Mercedes Benz E Class Tuning

"Tuning guide to the greatest Mercedes E Class modifications."

We take the world of E Class tuning apart and bring you the recommended mods and upgrades if you are focussed on improving your e class performance.

Mercedes E Class provides a fun base for your project and with the right modified modifications you can assuredly enhance your driving fun.

The E Class is a good tuning project to play with. If you do your planning then you can create an awesome E Class but don't be fooled there are lots of tuning modifications out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

• Mk1 W124, 1st generation E class was released in 1994 with a range of petrol and diesel engines. It came in a saloon W125 Coupe C124 and Wagon/Estate S124 versions. The V8 engine models wore a 400E or 500E badge.
• Mk2 W210 was sold between 1996 and 2002 and addressed many areas for improvement over the previous version. It achieved car of the year from motor trend in 1996.
• Mk3 W211 was the 3rd generation which arrived in 2003 and ran until 2009. The CLS was based on this platform. We also saw an E63 AMG version released, showing the potential of this platform in the hands of the right tuner.
• Mk4 W212 released in 2009. The W212, sported a new teardrop headlight design and met more stringent fuel consumption requirements whilst dishing out a fair amount of power. It was a great car to drive and has proved quite popular.

• Mk5 W213 from 2016 boasted silky smooth inline 6 cylinder engines were offered and many electronic driving enhancements such as self driving system which operates for periods of 120 seconds (this feature was introduced on the E63 and later became available on the non AMG tuned versions).

The E Class is a good tuning project to try. With the right mods your E Class can be transformed into a stunning project. Don't waste money, do your homework and follow our unbiased guides to each performance upgrade so you don't waste your money.

Raising the high rpm bhp should be your overall aim with a nice fat wide peak torque band.

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.

Engine Tuning.

This list of the stages and uprated parts are usually installed by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you begin.

Getting the best performance mods for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

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Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Remap, Alloy wheels, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Lighter flywheel, Sports exhaust, Panel air filter.

Stage 2 mods: Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injector, fuel pump upgrades, Power/Sport clutch.

Stage 3 mods: Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Competition cam, Sports gearbox, Engine balancing, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

You need to keep as much low end torque as possible and aim to achieve a wide power band across the rev range rather than a narrow top end power hike.

The whole aim of our advice is to give a starting base of car tuning mods and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best tuning mods and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest power gains for your money as far as a bolt on sports modifications goes on a NASP engine.

The intake & exhaust flow play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car impossible to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a camshaft upgrade with other mods and finish with a remap to fully release the power gain.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to look at the fuelling.

If you find you get flat spots and power surges after your motorsport modifications you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Please note that WE DO NOT RECOMMEND INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car with over 30 percent more power and are finding that the standard air intake has become limited.

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for E Class engines you should go with a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Do not go 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.

Getting the head gas flowed will further help more air into each cylinder. This is definitely a job for a pro with a flow bench. When you start tuning your E Class you will discover that the standard clutch starts to slip so get an uprated clutch. The best mods in our opinion for your E Class are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

NASP engines do not achieve big power gains if you remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A remapped turbo will give large power gains and fully release the potential power of the engine.

We've also come across some owners playing with twincharged applications and making some very high power gains.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. Turbos are usually harder to add than a supercharger. Turbos provide boost in exponential proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice directly proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Alternatively you could fit water injection to reduce the risk of knock.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many E Class owners uprate the handling of their cars with tuning suspension modifications as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

Good suspension tweaks that often improve handling for the E Class include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe out on the front wheels.

Drop the car by as much as 22mm - 38 mm and fit performance stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are generally lighter than the steel ones. Get a good soft compound tyre to improve your handling and help improve traction on your E Class. Large E Class alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Although some people have installed larger rims without issues we would stick to a 18 inch rim size as the maximum.

There is a more updated version of this Mercedes E Class Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

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

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered.

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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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