My W211 E55
 

Hello all...

I've wanted a W211 E55 for a few years now and never got around to pulling the trigger. Recently the bug hit me hard enough to get serious.

I perused for quite a while waiting for a really nice one, and my patience paid off.

I ended up finding a gem...2005 with 33K miles.

I'm in Florida and I searched nationwide realizing that finding one with low miles wouldn't be easy and ended up purchasing mine sight-unseen from Colorado.

I did pay to have it pre-inspected and with no major issues noted I bought it and had it shipped to me.

I was a bit nervous because you never know how well someone else will inspect your car or even if their standards are the same as yours, so mentally I prepared myself to be a little disappointed.

When it finally arrived...it was better than I could have hoped. The car was pristine, aside from an oddly disfigured rear door lock that appeared to have been chewed on by a small dog near as I could tell...This car was obviously garage kept, and very well maintained. You could tell by the fact the calipers were spotless this car had been taken care of.

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Unfortunately the car did not have a lot of options that I would have liked…but when you are searching for a car with very low miles, beggars can’t be choosers.

The positives (other than the low miles and pristine condition of course): It did come with a couple of tasteful items that I would’ve liked to have gotten anyway such as a carbon fiber diffuser, rear spoiler, and roof spoiler. It also is clear bra wrapped in the front including the headlights which protects it from road chips.

The negative…it has a red/green/red PAINTED pinstripe…ugh…again, beggars can’t be choosers…I’m researching a solution for that.

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I had been compiling my list of to-do’s while searching for the right car and as soon as mine arrived I got to work…

My list got sidetracked one step because the car arrived with snow tires (brand new at that)…which obviously don’t come in very handy here in Miami…So a new set of high performance summer tires took precedence…

I went with the factory 245/40/18 F and 265/35/18 R setup…and to my dismay, when all were installed…the front tires were much fatter profile than the rears…so I ordered a set of 235/35/18’s instead.

The result was an equal profile front and back….however…

The gap with the original tires was bad enough…but for some reason with the new lower profile tires, now there was a significant, very unsightly gap in the front wheel well…almost as if the suspension from factory was designed for fatter tires in the front than the rear…

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I had been researching on here the various methods for lowering and was leaning towards the links…but really wanted to STAR preferably.

However I called local dealerships and none of them would do it…in the meantime I had this ridiculous looking gap that made me not want to even drive the car until I solved it.

A little more research on here yielded me a great stop-gap (pun intended) solution…washers.

I found a post of guy on here who had a similar problem and put four ¼ “ washers in the front link and it gave him even gap with the rear...I did the same and problem solved!

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Equal gap front and rear…but still more than I preferred all the way around.

While trying to decide on wheels…and not having any luck finding a set of 19” SL65 wheels…I decided to make the best of what I had and took measurements for some H&R spacers to fill out the fenders a little nicer until I got a custom set. I ended up going with 10mm F and 12mm R, which ended up perfect.

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Meanwhile, I kept searching for a set of 19” SL65 wheels with no luck. I saw a set posted for sale on the marketplace but I was just a little late as someone had already spoken for them.

I told the seller mertd93 (Mike) to keep me in mind in case they fell through. Mike and I began corresponding as I asked him for advice…the guy could not have been more friendly or helpful. He took the time to walk me through all of the various standard mods and answered my barrage of newbie questions to help bring me up to speed, and he is very knowledgeable…in my experience, not many people would take the time to do that…

During my pre-purchase research I read up on here about STAR and all of the things it can do, aside from lowering the car. Since I wanted to lower the car anyway, I figured getting a STAR would be the way to go and I would then have the system for future use.

I asked mertd93 what he thought and he highly recommended it. A little research left me bewildered with the array of setups, hardware, sellers, software versions, etc…

Mike came through again and actually took the time to look up a good system for me and sent me the link, and I purchased the system...he really made things easy for me.

Of course, getting the system is the easy part…learning to navigate and use it was a whole different ballgame…

I was also afraid of perhaps messing something up and so I asked mertd93 for some pointers. He was again immensely helpful. Seeing that he knew this thing inside and out, and noting that the STAR computer came with Team Viewer, I asked if he would lower the car for me remotely for a fee. I found this to be a very appealing option as I hate leaving my car with anyone, and even more so hate having them touch it.

Mike agreed and a few nights ago, we logged on and he went to work…

He walked me through what I needed to do on my end step by step in a very detailed manner via text…once the system was setup and connected, he had me take measurements and lo and behold while I sat in my garage I watched my car start making noises and moving as if possessed…

Measurements, texts, adjustments…measurements, texts, pictures, adjustments…we were at it for a quite a while as he painstakingly fine tuned it to make sure it fell within parameters acceptable by the STAR while still getting the look I was after…Watching him work remotely step by step, flying through the various screens involved, I realized It would have taken me a significant amount of time of trial and error, to be able to figure it out...This guy is a wizard on STAR...

