Teck-9, good luck with what your working on. I'm sure either way you will be satisfied with your results whether you hit your target mark or not. Every little upgrade you do will be fun and you will appreciate your car10x more. Once again good luck and have fun!

 

I like your goal and hope you succeed. When I mentioned putting a V8 in my car, there were plenty who said can't be done, and buy an SRT. If I had listened to those people I wouldn't be having all the fun I am having now and we might not have 55K Crossfires terrorising the streets.

If I was attempting what you are doing I think I would get a ML350 engine which is our same engine but is a 3.7L and you are starting with 268HP. You can get these cheap and after selling your original engine you wouldn't be out much at all. Before putting the 3.7 in I would mill the heads to raise the compression ratio to 11:1 At the moment I can't remember the manufacturer but there is cam company in CA that will regrind your cams for a few hundred bucks. Removing the secondary unmonitored CATS will also give a gain. Add this to some of the mods you are doing and I think you would have a very good running V6.

Your engine is worth about $1,500 and here is a 3.7 that would go right in.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MERCEDES-ML-CLASS-ML350-ENGINE-03-04-05-06-35K-MILES-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2a00eea9eaQQitemZ18040 4267498QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccesso ries

 

Would this mate up to a manual?

 

Hate to burst your bubble but your HP/TQ numbers are from the new E35 M272 engine that is found in the newer body ML350s. The E37 M112 found in the older body ones is only rated at 235/254 HP/TQ.

Yes, it's possible to get this motor mated up to a 6-speed. We were going to do a 55k with a manual so this would be a walk in the park. LOL

 

Thanks Rudy, I looked up the HP on the wrong year ML350. Too bad seemed like a good idea. the extra .5L would be nice if it could make extra HP.

 

Damn, while i encourage you to do this and i hope you get great results, i think your estimation of the hp you will get for each mod is innacurate. In the other forums i belong to we refer to this as "Ricer math". There is a law i learned in economics class called the law of diminishing returns. Whats going to happen is each mod you add on top of the previous mods will make it difficult to gain as much power as predicted. The car is getting closer to its max potential. Lets say a new air filter with the grill removed on a nearly maxed out engine will not yield as much power as on a stock engine(since its nearly maxed out). In other mords the more mods you add, the harder it will be to squeeze out extra HP. The needswings cutout will net 20-30 rwhp on a tuned srt-6 (best case scenario).Also remember its a supercharged car with more hp to being with. Your n/a might see half of that. Hope this helps and good luck

 

I would honestly love a 55N/A. Cheaper, easier to install, and can be supercharged later. 32K's and 55K's are simply far too expensive to keep in any type of fun for me. What I wanna know is how Lantana figured 1100 to 1300 dollars to install on top of the engine cost for a V8 N/A. Everybody says it would be much more. 2K for electronics alone. If I could find a way to get a V8 N/A in for 1300 plus the engine cost, it would be done already. I could port and polish the intake manny and the head's, but that would blow the budget, and my other goal is to only use mods that easily transfer tho any V6 or V8 later. Now, even if I could do a V8 for the above price, I'm too absorbed in completing my challenge. I will also delete my A/C. My goal is to get the N/A within 15 hp of stock SRT rwhp using mods that can move to an 8 later. Here are my revised plans.

NW DCAI with K&N extremes and 74mm tb.
KV 85 plug wires and NGK iridiums 1 heat range colder.
Updated fuel filter/regulator and oil catch can
NW SRT all - cat delete w/ cut-outs and magnaflow cat-back. (at least where the cats were, lol.)
Evo-sport under-drive pulley kit and Air Conditioning delete.
ECU reflash. gives 20 hp and 20 tq dyno proven to a STOCK N/A. with the above mods, it will likely be more.

Does any body have a guess where I'll be after all of that? I really appreciate all of the advice and feed-back from all of you. Knowing people have hope makes me wanna keep going.

