Excellent pics....

I am pretty surprise it has 2 airboxes, seeing that it bottle necks down to one intake at the MAF. Those boxes are pretty small too.

Me has some Ideas!!!! :twisted:

PS this thread is really going to take off once I can fabricate some new routing with my rig.

Any one out there approached this two into one bottleneck yet..... other than Renntech overprice carbon box?

It looks like 2 BMC carbon intake boxes could be plumbed....

Andrew, does the Mass Air Flow sensor have a larger diameter than the intake plumbing tubes terminating at the airboxes

 

it does seem that the intake plumbing is much smaller before entering the maf (b/t the filter and maf).

work your magic! keep us updated. :wink:

 

It would also seem that the engine would significantly increase the temperature of the air inside the airbox. A heatshield above the engine would probably be advantageous... or just relocate the heatbox infront of the engine and have a single pipe going back from there to the throttle body. That would probably increase midrange torque most significantly but at the expense of throttle response. That would probably kill the low end, though, seeing as how the car already runs extremely lean from 0 to about 2500 RPMs.

 

The guy who did my Upsolute chip said the next step to higher performance would be a cold air intake and less restrictive cat/exhaust. When I get a chance, I'm gonna go back to see him when he's got time to do some digging under the hood and get it up on a rack to see what he proposes. He offered to do mods for ~1/2 what he would normally charge if I'm the first for him to do "prototype" on. I'm just leary about doing mods like that, they'd be immediately obvious when in for dealer service and could jeopardize warranty?

 

Your warranty will still stand ... unless the modification you installed is a direct cause of the problem you're having. Like ... if you put a Cold-Air Intake on your engine and that intake sucks some water into the cylinders and you bend a handful of rods and lose compression in some of the cylinders then, sorry you're out of luck. They don't have to fix it for you. If you, however, install a cat-back exhaust and suddenly the shift linkage snaps then you can bring your car in and they have to fix your transmission under warranty.

They can only cancel your warranty if an aftermarket part caused the failure or damage. And at that, they can only cancel the warranty on the component that the aftermarket part damaged. If you throw on a supercharger and your engine blows up and you can still take it in to get your blown stock speaker fixed. They just won't fix your engine.
And, the burden of proof of failure is on them. They have to show that the aftermarket component was what caused the failure, that it wasn't a fault that would have occured regardless of the aftermarket part.

 

By isolating the filter closer to the cold air source you create 2 really important items.

1. You no longer have an isolated area were turbelent air can get super-heated i.e. an airbox on top of the valve cover for the cylinder head.... X-fire's design.

2. by filtering at the source of the cold air, the air travels straighter down the plumbing with velocity, the air will no longer hit an airbox then a funky air collector before getting to the MAF. If the flow of air over the maf is constant and has little turbelence (CAI method) the maf can calculate the air flow better to use in the emissions calculation and air/fuel calc.

 

One thing I've not seen/heard discussed with the Upsolute Chip is what effect it may have on emissions, if any. I know for WMichaels that is not an issue because in that part of Virginia they're not doing regular emissions testing.

David Burns, doesn't Va do emissions testing in your area of Virginia? If so, you may also not want to fool around too much with a less restrictive cat if it in anyway compromises the emissions.

James...I'm not sure the thought that an aftermarket mod does not effect warranty is as black/white/absolute as you suggest.

Surely, if your car stops running and all you've done is change your shocks, you'd be right.

Messing with the ECU/chip, however, can have a theoretical and real impact on engine mapping and performance, and any number of mechanical failures could be tied to that.

Saying the manufacturer has the burden of proof isn't exactly right either, I would think. You come in for a repair, they say no, the mod created the problem.

Ball's now in YOUR court. YOU have to take the next step and prove that your mod did not.

The dealer holds all the cards in the warranty situation. He just has to sit there and do nothing until the car owner presses the case.

