Some shop organizing happened today. It will take a fair bit to get the shop back to a presentable state. The old M112 and transmission still runs, and will fill a gap for someone out there, so we plugged all the holes, and pressure washed it. Dried it real well, oiled down the cylinders, photographed it, and then put it aside for now. The boy went on to install a MB V8 throttle body (74mm?) and airbox on his car. Modding, instead of repairing made him happy.

I turned back to the other car for a bit. Mainly worked on the SLK55 seat project. Since I have no intention of using the memory seat function, nor will I run Airscarf the way the factory had it, I decided the more basic 8-way switch functions of the R170 will do just fine. Since the buttons on the R171 are a module, and laid out differently, I needed to get "innovative" with all the plastic. Translation: I cut the button panel out of a R170 in a semi-rectangular shape, and am splicing that into the side panel of the R171 seat. Since no one wants to watch sausage being made, I will hold off on any grotesque pictures of the Frankensteining of this arrangement, and put up pics when the panels are done mid-week. Not my most proud work, but it will do.

Next weekend will bring two more exciting projects to the 04 Crossfire. First, I plan to install a pair of 4-pot/345mm SLK55 front brakes. Everything I have read says that this portion is a bolt in. Searching part numbers seems to show that the SLK55 used the same rear brakes as the SRT-6/SLK32 AMG, which I already have on the car. The wildcard though is the master cylinder. If part lookups are to be trusted, the SLK32 AMG uses a 1" bore master cylinder. The SLK55 uses a 1.812" bore master cylinder. I am concerned about fluid volume for the SLK55 brakes. The parts places list the SLK55 MC for over US$300. I found the same Raybestos part number, new on eBay for $65 shipped. I have one coming. I am debating on using it, though. My next concern is that the ABS module will not handle it all properly, even though it is the same unit for SLK32 and SLK32 AMG (with a huge difference in caliper/rotor sizes). Of course the 2004 ABS module is different from a 2005, so no direct plugging in. Perhaps I should be looking at various C-class modules? Certain C-class cars use the same brakes as the SLK55. Of course all of the dynamic proportioning will be off from the SLK platform. Perhaps I am over-thinking this, too.

The second project will be to install a Kincaid Performance "Killer Chiller" into the car. This system, for those who don't know, takes the intercooler coolant, and runs it through a self contained box that also has in it an A/C evaporator core. Running off of the car's A/C system, in parallel with the in-cabin evaporator core, this system will chill the intercooler coolant substantially more than the water to air heat exchanger can. As a result, charge temperatures will drop, lowering the chance for engine damaging detonation, and also providing a more dense air charge, which means more power. It's a good thing, too. I was about to get bored with the 500hp it was already making!

 

Kincaid Performance Killer Chiller install in a Crossfire. Here's a link from their site: https://killerchiller.com/p/2005-crossfire-install

So, Kincaid is recommending against putting the Killer Chiller (KC) in series with the original heat exchanger, as the heat exchanger will actually pick up ambient heat, and reduce the overall system efficiency. However, if the A/C is not running, then the KC doesn't do its job. I do live in FL, and run the A/C probably 90% of the time. Their solution is to put an electric 3 way valve into the loop, thereby selecting the KC or the original heat exchanger. They recommend just eliminating the heat exchanger, however. For the time being, that is what I will do, and I will assess whether or not this is an actual problem, before ponying up the extra cash to buy the electric valve components. This will also free up both room and airflow in the front of the car.

The KC folks also recommend a water tank to increase the intercooler coolant capacity of the system. This gives a 'reserve' so to speak of chilled coolant. In actuality, it just gives the system more thermal mass. That's a good thing. They recommend 1 gallon for this system. In the pics from the link, you can see that there is a tank mounted in front of the bumper beam. This is OK, except if you have a wreck, in which case, the overall damage increases. I don't like that.

I am currently also running an FCP Euro split cooling setup, which just isolates the intercooler coolant from the main engine coolant. I decided to just put a 1 gallon plastic tank behind the left headlamp, and have it serve both as a reserve and the fill location. Using a RCI Racing 1010D model tank, and adding a few fittings to it, I think I will have a winner. This area of my car is now open, due to no SAI air pump or fan PWM controller. I'll bend up some nice aluminum brackets, and secure the tank. The KC will fit just under the tank, along the frame rail. I think this will make for nice, neat packaging, that will be functional. It's good to have a plan. And a dream. We'll see how it works out.

