The family line of the 3.2 V6 that is under the hood of both XFires.

Knowing this information may be helpful if you can find any HP gains to be had by swapping engine parts... (such as heads)...
back in the days of muscle cars we would take the heads off a 351 ford block and bolt them on to a 302 engine block. I'm not speaking of Cleveland's or Boss engines, but they also had engine family orders such as - a 390 block was the same block the 428 Cobra Jet engine was built upon, so you could maybe use the heads from the Cobra to hop up your 390.

You all get the idea, do some reading and comparing, you never know what combination of engine parts you may find in your local yard. hooah

3MBXV03.2LBI Mercedes-Benz: SLK32 AMG Kompressor; C32 AMG Kompressor
3MBXV03.2LBX Mercedes-Benz: SLK320
3MBXV03.2LBX Mercedes-Benz: CLK320 (Cabriolet)
3MBXV03.2LXX Mercedes-Benz: C240 (Wagon), C240 4Matic (Wagon), C320 (Wagon)

 

Also you forgot the 430 4.3 V8 engine from Mercedes comes from the same family line of engines as the 3.2 sharing alot of the technology and some parts if i remember correctly. These two were MB's two new engines at the time in 1997 appearing in '98 model year. They had identical architecture (except for extra pistons and displacement on the 4.3) and also shared the same valve configuration.

 

I agree and swapping parts numbers and specs between the two, I think is the best approach since alot of the "trial and error" phases have already been done by past M.B. owners of the above models. Minor detail but if someone is also hunting around the junk yard, know that the 320 engine was also used in some of the pre-05' C-class sedan's and some C-coupe models also.

 

...the next step will be identifying specific parts that are beneficial to swap between engines. For instance, which has a better intake manifold? Does one have larger diameter MAF than another? Are the ECU calibrations the same? How about the accessory drive, is one lighter than another? Does one have slightly less restrictive exhaust/intake ports than another? Is cam timing/ duration different between them? Does the forced induction motor have a beefier crank? Does one engine have less restrictive exhaust manifolds than another, and is the geometry similar enough to perform a swap? All of these questions beg to be answered.

 

And in those answers you will find the Horse Power that gives you the edge over any other XFire you come across. We use to call those cars "Sleepers"... hooah.

*just a small note: Back in the days of big blocks and huge hp we never worried about forced induction (by way of Turbos) but we were all over superchargers. Still the majority of us kids could only afford "Ram Air", the faster you drove the more air was rammed down you carb, we would force feed our engines fresh air by way of open-hood scoops, I think the Crossfire would look very fast with a well designed scoop, or it could look out of date... But for you people looking for a cheap way, (or maybe not so cheap), this is an idea.

 

Maybe...but from my research and pertaining to my vehicle, the factory intake system itself is fairly well designed. The most restrictive part on mine is the y-splitter where the two air boxes meet and thus makes up the most hp. increase noted on the dyno runs on the C32's when changed out with the SL55 unit by itself. I just decided to change out the complete system since I didn't feel like cutting and re-gluing the clips to make the SL55 splitter work on the stock boxes.

 

Quote: Juddz: the next step will be identifying specific parts that are beneficial to swap between engines.

Does one have larger diameter MAF than another?

I remember a while back on BenzWorld forums an SLK member did some changing with dyno runs with a larger OEM MAF. Should still be in there databases.


Are the ECU calibrations the same?

I know the factory ECU's (even with AMG models) are pretty conservative so I think cost and performance wise, aftermarket might always be a better bet.

How about the accessory drive, is one lighter than another?

Pretty sure the answer is no, since most pulleys in the like M.B. lines are similar. There is at least one aftermarket company that re-works the OEM units (crank) and are reasonably priced, so this might be an idea route for more HP and having less of the change of the dealership noticing the aftermarket unit and automatically using that as an excuse for a engine-related problem.

 

Doc your on the money with swapping parts as a complete unit. I do not believe in pieceing a good-looking automobile together with mismatched parts. If it doesn’t fit like it came on the car, then don't force the idea. Comes time to turn the car at trade-in, you can forget the trade-in value. Also if you can swap parts as complete units you'll find that no damage was done, and changing back to stock with the old parts is no problem at all, people need to keep that in mind.

