Tuning the Mercedes M260

"Comprehensive guide to performance parts and tuning the Mercedes M260 engine!"

We are frequently getting emails asking about the greatest M260 upgrades. So let us look into Mercedes M260 upgrades and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

The Mercedes M260 offer good returns when tuned and with the right enhancements like remaps, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will substantially maximize your driving fun.

In this article we outline options for your M260 tuning and report on the greatest modifications for your car.

Just because particular upgrades are appear in lots of M260 projects it doesn't mean it is good, instead we'll greatest upgrades that will give your M260 the best power gain for you money.

Significant gains on the M260 can be made from cam upgrades. Altering the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the engines power and power output.

NB: Fast road cams normally bump the performance across the rpm range, you may sacrifice a little bottom end torque but higher rpm power will be better.

Motorsport cams, bump the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Race camshaft makes it harder when on the daily commute.

You should ideally optimize your power band to your cars usage so for a typical daily driver stick with a shorter duration M260 camshaft

Some M260 engines respond better to mild camshaft durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The ECU mapping and fuel pump and injectors also will make differences on the torque gains you'll hit.

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

M260 Tuning Stages

Stage 1 M260 modifications: Remaps/piggy back ECU, Panel air filters, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Sports exhaust manifold, Intake headers, Fast road camshaft.

Stage 2 M260 modifications: Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, high flow fuel injectors, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, induction kit, Fast road cam.

Stage 3 M260 modifications: Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Competition cam, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Twin charging conversions.

ECU flashing should help to fully realize the full potential of all the modifications you've done to your M260.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but your results often vary depending on the modifications you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

It is vital to any tuning job to force more fuel and air into the M260 engine

Air Intake manifolds carry the air during the suck phase from the filter and allow it to be sucked into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The bore size, shape and flow characteristics of the Intake headers can make a big difference to to fuel engine efficiency on the M260.

Most headers are begging for a performance upgrade, although some car makers provide reasonably well designed headers.

Fitting big valve kits, carrying out M260 port enlargement and head flowing will also increase bhp and torque, and as an added benefit will permit a greater bhp and torque increase on other mods.

Turbo upgrades for the M260

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your M260

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes excellent power gains.

If the engine is fitted with a turbo parts are going to net you a larger power gain and turbo charged engines are made using many forged and stronger components.

There are reliable limits for every engine, with some being extremely strong and some just sufficiently able to handle stock power

See where you'll find these restrictions and upgrade to more solid crank and pistons to utilize the power.

There are many mechanics spending a lots of money on turbo upgrades on the M260 only to suffer the indignity of watching the whole thing catastrophically fail just after it's been finished.

Larger capacity turbos tend to suffer a bottom end lag, and low capacity turbos spool up really quickly but won't have the peak end torque gains.

Thanks to new tech the selection of turbo units is always evolving and we are seeing variable vane turbo units, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust flow into a couple of channels and push these at differently designed vanes in the turbo charger. They also improve the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there is a limitation in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the M260 when a lot more air is being fed into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting performance at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large power gains, although more difficult to setup. We have this in depth look at twinchargers if you want to read more.

Uprating M260 fuel injectors

When you boost the power you will need to uprate to the fuel delivery.

More power needs more fuel. We strongly recommend you to be generous with your flow rate on the injectors.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when buying an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and affords some spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Best M260 performance exhausts

You should look to upgrade your exhaust if your current exhaust is creating a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you should find that the exhaust flow rate is still ok even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too wide or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

Typically exhaust restrictions are in the catalyst installed, so adding a faster flowing race alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the M260

The M260 engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the M260, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your M260 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our M260 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which parts were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our M260 guides and tips are kept up to date.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Mercedes. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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