Improving a C63 s204

[bcksteve]

I know it's all been asked before but supposed to be working so don't have time to sift through it all just now.
I've kinda found my interest waning a bit and started looking at other motors. Might try a bit of tuning before moving on as i love that engine!! Any ideas on where would be best to 'one stop shop online'? Really struggling to find anything for the old estate, starting to think it's a bit of a Unicorn.
Looking at a mild tune initially, BMC's, 2ndry bypass yadda yadda, there's a eurocharged agent near me so will pay a visit once it's all bolted back up, then who knows

Ta much.

 

[Felstmiester]

I was in the same position a few months ago with my 63. Was thinking about selling but then thought what can really replace it. I'd already had it mapped and secondaries deleted around 2 years ago so I decided to take it to MSL and have a eurocharged map and primaries removed as well. It went on the dyno afterwards and produced really good bhp. It's put a smile on my face for now but I know pretty soon I'll be going the supercharged route.

 

[C36fan]

I know it's all been asked before but supposed to be working so don't have time to sift through it all just now.
I've kinda found my interest waning a bit and started looking at other motors. Might try a bit of tuning before moving on as i love that engine!! Any ideas on where would be best to 'one stop shop online'? Really struggling to find anything for the old estate, starting to think it's a bit of a Unicorn.
Looking at a mild tune initially, BMC's, 2ndry bypass yadda yadda, there's a eurocharged agent near me so will pay a visit once it's all bolted back up, then who knows

Ta much.

Leave it alone and it will be the best car you will ever own!

 

[abar121]

LSD and a map make a massive difference. Get them both done at the same time for a new lease of life for the big 6.2.

There's nothing out there to replace the M156

 

[Lee C63]

Just leave it stock...you will get no satisfaction from modding it.......Honest

 

[Sustanon250]

Just leave it stock...you will get no satisfaction from modding it.......Honest

Every car has a modding sweet spot . With the GT-R it's stage 4.25 (turbo back exhaust, intake, injectors and map . Cheap , amazing sound and power - mine made 665bhp with torque capped at 630).

A very well respected U.K. tuner told me the sweet spot for the C63 is headers , LSD and remap . Nothing more required ....

 

[Lee C63]

Every car has a modding sweet spot . With the GT-R it's stage 4.25 (turbo back exhaust, intake, injectors and map . Cheap , amazing sound and power - mine made 665bhp with torque capped at 630).

A very well respected U.K. tuner told me the sweet spot for the C63 is headers , LSD and remap . Nothing more required ....

Take a look at my signature LOL....there is plenty more required on a C63 to hit the sweet spot

 

[Sustanon250]

Take a look at my signature LOL....there is plenty more required on a C63 to hit the sweet spot

Well , not according to one of the UK's leading tuners whose job it is to sell parts

I bought my C63 beucase it is NA , so would never consider going further than headers !

Not knocking your build , if you have the funds to build such a beast , why not !

But I still maintain , for value , sound, reliability and gains , headers, LSD and remap is the sweet spot

 

[jotter22]

I don't think you're going to win this one!

Tony.

 

[Mrhanky]

Lol

 

[Alex]

Every car has a modding sweet spot . With the GT-R it's stage 4.25 (turbo back exhaust, intake, injectors and map . Cheap , amazing sound and power - mine made 665bhp with torque capped at 630).

A very well respected U.K. tuner told me the sweet spot for the C63 is headers , LSD and remap . Nothing more required ....

This can hardly be even called modding - just scratching the surface

Sweet spot is a matter of perspective.

 

[bcksteve]

Here's one for yous?! Been looking around at 2ndry Cat deletes, namely Milltek, can only seem to find option for Saloon or Coupe, do either fit my Dog wagon?

 

[ash59fifty-uk]

sweet spot for the C63 is headers , LSD and remap . Nothing more required ....

Sweet spot on modifying cars has to be maybe not something extreme, but beyond first imagined

Considering those three items are the first thing every owner gets I'd say it's far from the spot

 

[ecain63]

Here's one for yous?! Been looking around at 2ndry Cat deletes, namely Milltek, can only seem to find option for Saloon or Coupe, do either fit my Dog wagon?

Saloon will fit.

Actually, can't see why coupe wouldn't fit. Saloon will be fine for sure.

 

[ftb]

Sweet spot on modifying cars has to be maybe not something extreme, but beyond first imagined

Considering those three items are the first thing every owner gets I'd say it's far from the spot

I think I've read somewhere that it's called Internet access and credit card modding. Majority of perfomance car owners couldn't tell injector from a spark plug yet they all read forums and jump on the same deal as others without any knowledge of what these mods are actually supposed to do. Just take my money and remap my car using the software you've made on in your bedroom.

A few take it further with superchargers or bigger turbos but those are few and between. I come across a lot of it at the old MGB meets. People who have no idea on carburettors give advice on car's performance. Having never had their hands dirty.

This money is best spent on learning to drive a powerful car not "improving" an exhaust note or air intake.

 

[ftb]

Perhaps I came across a little harsh in my post above. Please don't be offended, I was only trying to make a point that little knowledge goes a long way.

 

[Lee C63]

Perhaps I came across a little harsh in my post above. Please don't be offended, I was only trying to make a point that little knowledge goes a long way.

Agree to a sense, I dare say the majority of owners Do follow the trend. However, all modern cars these days can only really be tuned by "remapping"etc.

I did a lot of research on all my mods and carried out some of them myself, then wrote out quite in depth reviews on here to advise or just put the info out there for other owners to consider.

