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--proper tuning

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4.6K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  zeWaardt  
#1 ·
So we have been having a lot of fun with the slk, but i feel its time to get a bit more serious. I got hired working at a shop that deals with old and weird foreign cars, as well as old american hotrods, so i have a bit more money and some extra expertise to help me at the shop. after all ive done to the car, the pulley, intake, fpr, and exhaust, the car is surprisingly quick, the torque it puts out is really fun, but as much as i love it everytime we go for a drive i think about what im missing without a tune. i need a path i can start working down for tuning my own ecu. i understand to a degree what ktag and kess are. but have no idea how i would use them once they get here, or if they are the best overall option. so if anyone has done this successfully, i need a short rundown of the tools im going to need, and some tips, so i can start making some real power and have more control over what the car is trying to do, and with having these tools i can learn more deeply about how the car runs and truly understand it. upcoming upgrades unrelated is im trying to source some decent condition 32 amg wheels, and a bilstein adjustable full suspension kit to finish it off. will tackle the diff when it becomes an issue, though im not sure i like most solutions.

this community has been a massive help so far and i appreciate it greatly. once i get the tune finished and tested i would share all of this knowledge and the tune files themselves so that others can have an easier time of it.
 
#3 ·
I have Less but actually we used a Galleto device on our SlK to remap it, however it's not as easy as just plug and go, if I remember right we used less to download the stock file but the Galleto to write the file. To do this we have a full SlK wiring harness spare to do this, the ECU has to be removed from the car and one of the pins grounded. Basically it's a very easy thing to to get wrong and brick the ECU. The other issue with the earlier Bosch ECU is there is extremely limited access to "definition files" these are what tells you which section of the map is "fuel" which is "ignition" and so on. When Ben remapped our SlK and my CLK the maps where basically done on guess work from his understanding of what numbers look like within certain maps. He did succeed but it was all guess work. If the car is a manual transmission I would recommend going to a standalone ECU like a mega squirt or a fueltech haltech something like that, that way you have full control over everything and can probably make a 230k probably close to 240hp with pulley, intake, fuel and exhaust.

Then if you get bored after that you can always slap a turbo on it and get some good power figures, however that's not quite as simple as bolt on although some people say otherwise reliability can suffer.


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#4 ·
a turbo was something i was thinking about, down the line. looks rather easy with the space in the car. i was interested in doing a standalone but until i get to that point i was thinking of doing a tune on the factory ecu. thanks for the great info and ill read through more of your posts. any other tips on things i could do to bolster the engine for more power or is it strong enough to go pretty far? this is a long term plan so ive been trying to get everything listed out and ready. i want to make a seriously fast slk, still a street car, but something that will surprise people. id love to smack all the big v8s down here in texas with a tiny yellow rocket.

i may end up going standalone in the long run but i really would like to manual swap the car at that point.

sucks having two project dailies because my 300zx needs a rebuild, think a cylinder is a bit hurt, but i cant stop putting stuff on the nice shiny car lol.
 
#6 ·
If an engine is happy revving depends a lot on the con rod length, engines designed as torque monsters usually have relatively long rods. I'd love to build a hi po version of one of these engines but getting the bits is a real problem. The Ofgear controller is for a 5 speeder I assume, following with interest.
 
#8 ·
Absolutely as it's the throw if the crank that that dictates the torque applied, quite often high stroke cranks can have long rods. Mines a bit of an oddball having a high throw crank with short "ish" rods so it will be interesting to see how the engine behaves.

Ofgear is indeed for the 5 speed 722.6 it will get me absolute control over the transmission so that I can tune the shifts and have flappy paddles. I would like to build in a trans brake into the transmission turbo bandit used to do it but sadly with the loss of Roman I'm not sure they do anymore, ide love to be able to launch it like a A45.
 
#10 ·
I've been very interested in remapping my ECU but I haven't been able to find much about it and didn't feel comfortable enough to start diving into the unknown. I can work with standalone units no problem and have a car running on an Arduino based ECU right now, but fiddling with an OEM ECU is unknown territory for me. I did get my SLK to fire up and run on a DET 3 but that ECU is pretty limited and can't drive the ignition system.

I've made a few modifications to the car including a crank pulley and an intercooler, the car is pretty quick as is but I know there's power to be gained.

