Two Tonne Bully

[SMed08]

So lets finally start this project thread. I'm now the 3rd MBClub Member to own this E55, and what a hell of a car. Miles are adding up, but this car has had at least 3 owners that have provided everything this car could possibly want.

To recap, performance mods include an 84mm supercharger pulley, split cooling with front mount tank and bigger heat exchanger, X-pipe with secondary cats and resonator deleted, and rear back boxes I think are gutted too. I have since added a TCU tune, which I highly recommend. Car also has some carbon trim, blacked out grille and lowering module.

This car came with a huge amount of history, clearly showing previous owners that were able and not afraid to spend what needed spending. I myself had to drop a fair chunk of change to rectify a few age related things that are needed on a 100k mile car. Including:

All new front brakes + fluid
Levelling sensors
Prop shaft coupler
Belts
Filters
Oil change
All new tyres
Top and lower ball joints, plus other stuff I've forgotten

All work done at Autoclass in Milton Keynes. Highly recommended. Steve is hugely knowledgeable, came highly recommended and I can see why. He had several other AMG cars there, including an SLR.

I put a wider tyre on the rear, a 285/35/18 to replace the factory 265/35/18. I went with Yokohama Advans, and I'm pretty happy with them. The jump from 265 to 285 made a very noticeable difference in grip under acceleration. With the 265s, they would light up easily at any speed in 2nd gear. Now they hold MUCH better in 2nd without spinning much at all. Fantastic.

Also got the alignment done at Wheels in Motion in Chesham, again massively recommended.

This brought the car, effectively as mechanically perfect as I could get it. Very happy, and a great starting place.

 

[AMGeed]

Have you got any further mods in mind (like 77mm pulley)

 

[SMed08]

I'm now tackling a few minor cosmetic issues. Unfortunately, after only owning the car less than a few weeks, I cracked the front carbon (effect) splitter on a steep speed bump. I thought I'd pressed the suspension elevation button, but didn't and scraped the splitter, as seen in the following picture. (driver side)

Fortunately, the previous owner had a different type of front lip so I bought that off of him, and to be honest I MUCH prefer this one to the one that I broke. Fits the aesthetics of the car much better in my opinion, so happy this happened in the end.

All of the badges and grille have been painted black, but unfortunately are all peeling, and really look bad. I've purchased replacements for them all, in black, apart from the "V8 Kompressor" badges. These are actually hard to find in the original OEM sizing, and effectively impossible to find in black. It's looking like I'll have to buy them from Mercedes and paint those black if I want to stay with this theme. To be honest, I do like them in black so I'll stick with it for now.

The grille however, I think I will do something different. The blacked out grille keeps reminding me of a Hitler moustache I'd like to go with a brushed metallic effect, and the only way I think to do this is to get it wrapped. Want to get these sorted ASAP as car meet season is well under way. And definitely need to get the wheels refurbished. I'm sticking with the stock AMG 18"s as I like the comfort and want the extra grip that these sidewalls can provide.

Next year I will likely address the paintwork. It's not too bad, but plenty of small chips, halos, swirls and very minor scratches here and there. I'd like to get a full paint correction with machine polish etc, and at least a front clear wrap to protect from further chips and maybe a ceramic coating. But that's going to be ****ing expensive, I know.

This is her as she stands now.

 

[SMed08]

Have you got any further mods in mind (like 77mm pulley)

 

[SMed08]

So as a baseline, I took her to Santa Pod a few weeks back. Temps were nice and cool, 10 degrees, but I did many back to back runs and heat soak became a problem. Best time of the day was 12.3 at 116mph.