And I am not the most patient of persons so it made the fee I paid WELL worth it…especially because when all was said and done…the car looks perfect…exactly the look I wanted.

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Big thanks to mertd93...as I mentioned he was an enormous help. He sent me some pics of his projects and he does some very nice work.

And thanks also to all on this board which has been an amazing resource for me. The hard work of those who came before me has made my projects far less arduous.

I've already completed the split cooling and HE/water pump upgrade...I'll post shortly in the future.

Next on the to-do list: SC Pulley and Tune, Wheels...and perhaps some sort of exhaust modification though I must admit I like the quietness of the power...I'm not looking to build a track monster, I just want a nice cruiser with some oomph.

Looks awesome. Looking forward to seeing more of the build.

Love the blue and the stance. Beautiful E class no doubt. Please figure out that pin-stripe though, I wonder what the original owner was thinking -- red and green?? Was it Santa Claus??

If I get back in the market, that is what i will be looking for. Looks great

LOL...maybe he was a big Gucci fan.

Edit: Saw you went with Star and not washers. **** man, make one post. 10 posts that could have been 1 make it harder to follow.

I told the story in chronological order so I didn't think it would be hard to follow...


Perhaps I should have titled it better...it's more of a build thread than just an anecdote about STAR...apologies if it confused you...

There doesn't seem to be a slam dunk solution for painted pin stripes from what I've found so far...I've seen some using laquer thinner but I'm not positive what effect that might have on the clear coat...

I asked at a local paint correction shop and their first instinct was wet sand, but also with little conviction about the end result and possible damage to the clear coat...

Anyone have any suggestions?

Roof spoiler looks good, might have to get one. Congrats on purchase!

Nice car and very nice color. What did you end up paying, if you don't mind me asking?

Nice car, Did you get it aligned after lowering? It changes the toe in dramatically. you will chew the inside edges quick if it's not dealt with already.

Good tip...I haven't yet, but it is on the top of the to-do list.

So...yes, I did...thank you sir :)

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More pre-purchase research on here made me aware of the importance of modifying the water to air intercooler system. I know this has been posted ad nausea on this site…but here was my experience:

I purchased a kit that came with an upgraded HE, water pump, and split cooling kit. I have to admit I was disappointed the minute I noticed that it came with no instructions at all, just a box with parts. I emailed the vendor and he said they did not provide instructions…huh? Only after I inquired did he email some instructions, which were a hodge-podge of pdfs, pictures that had been drawn on by hand, and written instructions that had been modified by hand …I found that very odd. Like...so there obviously were instructions...but they are only provided after request?

I also discovered after inspection that it didn’t have all of the necessary hardware to complete the install, when I emailed the vendor to ask, I was told I had to provide my own hardware for the reservoir and water pump…I also found this odd that, 1.) for the price I was paying they could not include a few more fasteners to make the kit complete and save me the time and trip to Home Depot to put together the right pieces, and 2.) If this was the case why it would not be mentioned up front (“batteries not included”).

The HE, for its part, was a very nice piece, and an obvious serious upgrade from factory.

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With some more helpful advice from mertd93, and some instructional vids from youtube, I took the front bumper cover off and went to work.

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The water pump was a little trickier as I had to move a factory oil line somewhat in order to get it to fit. The upgraded pump came with its own bracket that would not fit with the factory oil line, and even after I moved the line, it wouldn’t fit. Finally I figured out that I also had to remove not only the bracket that holds the factory water pump, but also there’s another bracket that holds the bracket… that holds the factory water pump (a bracket for a bracket), which was not an obvious fix right off the bat. Being as I’m sure this mod has been done a thousand times, it would have been very helpful to have some instructions... In any case, with the bracket…and the bracket for the bracket…removed, I was able to get the pump to mount albeit very tightly to the oil cooler line.


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I buttoned everything back up and went for a test drive.

Before the upgrade, IAT’s were approximately 80 – 100 degrees above ambient when cruising.

This was on a 77 degree night…

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After the upgrade, I was now getting IAT’s approximately 15-20 degrees above ambient.

This was on a 75 degree night:

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Needless to say, the car felt much stronger…and I was very pleased knowing that I could now move on to the fun stuff.

Did you have any issue installing two bumper screws under the crash bar with the new HE? Also, inner bumper brackets jamming against new HE?