 

Love this project! Been following since you first started posting on it. About this post, FL might have to have the A/C running 90% of the time but doesn't the A/C shut off during high S/C demand? Just a thought as I have not played with a S/C system before, am pretty sure A/C cuts off when a certain throttle response (& higher including WOT) is called for. Love your sticking with it!


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You're exactly correct. A/C does disengage at WOT, hence the water tank which will hold the chilled water. 1 extra gallon will provide enough reserve for a 1/4 mile run. Also, they offer a kit with an electric solenoid that will turn off flow to the car's evaporator, eliminating water dripping at the track, and also at the same time boosting the KC efficiency. I did not opt for that one. Yet.

 

Thanks for following along, BTW!

 

The RCI Racing tank arrived yesterday, but none of the fittings have. In addition, there is no tracking number on the Killer Chiller as of now. That being said, it is highly doubtful that the KC setup will be in the car in time for the Tail of the Dragon Crossfire meet next weekend. *sigh*

Work did begin on fitting the SLK55 brakes. I ran into problems, right off the bat. First off, the retaining hole for the rotor to the hub is mirrored from the earlier car's hub. In other words, if the rotor retaining bolt is to the right of the wheel bolt hole on the R170 (Crossfire), it is to the left on the SLK55. As I type this on my lunch break at work, I am hoping I am not about to feel stupid about the rest of what I am about to say, because it is somewhat growing in my head that in reality there is a left and right rotor with swapped holes, and therefore none of the rest of this was even necessary. I think I'm correct, so I will boldly lay out the rest of my stupidity. @QuadPrism was around to witness some of this. I suspect he is about to have a good laugh at my expense. [img]data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7[/img]

So, in typical fashion of not having enough time, rest or patience going into such a project, I started by centering a punch mark on where the hole should be on the R170 hub for the R171 rotor. I drilled a pilot hole, and then did not like its centering with the rotor put on.

I rotated the hub.

The a new location was marked for a hole, and drilled. Most of the way through tapping for threads, the tap broke off! After spending 30 minutes hopelessly attempting to remove it, the tap was abandoned in the hub, and ground flat with the hub surface.

I rotated the hub.

I drilled a new hole, counter sunk it, tapped it. Put the rotor up to mount it, saw that it was perfectly centered. Awesome. Got the rotor retention bolt, and it slipped in. Not threaded in. Slipped in. Good grief, what have I done?

*sigh*

I picked up the wrong bolt when determining tap size, and therefore drilled and tapped too big of a hole.

I did not rotate the hub.

Grabbing a used hub from the parts SRT-6 (which has since been crushed, BTW), I much more carefully marked a hole, drilled the correct size, countersunk the correct size, and tapped the correct size. I didn't even break a tap off this time. The rotor mounted up without issue. A test fit of the caliper showed that it bolts right on, and the Goodridge stainless steel line (for an R170) fits in the caliper properly. The wheel won't clear the caliper. A spacer is needed. Out of time for the evening, I left everything as-is, and will attack the right side tonight. I believe as little as a 3mm spacer might do the trick. I think I have a pair of 5mm spacers on hand. I'm a little concerned about losing space on the hub for centering the wheel, but will check to see if this is an actual problem before getting too excited about it.

My next concern is the master cylinder. The SLK55 master cylinder will be here tomorrow. From the earlier post, it appears that while they look identical on the outside, the R170 uses a 1.000" bore piston, and the SLK55 (and all later R171 and R172) uses a 1.812" piston. The SLK55 uses these 4-pot front calipers, and the same 2-pot rear calipers that the AMG R170 uses. So, the conundrum is whether to stick with the R170 MC, or switch over to the SLK55 MC, not knowing what the effect on the ABS proportioning might be. Anyone have any experience or opinions?

