Sir Lord Baron Von Vader Ham (of Cheem)

[Neeek]

Would running some glycol free coolant like Redline Water Wetter or Penrite 10/10ths have the same marginal reduction in inlet temps as it does on traditional radiator cooling?

Probably, yes. I don't know what's in it right now, but it's blue and tastes awful. Probably standard Merc coolant.

Went out for a drive yesterday, and can confirm that things are MUCH better. Here's a quick screen grab from a couple of months ago:



As I recall, this was on a standard city drive. Although I had it set to F, that's with the car up to temperature, and from just driving around town. Based on the time, that's probably the school run. That's an IAT of 54C. Also what I can't show you, but this was happening, but after a semi-decent pull the IATs would hit 170F and basically sit there, maybe dropping to 160F on the freeway, That's 71C. Here's what the car does at various IATs:

35C - timing retarded 3.5 degrees
45C - 6.3 retard
65C - 9.5 retard
And at some point after that, probably 80 ish, the supercharger cuts out.

Not the above is only brought into play under heavy throttle loads, so pootling around you won't notice it much. But had I decided to tromp it based on the screen grab above, I'd have been on a 6.3 degree retarded timing map! That costs a lot of power. And with it sitting at 160F/71C, I'd have knocked 9.5 degrees out...

Anyway, here are a few from yesterday.

First one was setting off from the bottle shop down the road:



WAY lower, but compared to the one before, the car wasn't totally up to temp, which is a coolant temp of about 85-90. But still, 31 vs 54 on the IATs...

Next, up to temp, driving through the burbs with the occasional squirt:



So the car is now up to temp, AC on, pump pumping. Note the scale on the MAP read out, which has shifted up, proving that I'd given it a little squirt, but only to about 8psi.This is close to the original screen grab I took a couple of months back. Same coolant temp, but 33 vs 54 IAT!

Then i decided to turn off the AC (so the fan isn't on the whole time) as I sat in traffic:



10 degrees higher on coolant, 5 higher on IAT. That's not fucking bad!

What these don't show is how how quickly the IATs rise when you're on it, and then how quickly they recover again now that the pump actually works - all of which I was watching at the time. It also doesn't demonstrate how the car has changed - throttle response is more or less instant now. And a small stab of the pedal will result in much brisker acceleration. I don't know how long the pump has been fucked for, but it seems that over time I have not noticed the performance decrease as much. But it would've been pulling timing quite a bit as a result of the previously very high IATs.

Cal also pointed out to me that my little blast on that closed road with my son the other month would have been less brisk than it should have been. I mean, we got from 80 to 200+ pretty fucking rapidly. But I think in the interests of science, we need to do that again now that everything is working properly...

[rowdytoot]

F
Good result

[PXL265]

ANd why did you not test over my way???? I have the best test route just up the way a little.....

ANd I could have provided refreshments for both you and the car if needed after a vigorous test run.

[PXL265]

And from this morning, the classic and the classy.....




Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk

[Neeek]

Did you take those with a Nokia 5110???

[PXL265]

Pretty much.....

plus Tapatalk can be shit for uploading photos

[Neeek]

So we are once again reminded that cars costing a cool quarter of a million bucks new can be bought for cheap, but they're still $250,000 cars.

There are three big things that go bang on these. The first is the SBC brake pump. They reach a preset limit, then they're paperweights. Then you're up for a few grand to replace them. Mine is OK, because I can check how long I've got in STAR. The second is the fuel pumps, and these reliably last about 60,000 miles before you need to replace both. That's another few grand, or a bit less if you do what I did and get them from the US and DIY. I have already done these myself.

Finally, the third item - Airmatic suspension. These bits don't last forever either, and when they go bang... well, you get the idea...

And here we are:



So a couple of weeks ago, the car started pulling to the left. Then came good. Then did it again. Then I got the red warning message, pulled over at home, and took the above photo - RR bag on the bump stops. But then it came good again! Aaaaaaand, of course, then it didn't. Stayed up fine overnight, dropped down again as soon as you started driving anywhere. I ran out of patience with it, especially as it didn't throw any codes (other than the one saying "stop the car, you're too low"). So this morning I dropped it off at an independent for them to have a poke around and confirm my worst suspicions.

Goods news: no leaks in the air lines, no leaks at the valve block
Mediocre news: the air pump was almost dead because it had been trying to keep everything full of air when some of it was leaking out. Also the front air struts are very slowly leaking (despite them having been replaced before by a previous owner)
Bad news: RR bag has a leak internally, won't hold pressure, probably the internal solenoid which is not serviceable. Rear bags are original to the car

With such news, some people go "fuck it" and replace all the Airmatic stuff with a coil-over conversion kit. Because I quite like the Airmatic (when it's working) and I'm an idiot, I'm sticking with the Airmatic. So I have instructed the garage to replace both rear bags, and the pump. I'll do the front struts myself as I can do it much cheaper with parts from the US, and it's a very easy job for the home mechanic. The bill from the indy will be significant, doing the fronts myself will take a little time and money, but nothing too horrific. Then, in theory, I will never have to replace them ever again.

Should be back with me all fixed end of next week, provided our 3 day lockdown doesn't carry on. Meantime, I'll fire up the FCP Euro shopping cart and fill it with expensive parts. Again.

[Ribfeast]

This is the bit that scares me about these, and the SL55, pushing me towards an SLK55 instead. But man they look like awesome cars, perfect comfy daily. Interesting to see what the total bill ends up being.

[uuheels]

This is the bit that scares me about these, and the SL55, pushing me towards an SLK55 instead. But man they look like awesome cars, perfect comfy daily. Interesting to see what the total bill ends up being.

The SL has ABC suspension which is hydraulic and by all accounts f-a-r more expensive to fix than the E55's Airmatic suspension.
Leaking a bit of air isn't a big deal, but pissing hydraulic fluid would be far more problematic You can bet the hydraulic pump is far more expensive that the Airmatic's air compressor too.

[Neeek]

This is the bit that scares me about these, and the SL55, pushing me towards an SLK55 instead. But man they look like awesome cars, perfect comfy daily. Interesting to see what the total bill ends up being.

Oh, I know the bill is going to be..! I remind myself that I could cheap out and get a coil suspension kit for less, but as above I rather like the Airmatic, so I'll be keeping it stock. Helps with resale as well, should I want to do that. But yeah, the bill is going to be epic, and that's with me doing half of it...

Also the SL55 has ABC suspension, which is not the same system as Airmatic... way more $$$$ to replace when it goes! SLK55 probably has coils but no supercharger... I can stomach expensive suspension repairs when there's that lovely spinny thing atop the V8...

[Ribfeast]

Can always M113K swap an SLK55 It's been done before!

[Neeek]

Because I don't like complicated suspension and I am a madman, I'm going to M113K swap an SLK55 It's been done before!

FTFY

[Ribfeast]

Bahaha yeah it would be described as "trampolining with lions while juggling Molotov cocktails in a fireworks factory".

[doctorpat]

So I'm hearing that a SLK55 with a rear-mount turbo is the sensible and cheapest option?

[Ribfeast]

Don't give me ideas! I need the SLK first lol