I had to clipped off parts of the bumper brackets and had to lower the HE by less than an inch or more to get them screws in. Maybe later I’ll try bending them HE brackets/bars to an “L” shape to push HE inward to clear opening for those two screws.

Cooling, and monitoring via torque already? Off to a good start :y Did you bleed the system to get all the air out after install? That is a CWA pump, and since you got it from a vendor in a kit I'm assuming it's the CWA100 (superflo) from VRP. On factory clutched I would closer to 10-15 above ambient cruising with that set up.

I'm not quite sure which two bumper screws you're referring to...the HE is held in place by only the four screws that I highlighted below. The two vertical brackets on the HE sort of just wedge under those two black tabs that extend down over the bumper. That alone holds it in place to be able to mark for the mounting holes.

I was able to press it up fairly flush with the bumper.

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Yes I did bleed back into the reservoir, but there really were very little bubbles at all...


You know...right after install, it was right around 14 degrees above ambient, and was fairly consistent there for a while and recovery times that seemed very acceptable to me...but recently it seems to have settled around 20-25 above ambient for some reason...and the recovery time has seemed to decrease a bit since right after install when it was very quick...it has definitely been a source of consternation for me as I was quite pleased with the initial temp relative to ambient as well as recovery times...I even tried to re-bleed it.

In other words, it seems as if the initial overall performance suddenly dropped off a tad for some reason.
:confused:

The superflo and upgraded HE is the same one i have I also hardwired mine to run at all times when car is on and see between 12 to 18 degrees above ambient. Higher if the cars not moving but i will be installing a custom single pass more efficient core bigger tank eith 3/4 inlet an outlet intercooler as soon as its ready and then a custom 6.5 gallon trunk tank with a ewp modified pump. Should keep everything cool and recovery will be great.

Ok, good to know then, based on that it sounds like perhaps it's operating in the right range...thank you!

Yeah your fine boss dont stress

Perfect Segway into my next purchase...great minds think alike...

So I ordered this beauty in anticipation of taking my cooling mods to the next level...beautiful piece and quality workmanship.


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Initial assessment of install indicates that it will be more challenging than it initially seems.

First impression is...drill a couple holes run a couple hoses and...voila!

However this particular tank isn't specifically designed for the E55...it's designed more for a car with a true circular spare tire well. As such, the brackets don't really work as is.

The brackets will have to be modified (nothing like modifying your modifications)...then, once exited from the trunk, the path of the lines is not a simple as one might think either...

I first thought under the plastic undercarriage panels, but there's no room under them, they run flush to the body...we have some other ideas that we will have to tinker with...

Definitely two screws to hold bumper to crash bar (yellow sticker is on) the screw holes are between the black bracket on each ends. Just an awareness and get your take on how you negotiate HE install with bumper. No worries, cheer!

Well, at least you know what vendor to avoid for future mod purchases:)

Beautiful ride!

Thank you sir

After much deliberation, and research regarding which SC pulley to go with, I decided on UPD.

I pm’d Shardul with a couple of questions which he promptly responded to…he was very helpful.

I ordered a 77mm SC pulley, as well as a Belt Wrap Kit. I received both items within just a couple of days. The items were well packed and the craziest part is that both items came with their own instructions!

The pulley and the BWK both were very high quality pieces and definitely passed the eyeball test. (apologies for the lack of pics of the BWK)

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One of my closest friends, Doug, is the owner of a boutique performance shop named FabShop Miami, where he is a one man show. FabShop is known for producing some of the fastest Nissan GTRs in Miami, however Doug is an automotive artist that can work on basically anything. We’ve been friends for 30 years and so I have the privilege to be able to use his facility and tools, as well as benefitting from his expertise.

I decided to do the pulley and wrap kit at his shop…and I’m glad I did. He has exponentially more tools than I do and there were some bolts and fittings that would have been challenging but became easy with the right tools that I do not have.

Removal of the factory pulley was a bit of a struggle at first as the SC pulley bolt was very tight and the tool to hold the pulley in place to be able to remove the bolt (no idea the actual name for it) was slipping on the SC balancer (I believe it’s a balancer?)…

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The balancer is very smooth so we wrapped it in duct tape to try and give the tool a little more grip. A little struggling and finesse and the bolt finally came loose…

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Side by side with OEM and you can see the obvious size difference.

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The UPD pulley instructions said to remove all shims and check the gap before adding any shims, indicating that the gap needed to be within .3mm - .6mm. We checked the factory gap before removing the OEM pulley and it was at .5mm…when we pulled the OEM pulley off there was one factory shim in there.