Definitely room for improvement, traction was a major issue off the line. Best 60 foot time was 1.9 seconds. Should be able to get that to 1.8 easily, maybe 1.7 if I'm lucky. With that, a 11.9-12.0 would be more than feasible. Especially with allowing it proper cooling off time between runs. I wasn't monitoring IATs at this time, but I will next time. This run was done after a long lunch break, and with raising the suspension up to max in comfort suspension mode (disabling the lowering module), transmission in sport mode and letting it change gears on its own.

https://youtu.be/ztDWsH5FtL8

In future, I will play with disabling the lowering module for the front, but activating for the rear (this is doable with this lowering module). This will raise the front, but keep the rear at normal height. Hopefully allowing better weight transfer. I will also bring several bags of ice to cool down the supercharger between runs. I'd love to put ice in the front tank, however the lid is tiny I'd be putting a couple of ice cubes in at a time, would take forever.

 

[SMed08]

Performances Updates

If you've seen my Long Tube Header thread, then you already know I've purchased some long tubes from Project B5 in the states. Bought them on sale, delivered to my door for £770 including customs etc. Fantastic deal. Mixed reviews on these headers, the main complaints I'm seeing are that fitting can be troublesome and that they leak. I've seen several complaints about expensive $3,000 headers not fitting without bending the heat shields, so this is not unique to budget headers. These come with slip fittings to the X-pipe that will leak, and everyone fixes this by just welding them. Again, not a problem.

So long as they are fitted on a lift, and not a drive way on jacks, then fitting will not be a major problem. I'm sure these will need some slight bending to get around the steering column, this is fully expected, but not a major issue. I'm also thinking of getting new engine mounts done at the same time, as it will obviously be much easier to do with the exhaust out of the way.

These headers will mean that, for the immediate future, the car will have no cats. So basically it will be loud, fast but stink. I plan on getting race cats before MOT

I want to get these installed this week, and will be dropping the car off Tues/Weds. I'd love to be there whilst they're fitting, but I'm not sure my schedule will permit.

One very annoying thing, I ran over a massive screw/bolt last weekend on the rear driver side. The tyre is still holding air, and the head of the screw has snapped off, but can still see the body in the middle of the tread. Still have plenty of tread, but it's a fairly big screw.

The only two options I'm considering are:
1) Get tyre repaired (not sure if this is viable) ---> £20
2) Buy 2 rear 275/35/18 Toyo R888Rs ---> £440


I'm very much seriously considering the R888Rs. I know they won't be great in the rain, but I can drive carefully in the rain, it doesn't worry me too much. If the tyre is not safe to repair, I will likely get the R888Rs. They will provide excellent grip.

Cheaper option would be Nankang AR-1 for £362. Hearing decent things about Nankang now, they've improved loads recently.

 

[SMed08]

Can't edit the original post, but here are the discs before going on... tasty

 

[SMed08]

So the tyre issue is very annoying. I wanted to do a like for like run back at Santa Pod with only the headers as a difference to compare times. But if I have to get tyres again, I'm likely to go with something stickier I reckon.

Or I could get two new identical tyres and wait to get sticky tyres until I get more performance upgrades.

Performance upgrade plans at present are, at least a 77 mm supercharger pulley. But I am very very seriously considering a 74mm pulley. I also would like to get a water:meth injection kit, especially if I get a 74mm pulley. This is probably about the sort of power level where bigger injectors would come into play.

Got a few life issues in the background, so I may calm down after the headers and wait until next year before going smaller pulley etc. We'll see. But damn I love this car. So much fun.

 

[SMed08]

Also, bought replacement headlight lenses as they're chipped and hazy. The replacement lenses are crystal clear and look amazing, unfortunately this is a bumper off job, and will require either a heat gun, or sticking the headlamp units in the oven to soften up the glue. A project of this summer, but so busy, not sure when I'll get a chance.

 

[Major774]

Also, bought replacement headlight lenses as they're chipped and hazy. The replacement lenses are crystal clear and look amazing, unfortunately this is a bumper off job, and will require either a heat gun, or sticking the headlamp units in the oven to soften up the glue. A project of this summer, but so busy, not sure when I'll get a chance.

Great project.