Also tonight, work will continue on the switch panels for the SLK55 seats. The R170 switches have been successfully grafted in, and now the final sanding and painting of the panels needs to happen. The seats should go in tomorrow or Saturday.

 

Very busy weekend. First off, got the SLK55 4-pot front brakes installed. Here's what I started with, the SRT-6/SLK32 AMG brakes:



Here's a view of the two calipers. The 4-pot caliper uses a smaller brake pad. Added EBC Yellow Stuff brake pads while everything was apart.



Drilled the new offset rotor retention bolt in both hubs. Here's a view of the difference between the R171 and R170 retention bolt locations:



As an engineer myself, this kind of stuff aggravates me. After this, the caliper and bracket bolt onto the car. Brake line fits. Only needed to eliminate the pad wear sensor cable, as there is no spot for it on these calipers. Other than that rotor retention bolt hole, the entire thing bolts together.

Here's what it looks like installed.



A 5mm wheel spacer was required to clear the SRT-6 wheel. This, combined with the thicker rotor mounting hat combines to about 6-7mm. This presents a new problem, in that the stock lug bolts now only have about 5mm of engagement. Ordered 10mm longer lug bolts, which arrive Monday.

Moved onto a host of smaller projects, including some underhood cosmetics. The plenums were painted black, the upper radiator support was removed, sand blasted, and painted (awaiting reinstall). More importantly, the SLK55 seats were completed. I will describe these in detail in the next day or two, but suffice it to say, they're way nicer than the stock Crossfire seats! Everything is working on them, except Airscarf, which I have plans for over the winter. I need the mating electrical connectors for those, if anyone out there might have them.

 

Very nice work. Did you switch over to the SLK55 MC?

 

Not yet. I hope to drive the car this evening (it's been parked for almost a week, now). I will put the brakes through some paces, and then decide if I want to change out the MC right away, or hold off until after the Dragon.

 

There’s a guy on YouTube who put ML55 brake calipers on his CLK430 and he ran into the same problem with the rotors. He did what you did with drilling another hole but broke the screw I believe. iirc he ended up switching the rotors to the their opposite side. I know you got yours work but here’s the video if you care to watch it.
He does a lot of mods to his AMG and non AMG cars. Also I’ve enjoyed watching the progress of your build. I too plan on doing the AMG upgrade. There’s also quite a few SLK 350’s that have the Brembo AMG 4 pot calipers that can be found for like 70$ sometimes. In case anyone reading this wanted to know another option for the upgrade.


Edit: I took the video down because that was for a different brake swap he did and the one I was talking about I can’t find now. My apologies for that..

 

I thought the rotors might have the hole in a different spot for left and right, but they don't. Also, they are farther out from center than the R170.

 

I did not get a ton done on the car today, so no pics, yet. Lug bolts did not show up (grrrrr). Reassembled the upper core support, and installed a new fuel rail, welded by someone who can legitimately call themselves a welder. This one has a variation from the last that the fuel feed is now a -6AN at the center rear on the rail. Hopefully this will even out distribution of fuel, and eliminate the low pressure spot at #8. The new feed line needs to be built, and I'll get to that tomorrow. After that, just a few button up items under the hood, and wait another day for lug bolts.

After this, I am looking to freeze progress, and turn towards a good detailing and trip preparation. Almost 500 miles to go on Friday!

 

Stalking the FedEx folks at this point. Looks like my longer lug bolts are loaded on a truck in Pensacola, FL, and out for delivery by 4:30PM today. I keep reloading the tracking page anyway. Feel a bit neurotic. Do you stalk your FedEx/UPS/USPS/DHL drivers?

This evening, if all goes to plan, the following will happen:

1. Wheels will finally be bolted back on

2. Belly pan will have one more mod made to it for fitment, and be reattached

3. New fuel feed line will be installed, with a comprehensive fuel system leak check performed

4. Intake tract reassembled

5. On the ground, ready for some miles again!

Left to do before heading out for the Dragon at the end of the week will be all the usual car trip preparations (clean, check things over, clean, load tools/spares/luggage, clean), but will also be adding in a Midland GMRS radio for comms during the event itself.

Yes, I am pre-occupied, waiting for the FedEx guy.

