I have modded every car I have had, including (but certainly not limited to) a Mercedes decked out in Carlsson goodies with a Mosselman turbo kit. Oh and my favorite car I've had yet that I always regret selling, my old WRX (it was a beast the way I had it!)

Okay, I've had my white, 2003 STR with 55k miles for only two weeks and decided to mod. I am going to go with a Mafioso intake, a conservative 1.5 lb pulley from Mina Gallery (I am only doing 1.5lbs due to tune issues needed for 3.0 lbs), and the last thing I am going to get, which I am surprised not too much is written on here yet (I've checked search), but I will get an intercooler spray kit like this one from Jeg's...

NOS 16034 NOS Intercooler Spray Bar Kit

I've read plenty of the killer chiller mod but it requires AC to be on, and AC kills hp so it seems to equal itself out in my mind (I'm probably wrong).

Has anyone here used the intercooler spray kit yet? You can set it up to where you control it or where it sprays at a certain RPM is my understanding. I'm fishing for more info on these kits, and they are so cheap!

Also, based on my past experience with Mercedes, aftermarket exhaust systems usually never provided better numbers on AMG cars than a standard AMG exhaust. I am guessing my STR has a pretty good exhaust system from the factory and I am guessing minimal gains, if any, from an aftermarket exhaust are simply not worth it. Thoughts?

 

Congrats on hookin-up with a low mileage 03 STR! Go ahead and push on a "Mafioso" air intake elbow ($300). Pop in a drop in K&N a/f ($44). While in the air box, reach down to the lower portion of box with a phillips head screwdriver and remove the WOT flap (one screw). Order a low temp thermo from Eurotoys ($35). Def. do the 1.5 pulley ($175). If your not sure about exhaust, then at least do hi-flo cats ($160/pair) and an x-pipe ($80)...nice gain in throttle response, some ponies and trq. An ECU tune that provides an a/f ratio between 11:1 to 12.5:1 will make it all come together...440+ hp= Sub 5 second 0-60 and 12's in the 1/4.

 

forget the intercooler spray bar. Toss the nitrous in the intake.

In my opinion, other than the nitrous, your best bet is to isolate the intercooler coolant tract from the engine coolant and then add the killer chiller.

You can add the k&n and intake elbow at a low cost. Those are must do's.

 

Ahhhh! LOL! qwiketz to the rescue! Where you've been bro? Ditto to isolating the s/c intercooler circuit and "Chill Her".

 

Your Mercedes was properly modded , Carlsson is one of the best tuning firms along with Brabus , they use highest quality parts available , better than AMG . Mosselman turbo is also a great one . Your post evoque me to install this kit for my next MB

 

What did you do to it? Tuning? Which / how?

 

What tune issues do you speak of?

The bang for your buck just isn't there for the I/C sprayer...What about keeping the stock pulley and throwing on a nitrous kit?

 

It looks like I still have some research to do before I begin hooking up my STR. This is my first supercharged car and I am trying to get myself familiar with the heating issues of the supercharger. I will follow all the advice mentioned here and after I research them some more, looks like I know I can at least start with a Mafioso intake and K&N for a first move to get the ball rolling.

My past modded cars have posed issues for me, and thats one of the reasons I want to go conservative on a 1.5lb pulley. My old Mosselman turbo'd Benz used to stall randomly and often times on very busy streets. Not good. And my old WRX was a treat the entire time I had it but two weeks after I sold it to my friend, the tranny went out (I had no idea whether or not it had issues prior to sale). He then replaced it with an STi tranny and that one failed too as the power exceeded the tranny's capabilities. He ended up having to sell the car as he spent too much on two transmissions.

I am scared to death of nitrous in the engine so thats a no-no for me. My friend back in Ohio owns a hot rod shop and they have like five dead cars behind their shop from engines that blew from nitrous. Some of the dead Civics were even being used as spare parts cars after that. I would hate to replace the engine on my STR, I bet its $$$$!!!!

RegentV12 - it was fun having an odd-ball Mercedes that was turbo'd but I would never do it again and I would advise against you doing it too. It would have been cheaper for me to have sold my Merc and bought an AMG version of it, and the AMG version would have come with all the other things like bodykit, seats and dials, suspension, exhaust, brakes, wheels, etc., etc. I spent a ton of money on that car and at the end I felt it still wasn't that fast. The support mods to make it anything more than a low pressure turbo system are just too much money.

JagV8 - it was a 2002 WRX (before they brought the STi stateside) with too many parts to list but most importantly was a 16g turbo upgrade with all support mods and all three cats removed. I tried to use as many Prodrive parts as possible to keep it true to its Rally racing roots and relationship with Prodrive. It was conservative looking, not all Fast and Furious looking at all.