Per the instructions, we removed that shim and placed the UPD pulley on and checked the gap…unfortunately the gap was .8mm and even bolted on at factory torque spec…the gap would not get any smaller…once you put it on, its on and while you can always make the gap larger with shims, there’s nothing you can do to make the gap smaller other than machining either the pulley, or the balancer.

Obviously this caused some concern…any time you are out of spec it causes concern…

Options at this point were limited: send it back and wait for the new one to come back (I hate waiting), send it off to be machined (I hate waiting), or try it as is and hope for the best…

We decided to try option 3...I figured that the worst thing that could happen is that clutch wouldn’t engage and it would not go into boost, and then I would then just have to go with option 1 or 2 anyway.

So we continued on with BWK install…

One little hiccup…the smaller bracket, once installed, was a little too close for my comfort to the belt underneath it…

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So what to do? Modify the modification of course…

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We just took the edge off so to speak and rounded the bottom out a bit…the result was much more acceptable clearance from the belt.

Other than that the BWK was a pretty straightforward install…did I mention that it came with instructions? (As well as all necessary hardware for install)

So all the goodies installed, and just one more item to finish it off…a Scatter Shield…

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…did I mention the Scatter Shield came with instructions? (Like…4 page color instructions no less, as well as nicely packaged fittings and even an allen wrench)


So everything buttoned up, and I went for a test drive (a very delicate test drive since I had not yet gotten the tune for the pulley). I just wanted to see if it would go into boost…

And to my delight…it did.

So now an easy drive home to park it and send the ECM off for tune.

Is it possible you have that bracket upside down? That clearance can't be the way it was designed.
Extra pulley gap will only affect the springs. They have to flex more to engage.
For a more secure scatter shield, you can drill a small hole down through the tabs and pin. Then drop a cotter pin through.

hmmmm...not sure what you mean about the gap, but I'm pretty sure it only goes one way, otherwise you wouldn't be able to tighten the screw...plus the lettering would be upside down.

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Ah I see, so then is being outside the range (by .2mm) ok?

Good tip, as I have had to adjust the tab side on occasion.


Thanks for all of the info.

I meant the bracket of your belt wrap kit. All the motors should presumably be the same, so if the bracket is almost rubbing the belts, something is wrong. I haven't got a BRK to look at, but it can't be designed that way. Hopefully someone who has the kit will chime in.

Extra clearance on the pulley is not ideal. That's why I suggested securing your shield. It's not much, but the more the springs have to flex, the shorter their life.

Ah ok I see what you mean...i initially thought the same thing, but unfortunately, the bracket also only goes on one way, it has specific size holes on each end that fit onto preexisting corresponding sized pieces of the motor.

Have you pinned your scatter Shield? I'd love to see your method if you dont mind, I think it's a great idea, but it seems like drilling through that prong would be a little challenging no?

I did pin mine, but it's off the car right now. I just went out and bought a couple good looking cotter pins and some drill bits. stainless is a little difficult to drill, but the motor pin is easy. Dip your finger in the radiator reservoir and put the coolant on the drill bit. Make sure your scatter shield is where you want it, then drill straight through both tabs and the pin.

I decided to go with Kleeman for the tune. I spoke to Corey there who was very informative. I told him the components that I had, and also ordered a set of mid length headers from them for him to factor in to the tune. I overnighted my ECM to him and asked him to ship me the headers in the meantime as I wanted to get them jet-hot coated. He turned around the ECM the same day they received it and overnighted it to me…naturally I was champing at the bit to get it in.

Plugged it in and off I went…what a difference! Of course the car pulls much harder now, but what may have impressed me just as much if not more than WOT is the throttle response…everyday driving is really a joy and passing on the highway is whimsical at any speed.

The headers were very nice looking and, compared to some of the Chinese products I’ve seen, these appeared to be very high quality with nice welds.

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While I had learned on here that long tubes are the way to go for maximum power, from what I could tell (in watching example videos on YouTube) they were also the loudest, and my preference was to keep a little of the luxury in my luxury sedan. My hope is that the mid lengths will give me a decent amount of power, while not sacrificing much of the factory quietness (for lack of a better term) that I really wanted to preserve as much as possible.

The mid lengths come with down pipes that replace the primary cats (which of course is part of what gives the power increase). The downpipes were also very nice, as well as the fittings that came with the kit.

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Corey explained that the downpipes will have to be cut in order to put some flex pipes in. However I found it surprisingly hard to find 2.75 in flex pipes…My go-to for most things is Summit Racing as they have nearly everything under the sun, and usually in five different colors but they didn’t have any. The only place I could find them was on eBay…so I ordered a pair.