 

You too?? I ordered finally and hopefully the rest of the parts I needed for “ a refresh of the cars cooling system”. I’m putting in a new AC condenser, overflow tank, coolant flush and recharge of the AC. I went to do it once already but FCP or probably Nissens forgot to send the new o-rings for the condenser. So I missed that window for work on the car. Then for whatever reason I didn’t think ahead that this is a great time to change the thermostat and it’s housing since it hasn’t been done for quite awhile 🤦🏼‍♂️. So another hold up because I’m scattered brained with everything else I need to do to the car but can’t until this is done. So I had all this past weekend set aside to get this task done. So I get my order in late Tuesday night for said parts from FCPeuro. Choose FedEx 2day shipping for a nice 18.99$. Confirmation says should be here last Friday. Then Friday it’s pushed to Monday. Called FCPeuro to inquire why there was a delay? They owned up on it saying they didn’t get the parts out on time and refunded the shipping!! They really are a great company. FedEX though yeah still haven’t got the parts yet so I’m just waiting on the good ole FEDEX fella like you

 

Are you coming to the TotD event this next weekend?

 

I stalk EVERY delivery since losing a couple of Omaha Steaks deliveries due to 'porch-pirates' over a couple years. The hassles of having the arguments with companies (to replace a missing item) make me track to my hands almost every time (sometimes the tracking comes AFTER the item is on my porch, go figure!). One of the VERY FEW covid-19 benefits (if you can say that). The hardest ones to follow are the ones where the item starts with (say) DHL and then ends up with the USPS guy to my mailbox or door...


.

 

I really wish I could make it as I have yet to make any XF get together since I bought my SRT6 X-Mas 2014.
I’m pretty bummed about it. I am in a band and we also own and run one of if not the largest haunted house/forest in Oklahoma. So those two things are usually going on during one of the Tail of the Dragons or the CAA. I’ve met and talked with people through the forum and FB groups and have a couple I call close friends yet haven’t met any of them in person lol. Ali Ozgur who use to live in Jersey but is from Turkey and lives there now was supposed to come to the US in 2020. We were planning on going to go to the CAA event but Covid nipped that in the butt fast. Then this year I missed Robert’s tech day because my AC was shot along with I had something come up as usual. Now time has pretty much ran out on me for this Tail as the car won’t be in tip top shape for a trip from OKC to I'll make one soon though. Sorry for the long winded reply. Everyone have fun and be safe XF fam

 

There will be the Ozarks next summer.... I am trying to decide if I will do that one, or if I will head to Carlisle (I'm a Mopar nut, overall).

 

Finished the fuel lines, and a few other nagging things with the engine this afternoon. Belly pan installed, and FedEx finally showed up with the 50mm lug bolts. Here's how things were looking:

The plan had been to paint the upper core support SSB to match the car, but my son noticed that the bordering of the edges lined up with the lines of the car and of the engine, and looked sharper in black, so he spent the time blasting the panel, and for now it is rattle canned black. If I decide to stick with it, I'll strip it and paint it properly later. Running out of time for now.

Up close look at the new center rear fuel feed for the rail.

Got to take the first ride with the new seats, and boy are they better than the stock seats!


If you look closely you'll see that the R171 memory buttons were removed, and the Crossfire controls were grafted in. They work!

The test drive revealed a new, but not surprising problem. With the very short hub flange up front, and the 5mm spacer, the wheel is having a hard time getting centered. This led to a lot of vibration at speed. I have had this happen before on another car, so brought it in, and loosened the wheel, retorquing in a very systematic way. It should help, but won't solve the problem.

Have any of you found a hub centric ring that will either grab that sliver of hub at the spacer, or perhaps a hub centric ring that can ride on the bearing cup cover?

 

So, lots of changes made in the last week, and today was the first shake down ride, which was simply a 31 mile commute to work. The seats sit just a little higher than the R170 Crossfire seats. This results in a slightly different seating angle. It was enough that lots of fiddling with the seat adjustments and the rear view mirror occurred. Think it is settled out, now, and I am nested Seems that the more high performance you make any car, the more finnicky all of the adjustments become. At 5'8", I'm not a tall person. My 6'3" son loves the seats, but he finds that they leave him quite a bit less room to fit in versus the stock seats. They sure are comfortable, though. I've had people tell me the R172 seats are even better. Hmmmm.....