And not one of my mods were "credit card mods"

 

[Captain Smerc]

Well , mines certainly been improved with a Quaife diff , Eurocharged map and dyno session . And my winter rubber is worth every penny . Its hard to keep the grin off my face !

 

[StephenSJason]

The internet has a lot to do with the way people modify their cars, or even the cars that they buy. The latest craze seems to be to get into a supercar/supercar performance territory as young as possible, brag about the numbers (money or bhp), post YouTube videos purporting to be footballer-scale wealthy and let the rest of the world speculate about what you do for a job and wish to be you. In reality they all seem to live at home and have a great deal of finance, but then again if your aspiration is to never own your own home, spending 80% of your monthly income on a car repayment is a personal choice and perfectly acceptable; do with your own life/money what you will. This lifestyle sells to the viewers and before you know it, another YouTube channel pops up doing exactly the same thing again by someone else, because the Internet said so.

Anyway, I'd certainly say that adding a remap/headers to an M156 C63 isn't a daft idea whoever you are. If you know even a little about the engine then you'll come to realise that the same one with minor differences was used universally across many AMG's of the time and performance varied based on a couple of components restricting the true performance potential, which the engine is naturally built to produce, and are easliy released. The final output doesn't seem to be any different when comparing Performance Pack (light camshaft, piston and roads) and non-Performance Pack cars.

A remap for example releases the ECU restriction on horsepower, which is limited by the ECU only allowing the throttle to open a certain portion. This was allowed to open further on Performance Pack models in order to increase the power, and further again for the 507 models. A remap bypasses all three of these stages and allows as much as is safe with no hardware modifications.

Now the headers. I'm not sure if they were made purposely restrictive or to comply with emissions and noise regulations, and there's probably some manufacturing cost saving to blame there too meaning they came out less than perfect for the engine. Aftermarket headers remove this problem and on their own without a remap will increase performance, but with a remap allow the engine to be the best it can be, naturally aspirated with no internal mods (cams or more fueling for example).

The upside/downside with headers is that they release a hell of a lot of engine sound. Coupled to the stock AMG exhaust system you are coming close to NASCAR levels of noise when you're "on it", otherwise it's still fairly civil in town. This is why a majority of people also buy a valvetronic rear silencers which are more robustly sound insulated than the stock AMG rear silencers. With valves closed and headers fitted, the exhaust is around as loud as a stock C63, maybe quieter but, with valves open it's louder still than a car with headers on the stock exhaust.

 

[R1NGA]

The internet has a lot to do with the way people modify their cars, or even the cars that they buy. The latest craze seems to be to get into a supercar/supercar performance territory as young as possible, brag about the numbers (money or bhp), post YouTube videos purporting to be footballer-scale wealthy and let the rest of the world speculate about what you do for a job and wish to be you. In reality they all seem to live at home and have a great deal of finance, but then again if your aspiration is to never own your own home, spending 80% of your monthly income on a car repayment is a personal choice and perfectly acceptable; do with your own life/money what you will. This lifestyle sells to the viewers and before you know it, another YouTube channel pops up doing exactly the same thing again by someone else, because the Internet said so.

Anyway, I'd certainly say that adding a remap/headers to an M156 C63 isn't a daft idea whoever you are. If you know even a little about the engine then you'll come to realise that the same one with minor differences was used universally across many AMG's of the time and performance varied based on a couple of components restricting the true performance potential, which the engine is naturally built to produce, and are easliy released. The final output doesn't seem to be any different when comparing Performance Pack (light camshaft, piston and roads) and non-Performance Pack cars.

A remap for example releases the ECU restriction on horsepower, which is limited by the ECU only allowing the throttle to open a certain portion. This was allowed to open further on Performance Pack models in order to increase the power, and further again for the 507 models. A remap bypasses all three of these stages and allows as much as is safe with no hardware modifications.

Now the headers. I'm not sure if they were made purposely restrictive or to comply with emissions and noise regulations, and there's probably some manufacturing cost saving to blame there too meaning they came out less than perfect for the engine. Aftermarket headers remove this problem and on their own without a remap will increase performance, but with a remap allow the engine to be the best it can be, naturally aspirated with no internal mods (cams or more fueling for example).

The upside/downside with headers is that they release a hell of a lot of engine sound. Coupled to the stock AMG exhaust system you are coming close to NASCAR levels of noise when you're "on it", otherwise it's still fairly civil in town. This is why a majority of people also buy a valvetronic rear silencers which are more robustly sound insulated than the stock AMG rear silencers. With valves closed and headers fitted, the exhaust is around as loud as a stock C63, maybe quieter but, with valves open it's louder still than a car with headers on the stock exhaust.

Nicely put and very accurate in my opinion. Every manufacturer likes to keep a distinct model hierarchy and of course that means power as well as specs are 'managed'. The first Mini One and Mini Cooper ran identicasl engines, but the One was restricted to about 90bhp, yet pay the (significant) extra for the Cooper and you got 125bhp - that's a massive increase. A £500 remap sorted that out too. Sure you may need to drive appropriate to the suspension and brake setups on your car, but it really was that easy.

Same with bikes from my past - early 90's Kawasaki ZX7 had throttle stops on the carb pistons to stop anything more than about 2/3rds opening, all to work with the Japanese 'gentlemens' agreement on max 100bhp or thereabouts, at the time.

So when people in relation to discussions about modifications tell me that "if it was that easy, the manufacturers would have done it already", they have no idea just how wrong they are....