Bacardi 151 - great name! The tune issue I speak of is that my little bit of research shows there is little out there for ECU tune options. I have read of someone taking their STR to a shop for custom tune and felt that power was actually lost. I know these cars are rare and I would get nervous about someone fiddling with my ECU for the first time to get it to work properly with a 3lb pulley.

My goal is to just push the envelope only slightly further than Jaguar did for reliability reasons.

 

So no tune for the WRX? I was thinking you had and wondering which one / who did it / which tool / etc.

 

Thanks for the compliment on the name. Perhaps someone can fill me in if I'm wrong...To my limited understanding of that tune, they got a mina tune...Either you tell mina your mods, send off your ecu and trust they get it right...Or you put your car on the dyno, send mina your dyno sheet and ecu and again, trust they get it right...One of those scenarios is what I believe happened to the person who was disappointed in the results...On a typical dyno tune the tuner can make adjustments and immediately verify their work on the dyno...Furthermore, every dyno sheet I've shown on any STR has had relatively high air fuel ratios leaving little room to tune them, only question is timing advance which most dyno sheets don't display...

In my search for a tuner, I spoke a few people who were interested in what my expectations were. I explained I basically have a stock STR with 3lb pulley and was curious about my AFRs and timing...Two seemingly knowledgeable tuners had said the STR has a very good MAF and a wideband O2 sensor and will automatically calculate for the pulley...This is why I believe I'm seeing the higher AFRs on every STR dyno sheet...

With nitrous, I regret not doing it and going in the direction of the 3lb...If you put on a smaller shot, you can still remain stock at all times...If you're driving the speed limit and a M5 pulls up on you, you can still go WOT w/o spray and if they start to pull you can THEN turn of the spray...With the small shot your also helping to cool down the engine...With the 3lb pulley, with every WOT run your actually making the engine hotter than what Jaguar intended...So, nitrous is the lesser of all evils IMO...99% of the time you'll never use it and when you do, it's a like a "5lb" pulley & "freezer" killer all in one...

 

The upstreams are wideband.

They are / may be ignored at WOT. MAF would be used, either way, so will compensate for pulley.

IAT is always used. MAP probably (?) is.

IAT2 will pull back what's going on, if necessary.

Probably more.

Ideally you'd look at / tweak fuel/timing/etc maps on (or off) the dyno - right?

Anyone know more / better?

We know we can flash using WDS / IDS etc. So "all" that's really needed is map/etc display & edit software......

 

After the turbo upgrade I had a custom tune. If you are interested in pre-programmed tunes, there is a company called Cobb that sells what they call an "Accessport." I had one on my Subie when it had stock turbo. They have many, many pre-programmed maps from which to choose from, allowing you to adjust for almost every type of modification variety imaginable, and allows you to adjust for fuel type. It is a great plug in computer, and it works VERY well. I was very happy with mine, and dyno tests per members on a major Subaru forum (NASIOC.com) revealed that Cobb's claims on hp figures per their pre-programmed tunes were pretty much correct.

They started with just Subaru but now make them for other cars like Nissan's GTR. If they made on for the Jaguar, I would feel totally safe using one, but I know that our rare cars will not be on Cobb's radar haha. Oh well...

 

Thanks. Isn't the Nissan GTR also rare?

 

i know you wrote this a while back, but can you please give me more information on these parts you recommended, I want to get exactly what you mentioned.

 

What parts??
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I have an 03 str with about 137000km. I am thinking about getting a 3LB supercharger pulley and the K&N air filter. also thinking about getting the low temp thermostat from euro toys. Are these minor mods a good idea or is there something else I should do before this to the now stock str?

 

Ya your STR should be fine with those.

It is a slippery slope though..

 

This question is directed at anyone who can answer it better than myself. I am recently thinking of doing some mods to my 03 str, is there a problem if I get a 3lb uprgaded super charger pulley oppose to the 1.5lb one ? im also getting a caldoofy intake elbow, a low temp thermo, and a k&n filter.

 

It generates more heat, but that is about it. Well you have to machine (sand, grind) down the snout so the pulley will fit

 

@ michael star, exactly what did you mean by slippery slope? Hopefully nothing too bad because i've had 1 too many of those. And in the case of grinding down the snout for the 3lb pulley, this sounds like something I cant imagine doing so Im presuming its going to be difficult and costly for the mechanic to do aswell? Is there going to be the grinding of snout if I were to install the 1.5 or 2.5 lb pulley? I appreciate your feedback more than you know it thanks.