C 230K Sport

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n3thn

Active Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2003
Messages
98
Location
North West England
Hi, I have recently sold my 240 Sport for 230K Sport does anyone know how "tunable" the 230K engine is, can they be made to go any quicker ?

Also is anyone asble to use Paint Shop, I have bought a 1.8 Turbo Beetle and want to put 18" alloys on but unsure of how it will look.

Thanks in advance Jon
 
A C230k is tunable but not necessarily cheaply. There are different methods:
1. Tuning via the ECU. I believe Superchips wont do it but people like Brabus will.
2. A pulley kit to change the speed the Kompressor works at. Brabus charge about £2500 though others do it cheaper.

3. Freer flowing exhaust.

4. Completely new supercharger like a Kleeman.

5. Have the engine bored out. I think someone does a 2.7 k conversion.

6. Nitrogen Oxide kit, ranging from tame to bomb.

7. Take the spare tyre, back seat, air con and wife out of the car thereby reducing the power to weight ratio!
:D
 
Hi Jon,

I think it gets back to the old chesnut of whether to spend money tuning up a car or to just buy a better one!

I think that overall, it would probably be better to buy something like a C36 if you were considering spending ££££s on trying to make the Kompressor go better!

After all, you then get everything else with it, ie, better brakes, suspension, body styling, wheels etc etc, not to mention the perfomance!

To cut a long story short, there are no real "short cuts" to tune up the MB engine significantly, and to do so makes it an uneconomical proposal!

Cheers,

Will
 
..I thought 30% more torque from my C200 for my £299 I spent at Superchips was a decent return!
 
R2D2 said:
..I thought 30% more torque from my C200 for my £299 I spent at Superchips was a decent return!

Sorry Greg,

To clarify, I was referring to the 230K engine! As you pointed out, Superchips don't offer an upgrade for this model, and Brabus is likely to cost some serious bucks! :eek:

My point is that on the 230 Kompressor engine, there are no cheap ways of getting a significant increase in power (ie, nowhere near the 280 BHP of a C36), and even after spending ££££s on trying to do this, you are still left with a normal C-class, albeit with a pokier engine. :rolleyes:

If you were to buy a C36, it already has the power increase that you crave, plus all the other benefits of a performance car package - and in the long term, probably works out a cheaper option.

If there was a chip for the 230K engine for less than £300, and it offered 30% more torque, I would be interested in one. If I was looking at spending ££££s, I would rather buy a C36 for £5000-£10000 and be done with it! :D

Cheers,

Will
 
I know what you mean. I looked at one tuner a while ago and it worked out £100 per horse power gained. Gulp! .......C43's are nice:)
 
In a previous thread, when a C200 Kompressor owner asked a similar question, my opinion I offered was in all honesty, consider changing the car.

Swapping from a w208 CLK 200K to a w208 CLK C320, or CLK430 (V8 but not an actual AMG varient car) would be reasonable for the gains respectivly.

A w202 owner (like me) is in a difficult place.

You already have the most powerfull non AMG varient w202. The perhaps more affordable C36 AMG, is older and the latest model C36 is not a full facelift w202. Counts it out IMO.

The C43 has the associated AMG running costs.

Chipping the C230K cannot affect supercharger boost, hence you are only going to get the relativly small gains as if chipping a regular normally aspirated 4 pot engine - ie about 10% BHP if you are realy lucky.

I messed with my air-intake and killed my MAS. A better breathing exhaust may squeaze a few BHP at a guess.

Only realistic reasonable gains come from changing the pulley to give my supercharger boost. Conversions range from about £1K up and I don't actually know anyone in the UK that has done one.

I am tempted myself, but cost, location of expertise and time of conversion have put me off so far. Doesn't mean I have given up though.
 
GrahamC230K said:
Only realistic reasonable gains come from changing the pulley to give my supercharger boost. Conversions range from about £1K up and I don't actually know anyone in the UK that has done one.

I am tempted myself, but cost, location of expertise and time of conversion have put me off so far. Doesn't mean I have given up though.

