Tuning the Mercedes M282

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Mercedes M282 engine!"

We are regularly getting messages asking about the best tips for M282 upgrades. So let us look into Mercedes M282 mods and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some frequent tuning mistakes along the way.

The Mercedes M282 are popular engines and with carefully picked modified tuning mods like remaps, turbo kits and camshafts you will really improve your driving experience.

TorqueCars will review M282 tuning and show the best modifications.

When talking about the top parts for your M282 engine, we are going to concentrate on the mods that give the best value for money.

Altering your M282 cam will make a dramatic difference to the engine engines power. Choosing a higher performance cam profile raises the engines power accordingly.

NB: Fast road cams normally increase the bhp across the rpm band, you could sacrifice a little bottom end bhp but the higher rpm power will be better.

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

A Motorsport and race camshaft is not great driving in heavy traffic.

You should ideally optimize your bhp range to your usage of the car so for a road car stick with a fast road M282 camshaft

Some M282 engines respond better to different camshaft durations so view each engine as unique.

The engine timing and injectors and fuel pump also have an effect on the power gains you'll hit.

A longer valve duration can alter the power 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.

M282 Tuning Stages

Stage 1 M282 modifications: Sports exhaust manifold, Intake headers, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Remaps/piggy back ECU.

Stage 2 M282 modifications: Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injectors, induction kit, Ported and polished head.

Stage 3 M282 modifications: Engine balancing & blueprinting, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Twin charging conversions, Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

Carefully think through your options and then source your modifications and set yourself a power target to avoid costly mistakes.

Remaps allows a tuner to release the full potential of all the tuning parts you've done to your M282.

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 will vary depending on the tuning parts you've fitted and the condition of your engine.

It is the whole point to any performance tuning project to get fuel and air into each cylinder

Intake manifold flow the air during the suck phase from the air filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

The bore size, shape and rate of flow of the Intake headers can make a substantial effect on to fuel engine efficiency on the M282.

Commonly we find the headers are in dire need of motorsport parts, although a few manufacturers provide well optimised headers.

Increasing the M282 valve size, doing some M282 port enlargement and head flowing will also boost power, & more importantly will afford you a greater power increase on other upgrades.

Turbo upgrades for the M282

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 M282

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

If your car is fitted with a turbo upgrades are simpler to install and most turbocharged engines are made using better components.

However most engines have weakspots

It is important to find these limitations and upgrade to better quality crank and pistons to cope with the power.

We see many drivers spending a lot of money on turbo charger upgrades on the M282 only to suffer the indignity of watching the motor go up in smoke on it's first outing after it's finished.

Bigger turbochargers often suffer low end lag, and low capacity turbochargers spool up really quickly but don't have the peak rpm engines power gains.

Thanks to new tech the market of turbochargers is always increasing and we now see variable vane turbochargers, permitting the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end performance.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust flow into two channels and flow these at differently designed vanes in the turbo. They also improve the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there is a limitation in the air flow sensor (AFM/MAF/MAP) on the M282 when loads more air is being drawn into the engine.

Going up you'll find 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited power at a much lower level.

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

Uprating M282 fuel injectors

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so need to increase the fuelling when you start going beyond 20% of a performance increase.It is important to be generous with your injector capacity.

The rule of thumb is to add 20% to the flow rate when buying an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and gives a bit of spare capacity should the engine require 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 M282 performance exhausts

Only look to improve your exhaust if your exhaust is actually creating a restriction in flow.

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

Please dont run with the widest exhaust you can buy this will reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be traced to the emissions filters installed, so adding a faster flowing race alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the M282

The M282 engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the M282, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your M282 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our M282 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help to complete and improve this page, so do give us your feedback in the comments box below.

We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which upgrades were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our M282 guides and tips are kept up to date.

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