 

He's willing to guarantee in writing it'll pass VA Emmissions, or return it to factory stock at his cost. 8) I guess that's confidence, especially since he's done hundreds of Porsche's and VW's and Mercedes with similarly less restrictive cat's and he says not one has failed an emmissions test (that's told him at least).

 

Well that is true. The dealership can deny warranty whenever they want to, they have that right.

 

Here, you all can look up the law for yourselves. Check out the Magunson Moss Warranty Act of 1975

 

Does anyone know how to open up the part highlighted in the picture below? There are 2 torx screws that I removed, but I couldnt get it off. I bet there are some sort of resonators in there, that can be removed to make it a little freer flowing and louder. Anyone?

 

that part might be glued together, you can try prying it apart, but that seems risky to me.

 

The part in question is glued on. However, there is no need to look in there because there is nothing to modify. I did some measurements on the K&N filter and compared this to the Benz filters. The K&N's are smaller and increase the effective size of the airbox by 24 cubic inches. That isn't a whole lot (maybe 5-8% larger), but it may help in some minor way. Someone could always increase the size of the plumbing going into the airbox if they were inclined. That may help a tiny bit and it would be inexpensive. Benz's are known for having sensitive MAF parts and many sensors have been ruined by oily K&N filters. So go easy when cleaning......

 

I installed K&N Filters today and thought those of you who have yet to do it might like a few more details based on my experience with it. There also tips in the threads Air Filter and K&N Filter, but this thread has pictures above.

There are five clips that hold the combination engine cover/air-filter box to the top of the engine. The clips are on the cover, the sort of spring-like pinchers you can see on the left side (as you look at the picture) of the upside down cover, attached to the filter box cover.

The four big clips fit over the black, round rubber grommets you can see on both sides of the uncovered engine (the back left one as you look at the cover is hard to see but is just like the other three) one basically at each of the "corners." You can clearly see the front two grommets are just to the side of the things that look like tin can tops.

The fifth clip on the bottom of the cover is smaller and at the point of the front of the box on the underside of the Chrysler logo. It fits on the metal tube-like projection you see in the middle of the engine picture just above the upper radiator hose.

As advised by one of the threads, I pulled up the two clips in the back first. I just let them rest on the grommets and then pulled up the front ones and did the same thing. At that point I loosened the two plastic air tubes on either side at the coupling that is clearly visible. They just pull apart. You could pull off the entire cover with the tubes attached because they are not hooked on at the grill, but it is unwieldy.

The battle is half won at this point. With the cover off and upside down, there are four Torx (star) screws holding each filter cover down. The bit needed is a T-25 Torx bit (not a T-15 as someone thought above). Do not use a power driver to get them out. Do it by hand as they only come out of the air box but are designed to just stay in the filter cover and rotate. You can feel them come loose after about half an inch. Pull the cover off and the rest is obvious. Swap the filters, noting how the original Mercedes filter fit into the cover. The lip on the K&N filter is more solid than the one on the Mercedes filter; thus, when you get ready to screw the new lid back on, it helps to squeeze the two halves of the box together a little at the screw point with your other hand so the screw will start back into the hole threads in the same fashion it came out and not start to cross thread by drilling new threads for itself. It will start in easy if you hit it right. If not, back off and try again. Screw all four down, each a little at a time, so that when you are finished the two halves will touch at the screw points, but don't over tighten because you are screwing into plastic.

When I put the cover back, I was careful to see all the clips were first resting on their respective grommets (having reconnected the air tubes first) before I started pushing anything down, in order to be sure I didn't get the whole thing off kilter, paying particular attention also to make sure the large hole in the back center fit properly over the air intake hole on the engine (hard to see on the uncovered engine picture but obvious when you take the cover off). There is nothing that fastens. It just fits over it.

I hope this is of assistance to someone. In my opinion, there was a noticable difference in performance after the installation. I mean, after all this trouble, I'd better think so. Right? :lol:

 

Excellent notes guys - much appreciated