This should answer many questions for most of you. It surely opened-up my eyes quite a bit. and also made me realize why additional performance on this car is so elusive and over-priced. After discussing this with my MB race mechanic, we believe we have come up with some solutions for more HP. The first drawback is that the 3 valve configuration was specifically designed to lower exhaust emission "Three valve engines develop less torque and less HP than modern 4 valve engines because the limited flow". And this emissions standard has also been achieved by retarding the timing by 5-10 degrees via the ECU. That's why I get a AFM ratio of 14.4:1 when I dyno my car.

I'll let all of you read through this before I get back to the thread with a follow-up and some answers. http://www.whnet.com/4x4/new_V6.html

Also I have this nice bit of information regarding the ESP when you turn off the switch. "It disables the engine-torque-reduction capability and thus reduces the computers' intervention capabilities to about 20%". So, as I suspected, you cannot turn off the ESP completely without disabling the system via the computer. But, I never realized that it cuts the engine to achieve its results, before I got into this info from my mechanic.

http://www.whnet.com/4x4/esp.html