Power gain from AMG cams?

[KLP 92]

I've purchased a set of AMG cams, lifters and springs for my 560 SEC. I've had my heads polished and am wandering what sort of perfmonace gain i'm going to expect?

The car is 300BHP standard, but the cat will be removed and a free flowing exhaust will be fitted.

 

[stats007]

The Brabus B11 conversion for the M113 is exactly the same thing, they quote 30bhp.

 

[Vlad]

You beat me to it......30bhp.....I'm having some work done on an old AMG engine at the moment by some guys who used to work for Strattons back in the 80's when they were the AMG main agents and they mentioned that the Cam upgrade added 30bhp.

 

[KLP 92]

Thanks for the reply.

Will i get extra power as the head is now polished?

What kind of horsepower gains are to be expected from removing the cat?

Thanks

 

[stats007]

30 bhp is including high flow cats for the Brabus kit. I wouldn't expect any more than 10bhp from removing them altogether. Polished heads should give you a small gain with improved gas flow.

 

[Vlad]

As mentioned the polishing of the heads will generate a small increase in BHP....the problem with the M117 engine is that it can only generate so much power as its not a particularly free breathing engine (ie 2 valves per cylinder), so you will always be limited by how much air you can get into it.

This is one of the reasons why AMG had to resort to developing their own quad cam cylinder/ 4 valve per cylinder heads for the M117 engines, which when turbo charged produced @ 700bhp....as used by Sauber in their Le Mans cars in the late 80's.....now that would be nice!

 

[stats007]

Were they the 'Hammer' V8s?

 

[Vlad]

Yes they are the engines as used in the W124 AMG Hammers...these came in 5.0, 5.6 and 6.0 versions.... producing 340BHP, 360BHP and 380BHP respectively. These engines were also used in the W126 saloons and SEC's

These power outputs are conservative as each and every engine that used the quad cam engine produced a different BHP, as all of the engines used seasoned blocks, ie 2nd hand blocks that had been well and truely run in and its reckoned that the 5.0 produced closer to 360 bhp, the 5.6 380bhp and the 6.0 nigh on 400bhp.

Only 195 engines in total were manufactured of which a large % were used/destroyed by Sauber.

Only 29 W124's were ever converted and most of these were sold in the US, the last 6.0 versions selling for $160,000 in 1989.....serious serious money!

Incidentally when a 5.6 Hammer was road tested back in the 80's it topped out at 183mph and had faster in gear acceleration than a Ferrari Testarossa, Countach, Porsche Turbo etc....not bad for an automatic W124!!