Hi, Anyone had the experience if supercharging their I-6 Mercedes ?
Anyone had any recommandation. I suppose superchargers are cheaper then Turbo and they are easier to install Correct me if I am wrong.
Thank you
Pete regards

Peter,
I believe Mosselman did do a supercharger kit for your car awhile back. No news of the kit's existence or whatever since their buyout. I believe Brabus only offers engine work in the performance hike ballpark your talking about. You can always fill out an inquiry there. Failing that, Jim Downing does much BMW supercharging and other custom work here in Atlanta. You could give him a call. I've seen his work, it is easily BMW OEM quality. I believe the address is: http://www.downingatlanta.com

Good luck and let us know how it turns out....Lee

P.S. You can get supercharger level gains via NOS for about $850-$1500. It is sort of on/off and is depleteable. You can run through many canisters of gas for the cost of a turbo or engine conversion. If your looking for stoplight power that may be an option worth considering.

The NOS system sounds intriguing. Apparently, John Frankenheimer(the director responsible for the films Grand Prix & Ronin) has a 450SEL 6.9 with a Nitrous system installed. I'd love to see that baby at a stoplight race. Then again, seeing that in Lee's 500E might be pretty interesting!.

------------------
Darko Vusir
1994 C220

Lee:
I e-mail Jim Downing, and they said they do not have products for Mercedes.
Do u know anything about eaton supercharger, or Vortech superchargers ?
From the homepage I can see that Jim downing uses eaton supercharger. I wonder if I can buy the supercharger from eaton.
If I get the supercharger, As you mention before I do need some king of E-prom right ?
thanks
Pete

Vortech is a centrifugal supercharger. (think belt-driven turbo) Boost has to spool up with engine rpm. Though cheap and easy to package, they are not the most effient or always best performing. Eaton/Roots superchargers are what is used on the SLK and C230 Kompressor. They are two close fitting rotors that compress the air coming in.

You could likely buy an supercharger from Nopi or someone who is an Eaton distributor. I'm not sure they sell directly to the public... In any case, building a supercharger kit isn't easy. You will need lots of re-engineering bits. That could be a long and very expensive engineering process. Search the Performance Paddock for a previous post regarding superchargers. Kleeman I believe still makes supercharger kits for euro-spec MB's. Contact them, they have already done the engineering homework. If they have anything for 500E's let me know...

Nitrous has a bad rep because the stuff is so easy to get big power gains from. So people go gonzo on the stuff and blow up their cars. It is important to figure out just how much power the tranny, drivetrain, motor internals, etc can stand before selecting a NOS kit. Then not exceeding those limits. A 50-75HP kit should really wake-up 1/4 mile performance without killing the car too much.

IF, and I know Benzmac is lobbying for, NOS were to be put on the 500E the name 500 would mean 500HP 500E... On a 100-150HP NOS boost a 500E should be well into the 12's in the 1/4. For on-demand performance at a reasonable cost, it is hard to beat "the bottle". Then there is the ability to return the vehicle to stock status without 20+ hours of labor is an additional plus. The downside is that it is on/off nature and that it is depleteable. Of course the ease in which you can get such huge power makes it tempting to kill a car with too much "funny fumes". I'm not sure exactly how long one canister would last, but you should get enough out of a canister to last you though most events. (couple 1/4 mile runs, stop-light encounters, maybe even a hotlap or two) It is certainly worth considering...

Give the Kleeman folks a try and if you don't have any luck there I might know a few more options. Of course, if you go NOS please let me know...I'd love to hear how it works on a DOHC benz.

Hope this helps...Lee
92' 500E
121K miles
kills C5's without NOS

Lee:
I have already made contact with Kleeman about 2 weeks ago, too bad they do not offer superchargers for the us or any pervious mercedes I-6,V8,or V12 engines. In fact they are will offer supercharger for the new V6 and it is still under development.
Nos ( funny gas ). I were thinking about installing either the dry or wet one ( couldn't remember what it is.) The one that only shoots the gas into the throttle body instead of the engine ( not drilling require). The cost was around 600 dollars. what I wanted was something reliable and capable to increase engine power all the way around, seems force induction is the only consideration.( Turners are too expensive )
I wanted to get the mosslemen turbo kit ( 217-310hp), but the cost for the kit itself is 7000 dollar, along with hours of labor installions ( another 1000 ). Total comes in around 8000.
As you mention before lots of after affect may come along the way, if I didn't do anything right.I have heard a story from some guy who installed a turbo kit on his new Prelude. Everything went good at first, but major engine work has to be done after two months of the installaion. If I did everything right do u think such engine work needs to be done the Mercedes engines also ? Mercedes engines are better build correct me if I am wrong ?
The fact is that any mercedes after market products seems to be so hard to find and so expensive ( besides suspension upgrade)!
I think it is very nices that you guys offer those suspension kits to member, so that we can people who are interested in MB motorsports, can have choice. It will be better if you guys offer other performances products as well. ( There is certainlly alot of MB guys out there. )
Thank you
Pete

