Yes tune and pulley is the way to go. 83/84mm is a mild boost increase which is what I have. 77mm is the smallest I would recommend. Any smaller and IAT's go through the roof. Also you will want a heat exchanger and upgraded or at least the latest OEM pump.

I have used eurocharged for all 3 AMG's I have owned, perfect everytime. Shardul also sells pulleys and can get PLM exchangers. My personal opinion is that headers are too expensive for the gains and take too much work to sort perfectly but that's just me and throttle body is too much of a gamble, also just my opinion, many people have them working fine.

Of course number one mod is good tires.

 

thanks for that. been wondering these things myself.

 

If you get 77mm you need an upgraded heat exhanger as a minimum cooling upgrade as others have said. I tested mine without and the heatsoak is terrible after 1 WOT pull. The system still gets overloaded without additional cooling mods when you do multiple WOT runs in quick succession even with th3 HE.

Mid-length headers are relatively problem free and really open up the top end. Takes a competent shop around 6 hours I think..If you get headers put in replace your engine and transmission mounts at the same time. Mounts WILL fail at some time.

Throttlebody has had recent controversy around power gains and is a gamble for "hiccup" issue..

My reccomended upgrade order is mid-length > wider tyres on the back (get traction) >77mm/Upgraded HE > Beltwrap kit if sc belt is slipping, new tensioner assembly may also be required

 

Best mod hands downs is headers tune ..You’ll get the best gains with these 2 mods with many benefits .The car will run cooler ,gain 75 whp ,and sound incredible too.

 

 

 

Ok mods mods mods ..... everyone wants mods well first off .... go through the entire car an take care of brakes, rotors, sbc pump, tune up with new ngk laser plugs (16 2×cylinder) id also check compression an leak down at this point to see the the relative health of your motor, change the oil use a quality oil filter i suggest oem ... (some aftermarket dont have the side reenforcements and collapse) change the aupercharger oil use quality proper oil to do so many kits avalible, do a trans flush and make sure u have a new conductor plate, plug, filter and only use the proper fluid 134 oem is best, check an replace all suspension parts in bad shape pay attention to ball joints. So lets move onto the engine make sure to replace ur dual idler with a double metal.one the rear plastic fails all the time and its hard to see so be smart and do it while there replace all belts and change the other pulleys with a 5 piece kit and check radiator to make sure its the updated model. After all this is done you are now ready to mod u have a safe reliable car to mod.

Mod wise id do headers first their pricey but worth every penny and their not that hard to do yourself took me a couple hrs on my back car on stands. I suggest getting MBH with their midpipe or get the ARH system both are round 3000 with cats. If u dont have to pass.emissions dont get the cats and save urself a lil.

Now its time to do cooling mods these should be first before tune or pulley. I would get the best heat exchanger u can for me this was a VRP unit. It fit great and looks good but really i dont think theres a huge difference between all the ones avalible on the web so just make a choice. By far the best pump i have used is the VRP superflo its the same pump that renntech sells in their 1400 cooling kit but u can get it for 350 from vrp this pump made a huge difference in my IATS google my threads an u can see. I would suggest stay away from the lil split kit and go with a 2.5 gallon underhood tank wks amazing. Trunk tanks hold more but for me i use my trunk and didnt want to route hoses all the way up plus more expensive for not much more gain over the underhood version. Best is the killer chiller but its pricey an not the most fun to install.

Then 76mm pulley ( i got mine from VRP, some say he copies an dont like him becus of it but he has the best prices, has always taken care of me, never had a failed part, and i had a 77mm from another company on here that is on a buddies car and compared it with my VRP 76mm black series, and the vrp had better quality rivets is anodized which helps belt slipping, and the bearings were the exact same.) and tune u can use jerry at EC hes great but Tony at Raceiq is awesome too i have both an can switch between the 2. How id say they differ jerrys tune feels bit more suble and refined where tonys is a bit more raw in your face. Aggressive i have to give it to Tony ... EC is a bit safer cus they warranty ur motor from failure due to the tune .... but good luck ever winning that arguement dont know how ud prove that. I have nvr seen anything bad bout Tony and his tunes seems to make more power then others but i have yet to go dyno switch between the 2 most recent ive gotten to see which does what, but u cant go wrong with either. Get a belt wrapkit an a green HD gates belt both a solid investment it will last the longest and keep the belt from slipping.

