Tuned - My A**e.... But what about the window tints

[E55BOF]

(With thanks to Ricky Tomlinson in The Royle Family.

Some may recall my thread about my E55K estate - allegedly remapped to 525 bhp, and with the limiters removed. I wanted the gearbox oil changed, and didn't fancy doing it myself, so nipped up to MSL to combine that with a dyno run to see what it was ACTUALLY putting out. And the answer is....

415 bhp, 460 lb. ft. (at the rear wheels); work it out for 14% transmission losses, and that gives 482 bhp and 534 lb. ft.

Near enough to stock (or standard if DM reads this...) as makes no difference, and if it was really 'remapped', that's what you get for ten quid or so! I'm quite content, though; it's still blindingly quick.

What the knobby previous owner DID add was cheap and nasty stick-on carbon fibre effect Fablon, now removed, on the black ash parts of the centre console, a couple of ten quid eBay LED strips (not working) on the bottom of the front bumper grille, and stick-on window tint film. I guess he ran out of money, because the car hadn't been taxed since January this year (in Birmingham, thick with ANPR cameras), and he sold it on because he found the running costs too high. That I DO believe....

It's in the body shop having a few minor blemishes/scrapes sorted out, and I've asked them to leave the E55 and AMG badges off. I like Q-cars - though even de-badged it's a bit shouty for a Q-car, but one does what one can.

Is window tint film easy to remove? I presume it just pulls off; am I right?

E55KBOF

 

[AMGeed]

Your figures are practically the same as mine for a stock (standard)car run on Acids Dyno. I had 479bhp and 571 ft.lb and the limiter had been removed.

Re tints, there are some decent you tube videos showing the best way to remove tints.Using a hairdryer and razor blade seemed the best way from what I could see.

 

[Mrhanky]

Its amazing what you find after a few months ownership of cars. The previous owner of mine had tried to repair the airmatic pump with glue.

Ive just removed my badges as again the previous owner had decided to place them too low. Having removed them I now know why he did that, to hide some scratches.

So now I need to get that blown over as well as the bumpers. The thing is like yourself do I replace the badges or not?

 

[AMGeed]

The previous owner of mine answered a call on his mobile as he was backing the car into his driveway. He caught the osr wheel arch and left a small scratch that wasn't there when I viewed the car and agreed to buy. That got me another £300 discount but I still haven't got that little bump sorted.
It's on my list of things to do.

 

[E55BOF]

That's interesting, AMGeed. So removing the secondary cats and the resonator and fitting the x-pipe gave no improvement in peak power, and a 6% increase in torque, compared to my box-stock one? What did it do to the torque and power curves, though?

 

[AMGeed]

That's interesting, AMGeed. So removing the secondary cats and the resonator and fitting the x-pipe gave no improvement in peak power, and a 6% increase in torque, compared to my box-stock one? What did it do to the torque and power curves, though?

It could be mine wasn't making stock power before the exhaust work?
Also, I don't know what power is released by doing that work. Maybe the torque is better after the exhaust work?
As you know, they are a pretty rapid car and you'll never find out just how fast they are on UK roads. But I am looking to have a remap and pulley done soon.

Below is the dyno result on the day showing my figures.I have no idea if that is a good graph or not
I was told to allow an 18% transmission loss, so if you do that, your figures are even better. My car showed Max power 405.58 and Max Torque 483.84 which translated to 478.58 and 570.93

 

[davidsw]

I don't think removing the window tints will give a noticeable power increase.

 

[Rustrust]

window tints help keep the car cool, i would leave them on unless they are on the front windows as that would be illegal and dangerous

 

[simon1966]

That's interesting, AMGeed. So removing the secondary cats and the resonator and fitting the x-pipe gave no improvement in peak power, and a 6% increase in torque, compared to my box-stock one? What did it do to the torque and power curves, though?

I don't think removing the secondary cats and resonator and replacing with x-pipe gives any performance gains. It increases sound. I had this done on my car and pretty quickly reverted it back to stock. I didn't notice any difference gains wise, if anything I thought it lowered the performance especially low down as it seemed to lose some responsiveness. I understand this can be due to losing back pressure

 

[AMGeed]

I don't think removing the secondary cats and resonator and replacing with x-pipe gives any performance gains. It increases sound. I had this done on my car and pretty quickly reverted it back to stock. I didn't notice any difference gains wise, if anything I thought it lowered the performance especially low down as it seemed to lose some responsiveness. I understand this can be due to losing back pressure

I think you are right Simon. I didn't notice anything different performance wise..........just a nice sound when accelerating

Had I done a dyno run before the exhaust work, the proof would be apparent in the figures.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Whenever I've looked into 'opening up' the exhaust, there seems to be no real power gain and, if anything, if it's not done right there is a chance of a an actual loss in bhp.

 

[Mrhanky]

Everycar Ive messed about with exhaust wise has just been 2nd cat removal and the odd muffler delete. Ive never seen any gains and more than once swapped back to stock as the noise was a bit too much.

I guess Im either getting old or boring, or possibly both.

 

[thebiglad]

Re tints, there are some decent you tube videos showing the best way to remove tints.Using a hairdryer and razor blade seemed the best way from what I could see.

I just removed some of these off the front windows and having tried various methods here's what I found worked best. Before getting fully into the 'how to' you need to know that glue will be left on the glass when you remove the films. OK let's go :

1. Drop the window about 1 inch. Using a soft blade (plastic/nylon) start to lift the film from the glass. DO NOT use a hair dryer or any kind of heat. Work your way along the top of the window until you have roughly 1" of film off the glass. Now get hold of this edge and pull it down, working left and right to maintain a horizontal line of loose film.

2. Once you have removed roughly three quarters of the window height (leaving only the lowest part still attaching) start to clean off the glue left on the window. I tried lots of stuff but found the best was nail polish remover and a Scotchbrite pad. Apply some nail polish remover onto the abrasive side of the pad and attack the glue, reapplying the fluid regularly. Work horizontally. Once you've cleared an area wipe over with kitchen towel.

3. Work away until you get towards the bottom of the glass. Now close the window & remove the rest of the film and dispose. Clean the glass as above and you're done.

Took me about an hour and a bit to do the first one, using heat and various solvents; did the second one with the method listed here.

I know this is an old thread, but I did my windows two days ago so it's still fresh in my mind and it might help others. I had to do this to comply with the French Contrôle Technique (MOT)