 

I don't think it is possible to do it for what I did. You would have to find a killer deal on an engine and do everything yourself and then sell the V6. My uncle and I did all the mechanical work and wiring changes. I got free use of a shop for the mechanicall work and free use of a service bay for the programing which was done over the internet by Beckmann. Beckmann only charged $250 to unlock the ECU. while he will unlock an ECU for anyone, he had his fun with my car and doesn't want to do anymore swap coding. The only way to do what I did would be to it all yourself including the coding of the ECU. Coding the ECU requires developer mode in DAS and you have to understand German. Keep in mind that what we are doing is using MB's own system to do things that MB doesn't want us to do. This is very difficult! MB mechanics can't really help you as very few of them have even heard of developer mode or how to use it.

BTW, if I had known this conversion would actually work, I would have probably gone with a n/a 55 motor, but I have known all along that I can turbo 500 engine for under $3000 and can get over 400HP at the wheels. that said, the 500 engine also totally transforms the car and can still put up a good fight against just about anything you will find on the road. There is a n/a 55 on Ebay right now for $1,499.

 

as for now though, I will be sticking to my original goal. 275 RWHP in an N/A without Nitrous for around 3 grand. I took my car for another spin today and I have hope for this. Needswings is a magician and an under drive pulley kit with air conditioning delete should be a large gain. This will be about $400. I am still waiting on Rob to further notify me on that one. Next will be an exhaust that deletes all 4 cats. However, I am worried about lack of positive back-pressure in an un-boosted engine. If there is anybody knowledgable in that area, I would love some input. After that comes the ECU tune. If I'm still short, I can toss on a 2.5 PSI electric supercharger. LOL. Still curious about the 43 AMG compatibility and boostability.

 

What are the laws in Michigan regarding engine swaps? I'm dying to do a chevy LS swap because its so cheap, reliable and powerful. Only problem is I can't legally register it where I live as far as I know.

 

If people can get a "Kit Car" registered, I would think there is some way for you to get a "Home Built" title on your Crossfire if you did an engine swap.
Have you checked with your local DMV? Every State is different, I know, but that's where I would start.
Good Luck.

 

I've never heard of anything like this. Only time I've ever heard of any special titling was a result of reconstructing the vehicle, ie, front half from one car, back half from another or frame from one vehicle and body from another. I'd do some more research on this but I don't think you'd have anything to worry about. If that's the case, I'm in deep ****, not only because of these Crossfires we're building but because I've sold vehicles in the past that I've put bigger engines in.

 

From what I have been reading, the laws in NY are very vague.. From the NY inspection site, it seems that kit cars can only be registered upstate. In almost every other state but California, engine swaps are no problem. I know for a fact I would be able to do it if the crossfire originally came with a v8 of equal or greater size. I could do any v6 3.2l or less with paperwork proving the engine was not stolen. I have heard from not so reputable sources that it will pass emmissions as long as there are no codes. I will talk to my mechanic about it when I get a chance. I am still researching with my fingers crossed, but definately need to do more research. I can register the car out of state, but I want to keep it as legal as possible. I hope you're right!

 

I really doubt that you are going to gain anything from the a/c delete aside from a lighter wallet. When not in use, the a/c doesn't draw any power, as the clutch in the a/c compressor separates the pulley from the pump.

BC.

 

Good luck Teck-9. I doubt you'll get close with only $3,000 but go for it and let us know how much improvement you can squeeze out.

Les

 

Thanks for saving me the trouble.

 

Tech 9,

Read this. It is close to your budget and should give a ton of power:

View topic - So you want to turbo your modern Mercedes? V6 and V8. | THE Mercedes-Benz & AMG Forum for and by the Enthusiasts | MyMBonline.com=

 

Thanks a lot Lantana, this guy is only a few hours from me in Southern Indiana, I have already sent an email, will report back my findings....

 

This right scheere is very interesting!

 

A turbo? A turbo sounds cool. I'ld like a turbo. Would I blow the engine if I miss a gear though???