....despite the mad rush from Brabus to quote............ :(
 
Brabus is as overpriced as can possibly be, and worse, not up to par with other kits. For example, the Brabus kit is a 10% diameter increase in pulley size, the other tuners, Kleemann, ASP, and Renntech are closer to 17%. If you have the C230K with the M111 engine (2.3L), the best pulley kit is from ASP Racing (www.aspracing.com), it's $650 U.S. for the Brabus K3 equivalent and I've used it for several years until I bought a new C230K with the M271 engine (1.8L) for which I don't believe there are pulley kits for yet. Installation instuctions on my website at www.Buellwinkle.com if that helps. I can post dynos if you are interested but they are in U.S. HP and Torque numbers, you'll have to convert to your local stats.
 
buellwinkle said:
Brabus is as overpriced as can possibly be, and worse, not up to par with other kits. For example, the Brabus kit is a 10% diameter increase in pulley size, the other tuners, Kleemann, ASP, and Renntech are closer to 17%. If you have the C230K with the M111 engine (2.3L), the best pulley kit is from ASP Racing (www.aspracing.com), it's $650 U.S. for the Brabus K3 equivalent and I've used it for several years until I bought a new C230K with the M271 engine (1.8L) for which I don't believe there are pulley kits for yet. Installation instuctions on my website at www.Buellwinkle.com if that helps. I can post dynos if you are interested but they are in U.S. HP and Torque numbers, you'll have to convert to your local stats.

Hmm, sounds interesting. $650 ~ £366

Buellwinkle, do you have any more comments to offer on this kit? Any reliability issues or problems to report?

Did you install it yourself?

Please can you post details of the gains you received with this kit installed. Those dyno sheets would be excellent.

Group buy anyone! ;)

Will
 
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Is the Brabus pulley only 10% different for valid longetivity reasons though?

Does the ASP pulley require a MAS relocation? (Personally I am talking for a 1999 w202 C230K M111).

I thought the Kleemann upgrade inlcuded didfferent heat grade spark plugs? Is this necessary/included?

You can say I am interested for the parts at that cost, but finding somewhere to have it professionally installed in the UK may be the problem.

Will, add me to that potential group buy!
 
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To anwer your questions. The 10% diference is an option with ASP also but one person has requested it. I have a friend with a 99 SLK that as 98K miles on his SLK and has had an ASP pulley since 30K miles and no problems. I don't know the gain on with the 10% pulley but with regular pulley that most tuners use it's about 25 hp at the rear wheels and about 35 ft/lbs of torque gain on average. Don't believe what the tuners tell you, it's mostly brochure HP. I've noticed that from my own experimentation that different brand of pulleys produce the same boost increase (from 6 1/2 PSI to 10 1/2 PSI), therefore the same power increase. Luckily I had virtually unlimited access to a dyno for my testing. I can tell you what works, what doesn't.

There are two different pulleys, the W203 and new SLK's use just a pulley, takes about and hour and a half to install and I've done at least a dozen installs, no problems, like I said, the instructions are on my website that have lots of photos. I worked with ASP to design this pulley 3 years go.

The older SLK and W202 (and other models in europe) require a slightly different pulley that ASP also carries but you'll need the MAS relocation kit that includes colder spark plugs and a 4 bar fuel pressure regulator. Linh, a friend of mine that worked with ASP on designing that pulley sells the entire kit but it's obviously a little more expensive than the pulley only on the newer motors. His email is [email protected]

I don't hold much expectation for a group buy as the price is so inexpensive as it is. It's the cost of the factory pulley that makes up half the price. If you send him your factory pulley, it's only $350 U.S. ASP also has kits for the E55/SLK55 (the V8 Kompressor) and the C32/SLK32 (the V6 Kompressor).

Haven't added any photos to this forum yet so hopefully you'll see my initial dyno below with the ASP pulley.
 

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Thanks for clearing that up - I thought it was a little more complicated on the older models.

I have read some of Linh's posts on other forums.

I wonder if he has any holidays to the UK planned? :D
 
Ask him. If you have enough installs in one area and pay for his airfaire, he may do it.... I know I sent him a lot of people for installs since I'm just too busy to do them. It's really not that hard as the FPR is right on top, easy to get at, spark plugs are very easy to change and the easiest of all is the MAS relocation, it's just a black plastic tube held in with hose clamps. Remove the old, insert the new, 5 minutes. The pulley is more difficult but Linh and I have done it countless times and we are not mechanics. I would say that when the ASP pulley came out in 2002, more then 3/4 of the people did it themselves.
 
A real nice write up here
 
obviously the kompressor engine is easier tuned but i have been quoted the same insurance for both 230k and 320. wouldnt the 6 cylinder engine be better with the n/a grunt?
 
Pontio said:
obviously the kompressor engine is easier tuned but i have been quoted the same insurance for both 230k and 320. wouldnt the 6 cylinder engine be better with the n/a grunt?


Sure, if they ever made a W202 C320.
 
sorry i got confused with the slk.
do the engines/superchargers still stay reliable when you tune them because im looking into the slk 320 over the 230k but by the looks of things the 230 is cheaper to make faster..
 

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