It would great if we could be more supportive and stop telling people to sell their car and buy something else eveytime. There is a lot of cool things going on out there that can drastically improve a n/a car. I have already seen mercedes with rear mounted turbo's and Rotrax superchargers. What these guys have done will transfer to the na Crossfire. Cost? Cost can be very reasonable. My V8 Crossfire cost $4000 and will cost closer to $3,000 after selling the extra V6. Based on what I learned, I now I could do it again for $2,000. My next step will be forced induction V8. Here is a video of a CLK430 with a rear mounted turbo which is right on subject:

YouTube - Rear Mount Turbo Mercedes CLK430, build pictures and powerslides

YouTube - CLK430 Rear Mount Turbo, burnout and powerslides...

 

Lantana,

I apologize if my post came off as dismissive. I was not trying to dissuade them from putting a turbo/sc setup on a car. I was just saying that it would be more cost effective by way of a SC setup to purchase a SRT... with the times as they may, I know I couldn't persoanlly drop $8-10,000 on a S/C setup. As far as putting a turbo on the car, I wasn't dissuading him from doing that either, but the SRT serves as better foundation for turbocharging a car because of its previous boost properties in the ECU...

Just saying. I agree that I would love to see a turbo on a N/A, but I wouldn't wish anyone to endeavour on that subject without knowing 100% of the facts an options.

my $.02

alcapp,
i have no doubt that STS could physically mount and fabricate a rear setup turbo system for teh N/A, my biggest qualm would be the fact that I don't believe they know what they are getting into when it comes to tuning it. The number of tuners that could tune the ECU are few and far between. I don't think STS could give you a fixed price on it not knowing what trouble they would get into... just saying.

 

"All our dreams can come true-if we have the courage to persue them" Walt Disney
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"We are what we imagine ourselves to be" Kurt Vonnegut Jr
"Anything one man can imagien, other man can make real" Jules Verne
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today"-James Dean
"Reality is an ilusion, albeit a very persistent one" Alber Einstein
"The man who has no imagination has no wings" Muhammad Ali
"Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake"-Leonardo da Vinci
"Imagination will often carry us to world that never were. But without it we go nowhere"-Carl Sagan
"Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly" Langston Hughes
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'Imagination...its limits are only that of the mind itself"- Rod Serling
"To achieve, you need thought"- Ayn Rand

Lantana, thanks for sharing your point of view.

 

No problem, I believe the tuning is not as hard as people are assuming. I intend to contact the turbo CLK430 guy for help. turboing a car doesn't have to be all that expensive. What the CLK guy did is directly transferable to what we would need to do.

 

I've chatted with him briefly before, I believe he is using a AEM Stand-Alone and don't know if he lost some functionality of other parts of his car...

 

Thanks LantanaTX,

I have pretty thick skin so I don't get to defensive about some of these posts...
I believe in sifting thru them in order to glean what I need...
I also can understand the cost benefit analysis of upgrading to an SRT...
But I would prefer to stay under the insurance radar as I would take a considerable hit on it...
I would save thousands over the life of my loan, in insurance premiums alone...
The fuel economy purported to be had with an STS product is something to consider also...
I also believe that the dealer I have been talking to has experience with mercedes products...
But I will need to see an actual STS rear mounted turbo before I jump...
It really boils down to knowing what is needed so I can keep them honest about the price...

 

Amen to that!

And to the constant references to , "Just buy as SRT." Easier said than done. There just aren't that many around to buy. The ones that are for sale have been modded and that doesn't appeal to many buyers.

 

If I had to guess, I would bet he used it as somewhat of a piggyback as to keep the car happy. Lots of stuff run through the ECU and to take it out of the equation completely would be tough, not impossible but definitely tough.

 

I guess at this point finding someone who can tune the car after the turbo has been installed is my biggest problem...
I have spoken to Andrew @ STS and he is in the process of finding me someone who may be able to do this...
Once he puts me in contact with them I will feel them out about whether or not they are confident they can do it...

 

To my knowledge Eurocharged is the only tuner who has sucessfully tune a turbo crossfire...but I assume there is probably someone else on the MB side.

 

Forgive my ignorance, but are they located in the states?

 

From reading the thread on the turbo CLK430, it looks like they didn't tune the ECU but rather tuned the AEM system. Here is just a therory I mentioned before but what about using the engine harness and ECU from an SRT or SLK32? These can read boost and deal with it. I believe this is one reason for the success of the the SRT that was changed to turbo.

 

geez, you ask, you get an answer...you can do about anything to a car if your pockets are deep enough. I love my xf, but if I had my way, I'd be driving a ZR-1 right now, calling Rob at Needswings, telling him I want to make a thousand hp...how can we get there....

 

As Rob always tells me, "You're only limited by two things, money and imagination and nobody ever runs out of imagination."

 

Well as I said i'm off to find a tuner...
Anybody that has any suggestions please feel free to let me know...
I am in Socal (Los Angeles)...
Anything in the area would be good...

 

true statement to....but when newbies come on here and ask, and not read thru the threads, thinking it is just bolt something on and go...I think we have an obligation to tell them it isn't that easy, and refer them to those threads. Again, things are possible, lantana is proof of that, but knowledge and money is needed to get there...my opinion remains the same. If you have to spend 15K to convert a N/A, well, SRT's are very close to that price now...and give a better start to mod in my opinion...no one has to listen to my opinion...but there it is...

 

I agree with you except if doesn't have to cost as much as people think exspecially if they are capable of doing most of the work. While things aren't easy they are a lot easier than they were a couple of years ago. Just look at how much we have learned! Reading some of the old posts shows how far we have come. A couple of years ago we were debating if our cars were more than 30% Mercedes. I have seen people turbo cars for not a lot of money. Sure they may have bought used parts and did it themselves but it can be done. I remember asking a few questions early on and the only response of I got was sell my car. Well I love my car and that wasn't happening. I personally would love to see more people have success with the na. It probaly isn't cost effective if you have to pay someone to do all the work though.

 

that was my point. you have the talent and the time, and if others do, then fine. But, the questions I see asked are telling me they haven't done any research yet...thus, read the threads, ask the questions. But modding the 6 in the n/a still isn't cheap, cheap...but, its their money...none of my posts were to discourage, only to warn it isn't as easy as they think. But, with your shared knowledge on the computer and unlocking it for other modding is helping...I enjoy seeing people trying to make more hp...but best bang for the buck is still an srt6 out of the box. the rest is just a challenge....anyway, we have beat this to deaf...I am for anyone trying to make their car better...

 

So Cal? Why we not running together? I'm hitting a 1/8 mile track next weekend if your down.

 

I could of swore that the guys at LETmotorsports, I think now Eurocharged, said could tune to forced induction no problem.