We just came back from the Texas Mile and you can see the results of that effort here: https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/...exas-mile.html

I wanted to carve out a separate thread to highlight a critical component of the build - the clutches.
When we started down this car's build path, we knew we didn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of the stock clutches surviving the amount of torque we were going to subject the transmission to.
We opted for the BlackBoost clutches because, well, its a Boostedbenz build that utilizes all the various hardware BlackBoost had to offer. We wanted to subject the clutches to real world stresses in an environment most cars don't operate in for extended periods.
Because we were going to be running at the Mile at elevated speeds, we would be subjecting not only the first four gears to sustained loads, but also the 5th and 6th gears as well. Given the mechanics of the gear ratios... if we were going to see slippage it would be in the higher gears.
When we started the tear down and build we had over a month of schedule to get ready for the mile.



Easy peasey lemon squeezie.... NOT!
When we commenced tear down it was noted that the output shaft on Jessies build had slight deformation and twist in the splines of the shaft. Because of this we couldn't remove the basket, meaning we couldn't replace all clutches.



No problem, we'll just order a new output shaft and go from there.
Well three weeks later Mercedes decided we'd waited long enough and finally sent us a replacement output shaft.. It came in during the TX2K weekend and all shops were slammed.... damn.
We were 4 days away from buttoning up the car to head to the Mile when we were finally able to rebuild the trans...no pressure.

What follows is not the recommended break in process for a transmission rebuild.
The engine and trans were put back together and in the car on Tuesday. Slav gave me a base map to drive the car on Wednesday... I then proceeded to put 80 gentle miles on the car in stop and go traffic to try and get the new trans adapted.... we didn't have access to a Xentry system at the time, but the up shifts from 3rd onwards seemed fine. Downshifts into 2nd were a different story.... damn. We knew we had nowhere near the number of miles we wanted comfortably under our belt, but Jesse, bless his cotton socks, said "send It!"
We needed dyno time and were still fault finding some install gremlins so we loaded the car on the dyno with one revised base map Friday morning and 80 miles on the clutches...... this bears repeating. 80 break in miles...not 600... not even 100..
Because 3rd and onwards behaved fine we started tuning.



We then spent the better part of Friday from noon until 6pm on the dyno. We made multiple pulls in 4th gear and the car didn't miss a beat. We ran on a mustang dyno in lieu of a dynojet. It wasn't our first choice, but any port in a storm as they say.
The car was pulled off the rollers after 2 additional revisions of the tune, mindful; that the dyno was only giving us insight into 4th gear. Because of this, the initial Texas Mile tune was considered very conservative. We kept the numbers conservative to allow for tweaking safely at the mile.



Caveat on this dyno above.... this is not the final dyno numbers for this build... this was the conservative tune before we went to the Texas Mile and further added boost and timing to the tune based on feedback from the runs down the runway.

Aside from the conservative numbers, please note the torque and power profile. We did not experience any clutch slip at all. This is obviously a combination of the clutches themselves, the EDOK TCU tune we are running, and the ECC Slav tune bringing the torque in, in a controlled fashion.

Jesse drove the car to the event Friday evening, arriving late to the hotel. Saturday morning was spent tidying up some minor install issues that were easily accommodated in the parking lot. What couldn't be accommodated was the trans adaptation. Fortunately Corpus Christi was only an hour a way, so Jesse drove the car to Corpus Christi Mercedes and had the car's trans adapted within 15 minutes. This is another testament to the clutches... they are a direct one for one swap with the OEM clutches, maintaining the same tolerances. Because of this the adaptation was extremely easy and quick.

Once at the Mile we took the time to log each run. Each file was sent to Slav for review and modification, then a reflash at the track of the new file.... Rinse and Repeat. Ultimately we ended up running a couple of more pounds of boost and a bunch more timing, which netted us our final 192.5 mph pass of the event. It took Slav four iterations of the tune, accounting for fuel delivery, intake temps, engine knock and timing retard.


Note the draggy above... Jesse rolled into the run from a start. There was a slight blip going from 3rd into 4th, but the remainder of the run was solid. If the clutches were going to have issues it was going to be in the higher gears. The car ran solid over each run. To reiterate the name of this thread... the BB Clutches are no joke...

At this point I need to point out that Slav took a completely new to him HPFP (The XDI +60%) and a new to him BB950 turbo, and after only two revisions allowed us to safely run a 186 mph first time out of the gate on a conservative base map dyno tune, and then followed it up with four safe tweaks to net the final speed of 192.5. The car didn't miss a beat the entire time we were on the track. Following the event, Jess drove the car back to Houston a little quicker then when he went down.


The car safely back in Houston...

https://www.boostedbenz.com/ have provided us with some great hardware for this build. Check them out if interested... they are great people with great products for the M157.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like any more info on the build.

 

Thank you for this write up. The enthusiasts have been asking how these clutches perform and it is good to have viable US market results reported.

Before releasing the BlackBoost 722.9 Performance Clutch package the product went through vigorous R&D for two years in Dubai. It was on the reported Worlds Fastest GLE63. The clutch package includes all variations for the 7 speed transmission. Items that will have to be purchased separately would be the gaskets, oil and filter.

We have had great success with the clutch package and will be releasing soon product for the 9 speed transmission. Boostedbenz.com offers the BlackBoost hardware with the ECC Tuned TCU tune (ECC Slav #slavsauce)

www.boostedbenz.com

 

Great write up Brett. For those that may not know, Brett has been very instrumental in the advancement of this platform over the last couple years. He is a wealth of knowledge! I am fortunate enough to live in Houston also and have had him as the team lead on planning my build and he deserves a lot of credit! Jose at Boosted Benz was also heavily involved and a huge help at the end as well! As for the Clutches, they are the best for sure! Matt Chen owner of Legacy Motorworks and his team Chris and Tom handled the build and did a great job. They worked until 3 in the morning a couple nights to get me on the road in time for the TX Mile after we had parts delays. A big thank you to all of you!

 

Thanks for the kind words Jesse ... thank you for allowing us to live vicariously through you!