Have you remapped these facelift ECUs @Alex.M-oneeleven?


My biggest gripe right now is the ECU pulling timing at fairly low intake air temperatures. Hooking my tools up to the car I logged a bunch of test runs and can see that once the IAT passes about 35 degrees the ECU pulls a whopping 3 to 4 degrees of timing. I have installed a different intercooler and my air never goes above 45 degrees unless I'm flooring it for a long long time (talking driving like 10/20 minutes WOT) on the Autobahn where I see it creep up to about 55 when everything heat soaks.

The car is very noticeably faster during the night and on colder days. I feel like the ECU pulls timing way too early and aggressively, and no amount of intercooler upgrades is gonna beat Mercedes' conservative tuning.

I've been thinking of installing a standalone ECU into the car. Mine is a manual so transmission controller is no issue, the original ECU can be kept in place to keep the dash functioning.
 
#11 ·
zeWaardt said:
I've been very interested in remapping my ECU but I haven't been able to find much about it and didn't feel comfortable enough to start diving into the unknown. I can work with standalone units no problem and have a car running on an Arduino based ECU right now, but fiddling with an OEM ECU is unknown territory for me. I did get my SLK to fire up and run on a DET 3 but that ECU is pretty limited and can't drive the ignition system.

I've made a few modifications to the car including a crank pulley and an intercooler, the car is pretty quick as is but I know there's power to be gained.

Have you remapped these facelift ECUs @Alex.M-oneeleven?


My biggest gripe right now is the ECU pulling timing at fairly low intake air temperatures. Hooking my tools up to the car I logged a bunch of test runs and can see that once the IAT passes about 35 degrees the ECU pulls a whopping 3 to 4 degrees of timing. I have installed a different intercooler and my air never goes above 45 degrees unless I'm flooring it for a long long time (talking driving like 10/20 minutes WOT) on the Autobahn where I see it creep up to about 55 when everything heat soaks.

The car is very noticeably faster during the night and on colder days. I feel like the ECU pulls timing way too early and aggressively, and no amount of intercooler upgrades is gonna beat Mercedes' conservative tuning.

I've been thinking of installing a standalone ECU into the car. Mine is a manual so transmission controller is no issue, the original ECU can be kept in place to keep the dash functioning.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I haven't had any experience with tuning the facelift ECUs but they are more widely tuned than the pre facelift, the biggest problem with these cars is the Mercedes part . .. they have and always will tune things conservatively for safety comfort and reliability the A45 is a perfect example of this with the hp gained from just a remap alone.

With these older cars and how difficult or sparse tuners are I alway recommend stand alone if you have the know how with wiring to be able to install it yourself, on standalone with a ported over driven supercharger these engines should be capable of between 250-280hp, and 300 with a turbo on stock block. A headgasket and arps with a turbo and standalone would probably see 340-370hp with some level of reliability.

The main thing with standalone is having FULL control over tuning which can really make the world of difference and you can have some extra fun features, however if you car is a auto this makes things a lot more complicated and expensive.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Yeah… I have not been able to find a single tuner in the area that wants to touch this thing and other tuners told me to not bother with this ECU.

Fitting a standalone sounds like a super fun project to me, having full control over that engine sounds like a lot of fun and I can do things like high octane or E85 tune.

I have far far future plans of trying to adapt a larger, more modern blower to this engine.

The original ECU will probably get a mental breakdown.

Were you able to retain stability control @Alex.M-oneeleven?
That’s the only concern I have. I’m not quite sure how these systems work in this car.

I can live without it, but it‘s nice to have.
 
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#13 ·
When you say exhaust are you saying headers? The only quality headers I see for the 2.3 are from Super Sprint, but I don't think anyone here has installed them.
 
#14 ·
It's brutally difficult to get any info on this car at all, so I've decided to dive deep into the unknown again.

Speeduino UA4C and all the required goodies ordered.
Let's see what we can get out of this engine.

Gotta love mapping engines from scratch with no base maps or anything available at all.
 
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#15 ·
I hope that Speeduino comes in soon, looks like my MAF sensor just perished.

Car runs funny at lower RPMs and throwing sensor range/performance codes.

I won’t be using a MAF, so hopefully it comes in soon so I don’t have to buy a new MAF :’)
 
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