidying-up the details.

Before all of this, wanted to install a BIG H/E and Johnson CM30 pump.
The MBH H/E is a work of art! Fit and finish is perfect with a direct install requiring NO mods at all. (I did have to relocate my horn though--of course who needs it with the road she makes now!?)
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Had a hole in my work schedule, turned the phone to DO NOT DISTURB, double-checked my tool list and set out to tearing the stock S/C off. It is a very straight-forward, wrench-this-wrench-that procedure with no challenges at all. (after working on twin-turbo RX7's and the spaghetti mess of vacuum lines under the intake, this is a no-brainer).

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I took my time/car in detailing the motor, vacuuming out the valley, nooks and crannies, wiping off all of the previous hard-to-access areas, and resolving all the issues the stealership mechanics had left behind from previous owner (loose intake bolts, broken harness tabs, etc.)

The Weistec unit sitting on the table waiting to go in. (for anyone asking: the stone wall behind it is my garage wall which I restored from the 1860's original barn foundation--that's another labor-of-love story).

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A few hitches along the way that caused some frustration and noteworthy for future installers:
My TB harness was epoxied to the TB. There's a brown goop they put on to hold the black rubber to the TB and the day mine was built, Hanns must've gotten careless which caused it to be glued in. I battled and battled, eventually won the battle, but lost the war. Thankfully, Jerry at EuroCharged overnighted me one (at no charge--rockstar!)
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The intercooler hoses on the back of the S/C are super-tight to the firewall. After trimming them down significantly, I was able to get them in there with no kinking, but they are extremely right. I intend to remove them and put hardware 90's on there at a future time. I don't care much for the way they are now.
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Once I sat the Weistec on and started to fasten the bolts, they would not line-up. After careful inspection, it was apparent that the manifold was slightly hitting the right/rear engine-hoist bracket. An easy removal and 5 minutes on the grinder to move a slight bit of material and one spot, solved this with ease. Since they appeared to be cast, I suppose they could have slight variances from unit to unit from MB.

The new blower sits in there with perfect precision: a little push here and there I was able to finger tighten all of the bolts before actually torquing them to spec.
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After bolting everything together, I spent several hours checking and double-checking all the little details. Now ready to flash the ECU with Jerry's tune. Flashed it, computer reported it as being completed. The car would not start and flashed ESP and ABS errors. A quick call to Jerry, he surmised that the flash failed. So, I shipped it to him, he fixed and sent back the next day. It turns-out my battery was low on charge and crapped-out mid-download. (listen to him when he says to charge your battery, keep a charger on it, and turn other stuff off). New flash worked like a charm, car started right up and purred nice and smooth.

Purring monster.

Spent some time data-logging with short 2-3 runs to 5500 RPMs max. Car felt great, timing looked reasonable, IAT's were climbing to 150+ so getting outta the pedal.

My next post explains the following steps to my upgrade, which included long-tube headers with a new tune, separating the cooling systems and results along with data logging info. Stay tuned…I have a lot of data and findings to share. I'm still working out a few kinks which I hope to have resolved in the next several days.

BTW: car sounds EVIL now.

Nice!

Sounds like a beast!!!

Nice write up ! Look into getting a trunk tank when u split the cooling. Mine as well go all out !

I didn't even know MBH makes a HE. Learn something new every day. What are the dimensions on the HE? Larger capacity than the EC HE?

Nice setup.

Nice :bow:

damn!!! "bolt in" and ready to go!

The one that he has is only for the CLS55

Nice build story! How many hours did the install take?

Those headers are real important , as it will help get the heat out and lower temps. That poor single exhaust valve we have has to work double time:)

very impressive. So if one was to budget for such an upgrade assuming like you the work was done yourself, and include the tune, and any other parts, how much would that be roughly minus the approx. resale value of the AMG compressor?

Excellent write up with pics!

Dammit that's what mine was supposed to be... An easy straightforward bolt on beast. This was nice and straightforward , wasn't it Steve? :D

Thanks for all the interest and encouragement. To be clear the car DOES currently have long-tube headers and cooling split. I am working-out some additional details relating to tune, cooling and a few other minor issues. Being the cautious type, I am doing a lot of data-logging and asking the questions BEFORE they are an issue...driving at less than full-out is a real discipline. I have a couple of GoPro's on standby for when I finally unleash the fury! ;)

I'll post additional details when I have more data and have time to put brain to writing it up.

:word:what he said

Nice!
I love threads like this where the op springs it all on us at once.

Impressive work and nice resourcefulness with the install.

Are you considering any water/meth injection?

Probably the single most important part of a successful installation.

Subscribed for the GoPro fury! :y


-G

i wish our setup from wisetech had dual intakes as well just like the C63s do... anyways looks great man, congrats on the new blower, it does look tits

If you have slit cooling already and the giant HE, why are your IATs so freaking high?:eek:

Wasn't ajm55's IATs 150+?:confused:

Good luck!

That is my first question as well. How long did it take to get to 150+?

Congrats on the purchase and install.. Excellent write up.:y:y Curious as well as to the high IAT's.. Get it all figured out and I personally would Love to see some dyno #'s..

AJM55s IATs were more like 185-190* according to the other posts...

Might just be some air bubbles still in the cooling system?


-G

He's got a small standalone reservoir so bubbles trapped in the IC core shouldn't be an issue.

That's one of the things I am trying to resolve. Once I did the split, they are about 110-115 cruising and get to about 135-140 at WOT for a 2nd-3rd burst to 5500 RPMs.

150-155 is my "lift the foot" point. The timing advance while at WOT is 14-20 depending upon load, but I'm trying to make a correlation to what IAT the ECU starts to pull timing.

The IAT sensor is getting replaced to eliminate that as a suspect. Also going to begin to monitoring intercooler-loop temps now to see if there's a correlation between IAC temps and water temps (ie. is the water heating up proportional to the charge temp or is the intercooler just not transferring enough heat).

Bubbles aren't the case since I have a remote reservoir AND a bleed point. I've run the HE pump for 15 minutes 'til no bubbles at all came out. Also running a mix of distilled water, Water Wetter and and just a tiny bit of MB coolant.

Very nice, let hope you can figure out the AIT puzzle.

Once we had sorted the plumbing out on my car the IAT issue revolved predominantly around the unusually high increment at idle and cruising speed. My IATs comfortably climbed to the levels you're describing in like-conditions.

I was assured by Weistec that they had reprogrammed the ECU to keep the bypass valve open at idle. Ultimately, when the charger went back to Weistec for testing, I sent the bypass valve with it so that they could check to ensure that there wasn't a mechanical malfunction. I don't know what their tests revealed as I did not receive a report-back.

Good luck with this. I hope you get it resolved soon. Nice write up by the way :y

I can't wait to see an on board video and dyno sheet. Hurry up already =)
Very nice set up.
Wish you all the best!