If you want all the time increased power you will have to go forced-induction or tuner. Peter,
Reliability is great in MB as long as they are mostly stock. As complex as they are when you alter one thing, it can have far reaching side effects. That is partially why tuning these cars gets so expensive. Also the numbers of rabid performance minded MB owners makes it financially difficult for anyone to do big aftermarket tuning at prices in the rice-racer ballpark.

You can try contacting CEC, aka Lorinser, for superchargers. They are about the only "tuner" to do both engine packages and forced induction packages that I know of. Forced induction will hurt reliability, but the cost is far less than a tuner conversion. It may come down to whether you want to pay now or later.

NOS at least you can run/try, go through a couple bottles, then decide. Once you commit to a blower kit or engine package there is no practical way of going back. (though I doubt anyone would be unhappy with a Brabus engine!) If you don't like NOS, just pull the fogger and canister. Have you priced out the cost of canisters of NOS yet?

You could contact Eaton and ask them for a recommendation. MB is currently using a supercharger on some models, with rumors of other supercharged cars to come. If they get into it you may see some affordable AMG kits coming out but that is all speculation of the semi-distant future.

Hope this helps...Lee

Lee,

You mentioned that NOS can be easily installed and removed. Does this mean that if I don't like the performance of NOS after I install it, I can have it removed and my engine will look stock (i.e., my dealer won't know and it wouldn't void my warranty)? I have a '99 E320, how much juice do you think I can safely run? Thanks.

The installation and removal of a NOS kit is far simpler and usually requires no permanent mods to the motor. As such you could take it on and off if needs be. It would be a difference of a couple hours labor vs 25+hours labor for a blower.

Your transmission is a VERY stout unit. I'm not as sure about the rest of the drivetrain. A 75HP-100HP kit probably would be okay for occasional use. (I certainly wouldn't go any higher than 150HP) The only thing I'm not sure about is how the ultra sensitive electronics of your 99 would react to the NOS. (the O2 sensors may crap a brick over seeing all those oxides in the exhaust and throw a engine light/code)

You would almost certainly have to get stickier rear tires or you would be forever on the traction control or smoking the %(*& out of the rear tires... (unless you only used it at highway speeds)

Talk about a sleeper though... Hopefully we can get Benzmac's or MB DOC's input in the NOS side effects with the touchy 99 emission equipment...

Lee

GREAT THREAD!
I have been considering a NOS system for some time now, I have a 1986 300E, I was wondering if the trans and rear end could indeed handel 100 more horsepower off the line? What do you think? I am very seriuos here, in fact I have the bottle and some fitting all ready to go, but the thought of leaving peices of transmission sitting at a stoplight makes me a little shy! Kind of sick too!
please, any input,
Thanks,
Chris C.
BTW is there anyway to "beef up" the trans if not up to snuff?

Chris,
The tranny in the 300E may not be quite up to 100HP extra right off the line. Especially if it has logged many "fun" miles already. An pre-ASR 300E may also have some problems with severe rear wheelspin. I just don't see the OEM 195/65/15's holding that kind of power. 225/50/16 works great on non-500 W124's. Turn down the gas to about a 50-75HP boost and things should last longer than nailing 100HP from a dead stop. It would be more expensive, but a two stage system would be every bit as quick and easier on the car. Launch with a 50HP boost and then have it cut in another 50HP (100HP total now) around 3000-3500rpm.

Your mechanic can adjust the tranny to firm up the shifts a bit. (if you do your own work then we'll be happy to tell you too) However for real torque handling you will need to get into the internals of the tranny. (performance rebuild)

Hope this helps...Lee

Lee,

How about my '92 400SE?? Will it handle the extra boost from NOS??? If yes, which one do you recommand?? 50hp-100hp?? Thnx...

Happy Motoring....
Andy Kuo
'92 400SE
70,850 KM

Akry,
Your W140 is a bit stronger (and heavier) than the early 300E. You could probably get away with a 100HP NOS kit for occasional use. Any of these kits will accelerate drivetrain wear, but things should stay "reasonable" with a 75-100HP kit. Just make sure you have the tires to take it. The more often you plan to use it, the less "boost" you should run.

Hope this helps...Lee