Hp

[mr. gatsbury]

How much power are some of you squeezing out of your 280's? I'd like to know what kind of HP/torque you guys are pushing. Haven't touched the engine bay...

[ricerokets4life]

i dunno but it feels slow as hell

[C280Sportster]

Originally posted by mr. gatsbury
How much power are some of you squeezing out of your 280's? I'd like to know what kind of HP/torque you guys are pushing. Haven't touched the engine bay...

I don't think there are too many modded C280s out there, but we are trying.

Speedybenz did the most. But he has a C43 now.


Here is what I'm looking at:

Underdrive Pulleys (about +10 HP), lighter Crank pulley (+10 HP), electric fan (+ 8-10) and a "chip" (+10-15). I'm also going to loose about 100 pounds of W202 weight which equals about 7 hp (by my calculations). If you add all that up it's like 50+ HP, of course the real world gains won't be that much.

I'm not trying to get to AMG's performance level, but I want to make my car faster and more efficient. I'd be happy with 225 HP at the crank and 0-60 in 6.5 seconds.

Also, camshafts would be a dream also (like + 25 HP), but there are very expensive.

What year is your car?

[SpEeDy230]

Not alot of tuning possibility for our motors. only like Camshafts, Headers by Supersprint, Exhaust system, Pully Kits, and K&N Filter. These Mods would not get that much increase. Unless you are ready to spend money for forced induction. Not alot of members here have heavily modded motors. Unlike speedybenz's C43.

[mayagman]

Right now I'm pushing about 193hp, 199lb/ft torque. ;]
I've been investigating all the tuning options quietly for a while now, and the results are slim. The 2.8 I6 as it is is quite refined and high in compression. There is little balancing to be done to this motor, because its low displacement keeps things somewhat tame. Like the others said, cams/timing, headers, intake, exhaust, engine management, etc are basically your only option save forced induction, which comes at great cost. People say $6500 for the mosselman kit, but in 'real dollars' (installation complications, repairs, maintenance, tuning), it comes out to be much more. I'm going to be in iraq for 6 months next year, so I'll probably be selling my 280 off to pick up a nice C43/C36 when I return. You'll spend enough in mods getting this thing on forced induction to buy a C36 for cryin' out loud, lol. I am fine with the car the way it is, even though a lightly tuned eclipse can blow my doors off. Its a comfortable car, and is still more than suitable to make a respectable entrance in. It goes, and goes quite well, and it looks great. If I wanted a truly fast car I'd have bought another RX4 :] Its enough to fend off the fart-canned civics, and I even dusted a brand-new Si with some mods, so It's more than enough for a 19 year old schmo like myself, lol.

[speedybenz]

What you need to pursue is upping the rpm limit to say 7,500 rpm.

The V6 engine has a pretty short stroke and can easily support a higher rpm limit if the valve train can. I have looked at the valve train componates and there is room to lighten things up here to make the valves follow a higher lift cam.

Also the combustion chamber needs to be looked at. What is the piston to cylinder head clearance. If it is greater than 0.035" then there is power to be had here.

Also with a higher rpm limit then you would be best served by a 3.46:1 rear diff gearing to let the engine spin up better.

The list goes on.

Jeff

[mr. gatsbury]

Damn, so pretty much I will forget about tuning this one. I'll just stick to making it a carpet queen. I bought this car last minute (needed a car in 24hrs) Had I really kew what I was getting into I would have bought the AMG next to it.... It's a 98. I may look at one of the new SLK's soon. Saw an article in motortrend. Not bad. See something else you gotta realize, and I say this all the time, German ponies are diffrent than American ponies. My old 944 would dog people with less than 200 hp.... But most times there's no replacement for displacement...:D

[Renn 208]

Actually, as speedybenz illuminates, there's plenty to be done to a C280, if you can break out of the online-shopping cart mod mentality. The engine's light weight makes it particulary well balanced and ready for serious suspension tuning, and the engine has lots of room for improvement if you know where to look.

It doesn't have to say AMG/Brabus/Kleemann for it to be faster than all three.

[mr. gatsbury]

i know. i would start modding in a second but I can't right now because i'm still under warranty i have to be very careful about what i do. sucks but hopefully I can blow a trans or an engine and get a new one.....lol