 

BullFrog now that would be the ideal part swap, placing a small block V8 into the Crossfire, forget all that trash about flashing the ecu, air filters, headers, and etc..... I mean a V8 under the hood of a Chrysler Crossfire..... HOOAH!! Yes I know I saw the 2003 Startech Crossfire V8, but brother this would be a backyard engine swap, heck anyone can buy horsepower (if you got all that money), remember we're talking "sleepers" here, and part swapping.
Talk about the sound.... and smoking rear tires at a red light when you find yourself heads up with a 5.0 Mustang...... If the small block happen to be an engine from the same family as the V6 in our Crossfires, hooah, all you would need to do is a few measurements and then set it right into the same hole, and do a few exhaust mods, etc. I know now your thinking "but you'll need to beef up the suspension, brakes and aerodynamics", I say screw all that trash. Just take it out on the cruise strip, refuse to rise your hood and kick azz. Yes that would be a swap that people on the street would talk about for many years. After all your only doing this for straight line speed, HP, and that wonderful deep sound that can only be had with a V8, and oh yeah “people knowing you got one of a kind, a V8 in a Crossfire, and you did it yourself.” Now thats what I'm talking about.

 

firebased, sounds like fun, I was thinking something similar but I plan on waiting till about 2010 when mine is getting beat up. All aluminum v8s should be cheap by then.... lol

 

If you could find an intake manifold with taller runners the crossfire would get some needed torque. That would maximize all the other mods and make the crossfire a contender off the line. Salvaged it may not be too expensive for the power to $ gain. Good luck. By the way does hollowing the cats cause a loss of low end torque on this car?

 

anybody know exactly the difference between 3.2 in slk and xfire?

i'm pretty sure those are identical engines, wouldn't make sense to make a different head/port design just to lower the hp rating.

could i be correct in saying that the only difference is the ecu?

 

Evonation - I know this is not the information you were asking about, but it is more information concerning the engine family...

This engine weighs just 330 pounds. Its low weight was achieved through extensive use of lightweight materials: an aluminum block, cylinder heads and pistons, silicon aluminum cylinder liners, magnesium valve covers, and an aluminum oil pan. This unusual combination of plentiful power and low emissions is attributable to a number of unusual engineering elements: single overhead camshafts, rather than dual, reducing reciprocating mass and weight; three valves per cylinder (two intake, one exhaust), rather than four, enhancing catalytic converter light-off; two spark plugs per cylinder, capable of slightly staggered firing, to optimize combustion; one ignition coil per plug, to optimize the spark. Its 90-degree V6 layout rather than the more common 60-degree design allows Mercedes to create V8s using the same basic tooling, which should lower the overall cost of producing a line of engines. The result is a family of advanced new engines that will be used throughout the Mercedes model line and will take the company well into the next century.

Mercedes 430 4.3 V8 (same engine family as the V6) may be the key to up grading a Crossfire... the V8, by the way the information reads, would hook right up to the transmission in the Crossfire as is.

 

Check in to the Renntech mods for the SLK 3.2L engine. Start with some intake and exhaust modifications.

 

so i guess it's a race then. can't wait to see pics posted here of their mods.

 

the magnesium manifold on the xf is active ... meaning 12 runners ... 6 extremely long for low end torque and 6 extremely short for high end hp ... a set of solenoid actuated flaps switches between them at the point the torque curves cross from both respective manifold lengths.

there is a great post about it somewhere on the forum ... it turns out it is the longest set of runners in the industry according to that article.

These photos i found on some random for sale forum should give an idea ... i wish i could give credit to the photographer but i have no idea who it was. Either way i am thankful for them ...

 

It's a race if you're running against someone who posted this almost 2 years ago... Check the post date...

 

Aww nuts ... i haven't seen FirebaseD post in a long time. I was hoping he was better and started taking interest in this sort of thing again ... hope he is doing ok.

 

DITTO !