When they arrived my first thought was…these seem small…and I was right…2.75 inches is 70mm…

As you can see, the outer diameter is only around 66mm, inner around 61mm…and it tapers even smaller inside towards the middle…definitely not what I needed.


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Sent those back and ordered from another eBay vendor…this time around, it was the opposite problem, these were a little too big…(mind you, both of the sets that I ordered were clearly advertised as 2.75”)…

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In any case, too big is better than too small as the flex pipe can fit over the downpipe and factory exhaust…and as a result the inner diameter of the flex pipe should not be a restriction.

Any updates?

Wellllll, since you asked…yes actually

I took the headers to get ceramic coated...while it is a little less aesthetically appealing, It will help reduce the underhood temps a bit…

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I didn’t coat the downpipe as it inhibits welding.


I also got some ARP nuts in lieu of the factory header nuts

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I haven’t found the time to install the headers or work on the trunk tank project, but in the meantime I had decided to order some aesthetic upgrades in the form of a black grill, and flat hood emblem…

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Where did you get the hood emblem?

eBay

I think you have a very elegant E55 and I love the color... unfortunately I do not think a black grill goes very well with your dark blue paint. Have you considered painting it blue as well?

Is your car color Capri Blue C359?
Are your seats 2 tone blue also?

Hard to tell in the pics but but it looks like my car color. Sometimes it looks black.
Nice car very clean also.

Thanks! I hadn't considered a blue grill, I'm not sure how the monotone would look...has anyone else painted their grill the same color as the car? I'd be interested in seeing that...

Thank you...It's actually Midnight Blue 904 and the color of the seats I believe is called charcoal.

Blue grill definitely would be even worse.

Black grille is fine imo if you have wheels but on factory rims it stands out to much :)

This is one of the nicest e55s ive seen by the way

Beautiful car! Well done!

Great looking car thanks for inspiration.

On that note...

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I just finished getting a set of 19" Forgestars...I went with Forgestar's recommended size of 19 x 8.5 + 28 Front and 19 x 10 +35 Rear...

They recommended 245/35/19 Front and 275/35/19 Rear...

I had two issues with that tire setup, first…I really wanted to get some 285’s up under the rear…second, that tire size on a 10” rim would likely give it a smaller profile than the front tire which would drive me nuts.

However, I was dubious as to whether a 285 with that offset would fit without rubbing…I decided to roll the dice and I ordered some 285/30/19’s.

When I first got the rear wheel on, with the car off the ground I thought “this ain’t gonna make it”…I lowered it to the ground and it was soooooo close…but, it fit perfectly, no rubbing…woohoo!

Well done I am glad I did about the same. I just spec'd my new wheels at 19x8.5 Fronts (28ET) and 19x10 Rear (36ET) so this is absolutely perfect. Looks amazing.

Just an FYI, I feel the front could've had just a tad less offset, they are not quite as perfectly flush as the rears...I have a pair of 5mm hubcentric spacers lying around, and I'm going to put them on to see how they do.

Went to my buddy's shop over the weekend for a BBQ...can you guess what cars he specializes in ?

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Sad part is that even heavily modded I can't mess with a stock one of these lol...

On a side note...after much research I found a guy who specializes in painted pinstripes to see if he could remove them...

He told me they probably wouldn't come off very well, and there's a chance they would leave marks, almost like scars...he said he would try at the very back to test and taped it off so that it would look like it just ended a little shorter than it currently is...

Unfortunately he was right, there was a speck of residual pinstripe paint that just would not come off, and you could just barely make out grooves where it was. Extrapolating that to the entire side of the car was not an appealing thought, so it looks like I'm stuck with them.

To make the best of a less than ideal situation, however, my plan is to go over the painted pinstripes with the adhesive pinstripes in a charcoal gray...I already test fitted a quarter panel and it was a slight improvement.

To be continued...

Off the line no way would u keep up with an AWD nissan gtr but rolling race you should be able to beat one fairly easily i took on my buddies tuned gtr from 30 mph an had him by 2 cars by 100

I painted my grill to match, mine is silver though

Wow you must have a lot more mods than I do...

I'm just spitballing here, but my understanding is that our cars trap about 116 from factory...

Being conservative...Pulley/Tune gets you about 70ish more HP and maybe headers another 30...so around 100 in total?

That would probably be good for 8-10 more mph trap speed (which is what counts in a rolling race) so that would get you to around 125ish...and GTR's trap 122-125 from factory...full bolt on GTR's trap upwards of 135...

Me personally I only have tune and pulley so I don't imagine I'm trapping 125...I would guesstimate around 120...that's not enough for stock GTR's trapping 122-125...but man you got me wanting to test it out!