At this point ull be roughly over 530hp maybe more. I tried the 82mm tb it was a complete nightmare again some have it working great .... search my threads an u can judge for urself if its worth the 18 rwhp i lost taking it off an putting my stock one back on. For me it wasnt worth the expense or problems.

hope this helps

 

 

Yes new plugs and MAP, IAT and o2 sensors IMO at your cars age and mileage. Correct engine inputs and regular servicing will keep the engine running well for many miles. See if your fuel tank has had the recall done. My alternator and fuel pump died at a round 60k miles. Also check what intercooler pump you have. If its the bosh 010 keep it. If its stock it will need replacing (these all die) wih bosch 010 or superflo from VRP if you want to upgrade.

 

 

The exhaust flows pretty well so there are limited performance gains there but if you want more sound for some reason then cut out 2nd cats followed by muffler if it is not enough for you.

If I wasn't RHD and so far from Texas I would definitely consider some eurocharged headers. I would certainly suggest some sort of headers before attacking the exhaust. They will add volume when accelerating. They will get rid of some heat and lower your boost a touch too.

 

I have kleemans (same design as eurocharged) and they fit fine with a small dent on drivers side to clear steering column. Im in christchurch.

 

Sorry to hijack thread but this got me thinking. My car came with mods already, kleemann headers, no cats, ecu tune, belt kit and pulley (don't know which size)

but it also came with dyno results and it put down 418rwhp and 472ft lbs on a mustang dyno. Sounds low...

plus it has some weird hesitation if I give if throttle at low rpm, which I suspect might be from the tune

 

well first off its a mustang dyno they read a good bit lower than a dynojet. Second u would need to know who tuned it to know if its a good tune. Take some calipers an measure across where the belt sits to get the size of the pulley, or post up some pics some can tell just by looking.

As for the hesitstion that can be tune, tune up, throttle body related, among numerous other things. I would check condition of plugs wires etc etc are there any codes?

 

nope, no codes. Everything seems to be in order, otherwise works well. I hadn't thought of the throttle body. Perhaps it's aftermarket and causing this hiccup issue others have mentioned

 

yeah thats one thing i got alot of experience with haha check out my threads on the subject

 

what's the diameter of stock throttle body?

 

74mm

 

Thanks I remember you telling me and I have read a few threads where people got them to work in oz and the uk. I kept getting into the same dilemma in my head, take the eurocharged headers, add shipping, add customs on arrival, then a shop to weld them together +/- flexipipes and it wasn't too far off NZ$2k at one stage. Of course their latest sale makes that a lot better than it used to be and the exchange rate has improved quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. I can get custom made long tubes for NZ$3k but then I would need another car for 3 weeks and I am not sure I trust leaving my car with those sorts of places for that long. Then I start thinking that I don't really want the increase in noise esp cold starts in a block of townhouses.

If I got a set I would want to install them myself. Do the eurocharged/kleeman headers bolt right up? Obviously the bottom of the exhaust will be open until it is welded but they don't require any "adjusting" just to get them on? I could always install them at home, tie the rest of the exhaust up and drive 3 blocks to my local garage to finish getting them to clear the steering and weld the pipes up to the exhaust.

I don't suppose you happen to have a picture of the dent do you?

 

Yeah ill hook up the pics. The exhaust bolts on and you might have to take off the mid section to drive down to shop else sh*t might be in the way.. then they cut mid section and weld on downpipes. I got shop 2 do it coz its lame jov and hurts knuckles and i lazy.

Just ask them to write less than 250 usd on shipping manifest to avoid import duty

 

So the shop went overboard when they put the dent in. Since they hit the weld it weaken and after a year and 10000 ks it cracked. I had it re welded for a box of beer..has been going strong. Ill take a pic of the spare I have. Funny story is dealership replaced cracked one I had with the one kleemann sent me. I warned them about header needing dent and they thought it was fine..it wasnt so they were gonna remove and have it dented and reinforced by exhust shop, free labor. I just put old one back in so car didnt have to spend days off the road..

Ill take a pic of where u see it rub on the new header in a sec.

 

As you can see it barely rubs, only when u turn right and accelerate to twist engine into the column accelerate left or straight no rub.

 

Headers dont make much more noise when chilling but when u smash it she roars nicely... they do introduce some header tick under light exceleration. Youll be hearing holden v8s with header tick if u dont know what it is.. its how I identify the modded ones so listen for it if your worried.

Is your car imported if yes when was it first registered in NZ?

 

Thanks for the pictures. Ok you have convinced me. Just need to sort out my fuel pump smell issue first and I am booked into the local garage this Friday to hopefully get this stupid SC pulley bolt off. It was imported early last year.

So that little mark is the only place it hits? I can see why the first dent they did was a bit over kill.