During the drive this morning, everything did well, except for the hub centering. This presents itself as a tire shake, that feels like an unbalanced tire. It comes and goes at different speeds. This tells me that torqueing the bolts down in a pattern of small changes, allowing each bolt to find its center in the hole does help, but there's no replacement for the hub doing its job centering the wheel. This being said, it's impractical to drive the car 1200 miles this coming weekend with this issue. Tonight, it will be back to the SRT-6 front brakes.

Last night, the bed down procedures for the EBC Yellow Stuff Brake Pads in the SLK55 4-pot brakes was completed. They grab! In true apples to apples comparison, I have the equivalent Yellow Stuff pads in the SRT-6 brakes, and while the pads in the SRT-6 brakes are much larger, they do not bite down like the 4-pot calipers on the larger rotor do. I am looking forward to putting these back on the car!



So how to do it? The current setup uses a 5mm spacer so that the wheel will clear the outboard edge of the caliper. It relies on the hub being wide enough to accommodate the thicker SLK55 rotor, the 5mm spacer and still mount the wheel. We now know for certain that there's not enough hub to do that. So, the solutions could come in a few forms:

1. Machine down the offending ridge on the outboard side of the caliper. Would work, but now there would be a custom part in the car that cannot be replaced at the roadside, if there is an issue.

2. Find a different hub that has a wider hub portion. This is my preferred solution, but I do not know if, say a SLK55 hub, would do that. Dimensions are needed, if anyone has a hub around. This would have the side benefit of solving the rotor retention bolt issue.

3. Use a hub centric spacer with it's own hub flange. These are a dime a dozen, so why not use these? The required spacing is 5mm. There's not a practical way to add an attached hub surface to this thin of a spacer, as there is still a few millimeters of hub left. In other words, since there is hub material in the way, a spacer cannot have it's own hub surface in the same spot. Pics would help, but I don't have any except what you can see in this view:



If you look closely, you can see the steel hub material poking out from the spacer. There's not enough meat here to grab the wheel, but also too much for a spacer with its own hub surface to fit over.

So, the thinnest spacer found with a hub flange is 10mm, so far. Amazon has these MB specific spacers, and so I ordered a pair:



Now, 10mm is really too thick, and will present me with other fitment challenges. Preliminary estimate is that to clear the original hub and function as a spacer would be about 7-8mm. That seems like splitting hairs, but the idea is to reduce the wheel spacing as much as is possible. Measurements and a drawing will be made tonight of all the pertinent dimensions before brake removal this evening. The plan will be to take these spacers, and turn them on a lathe to thin up the spaced surface just a bit. Depending on metal thickness, it may also be possible to run a lathe up inside these, thinning the material up near the hub extension, and may be able to gain another 1-2mm. Doing that might reduce the need for the spacing thickness further, getting total thickness in the 5-7mm region again. That's optimistic, and the answer will not be clear until the hubs arrive sometime in the next 2 weeks.

Parts are on order to work with Option #3, but Option #2 is truly the better one. There doesn't seem to be a practical way to completely eliminate the spacer, but having to go to a thicker one to solve the hub center issue is like a bandaid on top of a bandaid to me. Several people have PM'd me here and on other forums (where this thread is being paralleled) to say that they have swapped these same brakes on their SLKs, Crossfires, and a few other vehicles. If you have solved this problem a different way, please shoot me a PM.

Due to time constraints tonight, there won't be much more than swapping the SRT-6 brakes back on. Tomorrow more miles will be put on. In all, there should be 150 miles further on the car before leaving Friday, bringing the total up to around 900 miles on the whole M113K setup. Not a ton for any setup, but hopefully enough to shake out the major bugs.

Missing from the formula for the Dragon event this weekend will be the Killer Chiller. After speaking with Kincaid Performance about it, we thought a system would be here in time to install before the event, but that just didn't happen. This will just added to the list of winter projects for the car. After the KC, attention will shift towards instrumentation and the interior. Some exciting stuff is going to happen there!