C55 AMG Engine lower sump pan

[Petrol Pete]

Your car has certainly piqued my interest , C55's are not the most rare car out there but are still few and far between and you find a crashed one missing a big part of its exhaust system . Was this a track car ? (poor choice if it was ) I will understand if you don't want to say too much about it's history.

Just curious.

 

[KingLang]

Hi Pete

So the story goes like this... I had a C32 AMG i purchased as a project after it had been sat for 6 years, got it back and realised it had received a side impact at some point in its life (didn't show up on an hpi check?)

Whilst looking for a replacement passenger seat for the c32 i stumbled across the c55 from a Mercedes specialist, the story behind it was the driver was driving home after a long distance drive and was shattered, so pulled into a services to have a sleep, they thought they had found a space to pull into but it was a double height curb stone!!!! so low speed impact but its damaged the front subframe bumper etc...

My theory is that the Mercedes specialist has robbed the exhaust system off the car for another car or something, I purchased the car from the specialist knowing the exhaust system was missing and the damage, but didn't realise how rare the c55's are and also how much of a struggle find replacement cats are (unless i spend £3500 at Mercedes!!)

The car itself is in good condition for the age an mileage, its only had 2 previous keepers and has full MB dealer history up to 170k, i have no reason to suspect this was a track car, more likely a company CEO who did a fair amount of commuting!

Adam

 

[Petrol Pete]

I too doubt it was a track car mainly based on what you have just told us and C55's don't make very good track cars for the money you can get something lighter with a manual box . A fair few out there have fitted 6 speed manual transmissions to them , but personally I can't see the point.

As for the cat's and downpipes you could search online for a sports exhaust manufacturer (you probably have already) but even they are going to have to buy catalysers from somewhere. bit of a headache for you because buying used to 'cut and weld' in will be a minefield as everyone knows how much used catalysers are worth these days.

 

[KingLang]

Just a small update on this as i know Petrol Pete was hooked...

Lifted the engine up and replaced the Front subframe and both upper and lower sump pans, whilst the sumps were off i pulled the oil pump assembly out and replaced the seals that were highlighted in the above videos, definitely worth doing as they werent far off being hard!

Next i had the trouble of finding the catalytic converters for the car, ended up having to get them from mb as no external companies make aftermarket ones, before i went ahead and parted with my money, i briefly fired up the engine to make sure it hadnt suffered oil starvation or sustained damage after the accident, to my excitement she fired straight up (extremely loud) with no knocking, so cats were ordered.

Now im at the stage were the cats are fitted and she runs perfectly! I just need a few air con pipes and a condenser, then she’ll be ready for the open road *crosses fingers*

Fully stripped



Old damaged subframe



New parts waiting to be fitted