I am normally a chrome badge person my self, however, the side badges in black does the suit the car very well.

Have you seen my thread for sorting out headlights?

https://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/bodywork/224560-my-headlight-restoration-without-polishing.html

 

[SMed08]

Great project.

I am normally a chrome badge person my self, however, the side badges in black does the suit the car very well.

Have you seen my thread for sorting out headlights?

https://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/bodywork/224560-my-headlight-restoration-without-polishing.html

Yeah I've seen a few headlight restoration posts/videos. At present, I'm convinced this will be easier, faster, better and possibly cheaper.

Some people do headlight restoration with the lamps still in situ, and don't think this ideal. Best bet would be like you're doing and remove bumper and units. If I'm doing that, I might as well just replace the lenses. Seems easy enough with some heat. And will have perfect results after. The lenses cost less than £40 delivered. Which is a decent price.

The main question will be how these lenses hold up to actual road use. Time will tell.

 

[AMGeed]

Liking the look of those headers. Let us know how the fitting went. Are you having them fitted locally or at an indy?

You will possibly have to get the mapping tinkered with to remove possible EML problems without primaries though.

Be careful if you are considering a 74mm pulley. Very mixed comments on the US forum regarding heat and boost levels.

 

[SMed08]

Liking the look of those headers. Let us know how the fitting went. Are you having them fitted locally or at an indy?

You will possibly have to get the mapping tinkered with to remove possible EML problems without primaries though.

Be careful if you are considering a 74mm pulley. Very mixed comments on the US forum regarding heat and boost levels.

I won't go with a 74mm on this cooling. If I go 74mm, I'll do water:meth injection too. So the question would be, do I just get a 77mm and be done with it. Or Wait and do the 74mm later when I can do water:meth injection at the same time. I suspect the jump from 84mm to 77mm won't be worth the hassle and that if I'm going to do it, then go all out and do it properly.

If IATs are already hitting 54C then ECU is already pulling timing twice over. Timing is pulled initially at 35 then again at 45C. It pulls it for a 3rd time at 65C, then after that the pulley disengages. I reckon with water:meth IATS should stay under 35C even on a long extended (TV/VMAX) type run.

 

[benlucas]

All of the badges and grille have been painted black, but unfortunately are all peeling, and really look bad. I've purchased replacements for them all, in black, apart from the "V8 Kompressor" badges. These are actually hard to find in the original OEM sizing, and effectively impossible to find in black.

Whilst they aren't OEM, have you considered these?

Lovely car btw

 

[zoros]

You're obviously an expert in this field and best wishes for achieving what you set out to achieve in the power and handling department. I wouldn't want to cross swords with that power plant.
But I can't help thinking - it still looks like a standard taxi cab.....sorry but one of Merc's less successful design days....

 

[SMed08]

Whilst they aren't OEM, have you considered these?

Lovely car btw

Thanks, I think I've seen these online. I'd have to re-measure but I'm sure these aren't the OEM size. I think they're slightly bigger.

 

[SMed08]

You're obviously an expert in this field and best wishes for achieving what you set out to achieve in the power and handling department. I wouldn't want to cross swords with that power plant.
But I can't help thinking - it still looks like a standard taxi cab.....sorry but one of Merc's less successful design days....

Not an expert. Haven't done anything for handling, it turns like a boat.

It definitely looks a bit taxi-ish. I'm going to stick a decorative tissue box in the rear window and a mini-cab light/sign on the roof next time I go to Santa Pod.

 

[SMed08]

Car is booked in for Thursday for headers and new mounts.

 

[Ginger55k]

But I can't help thinking - it still looks like a standard taxi cab.....sorry but one of Merc's less successful design days....

I think the same about the SL55, quad pipes and body styling ruined the original R230 design, prefer mine as it looks like an SL350.........Taxi!!!

 

[SMed08]

Just did the Sneaky ECU reset for the first time... wow, it really perks up.