Looking to do some engine mods.

Thanks!

 

Engine mods? Sorry, I don't have any contacts in Seattle.

But, that really evoked a response from me. I'm extremely curious about which "engine mods" you are considering, because between '90 and '97, after returning from the custom machining facility in Stuttgart, and a formula tour, I started an engine race shop building and testing my own 600's and 2.6's for the racing industry. Often, when I hear good folks talk about engine mods at a club or restaurant, an anxious nausea comes over me. Its the same nausea I feel when a teenager installs an air-filter kit on a 1.5L econo-car, when I flip through the consumer car magazines, or have to endure a conversation about exhaust tips, and performance chips.

If you are talking about air-filters, exhaust tips, super chips, and such toys, I guess any local shop can assist. Amateur tampering, and hype toy mods quite often reduce the actual performance of the engine during dyno testing. Highly tested add-ons can add marginal performance. You can change the stoichiometric ratio, but that's not really "modifying the physical formula", its just fattening the fuel ratio. The factory engines are built to a formula based on the result of many millions of dollars of testing and tuning in one of the worlds largest, most expensive, and most modern facilities, and you will discover that the slightest changes will either harm the original formula or do nothing.

Beyond that, regarding real changes to the physics of the engine, which almost always exceeds the tuning capacity of the stock FI, such as changing the Bore size, race balancing internals, casting intakes, adapting the block for windage and clearance, lightening and machining parts, fabricating exhaust, and dyno testing, well that takes quite a facility. One which you might expect to see a formula one team putting finishing touches on a car, several million dollars worth of machining and tuning equipment, and an equally impressive engineering staff.

Modifying a Mercedes engine formula is different than modifying a Ford 302, for example. When changing the formula on a stock 302, it is easy to identify several immediate improvements which can be taken advantage of to get lofty performance improvements. On later Mercedes engines, these improvements have already been taken, leaving you with slim margins of opportunity.

Many people find it more rewarding to change the engine for a larger size, for example replacing a six with an eight or twelve. By doing this you retain the original proven reliable formula of the engine while enjoying a predictable upgrade in power. A good shop should make the installation look original.

Regarding the use of the word "mods", I guess the reaction you will get depends on whether you are discussing it at l’hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo or the local pub.

Be careful, have fun,

Charles

 

I agree with a lot of your points, except one. M-B and other manufacturers strive to build well-behaved and reliable cars for the masses, not high-performance ones where no performance enhancements are possible. There's always some performance that can be squeezed from a stock production car and the fleet of M-B cars provide many different opportunities to achieve such a goal. Some will obviously produce more sizable gains than others. Sure, all will reduce reliability to varying degrees and some may not produce the desired effect. So what?

You're dissing hobbyists, not professional racers or engines designers and builders. We're not Formula 1 racers with multi-million dollar budgets trying to get thousands of horsepower out of our cars. Geez, lighten up a little.

 

Hi Lugnut,

You're right. The owner should be able to enjoy the car, and have fun tinkering.

I'm just needy to hear someone say they are boring the block, raising the compression, and race balancing the crank to .125gram.

C'mon! somebody do some real mods....There's gotta be away to stuff a lucky7 into a clk!

 

Some of the tuners like RennTech will do all of that. Build you a stroker and force some air into it, but it's so expensive. I don't hear of many that have taken the full-blown plunge. There are enough customers to keep them in business, apparently, but they don't seem to hang out here.

I was thinking about that story of the teenager you told who installs an air-filter kit on a 1.5L econo-car. Kids like that who go on about the increased perfromance of their now-modified car shouldn't make you nauseous. They should make you giggle.

 

Lugnut,

Actually, thanks for the reality check. I forgot what it was like being young and doing my first mods. I didn't exactly start with the block either. Besides supercars are always heartbreakers anyway. I can't say that any lasting friendships ever resulted from my gtp & f1 years. Like the cars, the owners live short high-energy lives. Most people only see the high points. Hobbyists are probably the best people to know.

So when you coming over for a beer, neighbor?

Charles