Yes, the stock manifold and cats are quite restrictive, so headers help the engine breathe better and reduce strain (and heat). Your boost pressure will also be lower with headers, and that has a direct heat effect on the supercharger not working as hard. Lower boost in that scenario isn't a bad thing either.

very insightful information thank you!

I'm wondering if I'm running into pump issues or transmission issues? On occasion I'll try and give the car the beans at low rpms and it will not seem to want to downshift into the proper gear and just seems like the car has zero power. When it finally revs up it just seems doggish. In Manual mode the car feels fine in higher rpms. It just feels like it lugs in any of the automatic modes. And sometimes when Im driving and give the accelerator a quick stab it will give a big bang like slamming into gear and take off, but not as fast as I feel it should be. It feels like perhaps the supercharger is not engaging or dumping boost combined with the transmission feeling like it's in 4tu gear in spots it needs to be in 1 or 2.....what can be the issue? It felts good when I installed the TCU and then the car sat for a few days and feels like crap.

are you able to log the car?

I just ordered the ob2 dongle.

I logged the car and all the temps were within a good range. The issue was my TJ Merry TCU took a **** on me. He warrantied it out and is sending a new one. Was a hardware issue. I did however order a larger heat exchanger and a new intercooler pump anyway. Might as well address that elephant in the room now than later on.

I recently upgraded my cooling system with new pump and substantially more H/E capacity. This may help: https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ml#post8684456

Good decision and the pump and HE. Which pump did you go for?

The standard Bosh one from FCP Euro ending in part number 10.

Good choice, I also got one