Originally Posted by LantanaTX

Making some progress. I have finally worked out the cooling system. Brabus/Startech seems to use a lot of C43/C430 parts. The early C43/C430 used a belt driven fan /fan clutch with two small auxillary fans in front of the radiator. I belive this is what Startech did as well whe they make their V8 Crossfire. If you look at the Startech pictures you can see the shroud is offset to the left side of the engine which puts the shroud in line with the water pump.

Running the fan off the engine can use up to 20HP so I was looking for a differenct solution, but also had to keep in mind the Texas heat here. I removed the the stock electric fan and took a bunch of measurments of the radiator. I worked with two different experts who both said the stock radiator would do the job (hope they are right). I was thinking I could use a single 16" fan. Zirgo and F.F. Dynamics make the most powerful fans I could find. The problem with the Crossfire radiator is that the radiator core where you would mount the fan is 16" x 24" and with the extra length of the V8 you can't use a fan that is much over 3" thick.

I was advided against a single 16" fan as this would not give enough coverage to the core. I was told that two 12 " fans would do the job and have ordered two 12" F.F. Dynamics fans.

Today I am going to try to get to the Mercedes dealer for some various small parts and to the mufler shop to weld the O2 sensor bungs into the exhaust manifolds.

After that there really isn't anything else to do except do the acutaul swap. The only thing holding me back is the shop that is doing the programing gave me a best case and worst case price estimate. I can cover best case, but need to save a little more money to cover the worst case estimate.