MENUMercedes Benz S Class Tuning
"Thank you for reading my S Class tuning guide."
The S class or special class, catered for people of taste, who required style and performance in abundance.
For this reason the S Class ranks as one of the best selling luxury saloon cars.
We'll look at the best modifications for the S Class range, please read our other in depth articles for more information on each and every modification we mention.
They say knowledge is power and this is certainly true in the world of tuning cars.
The S Class is popular among our members for tuning projects We see car enthusiasts wasting money on their S Class doing the wrong mods and then having to start over. Follow our guides to avoid ruining your car
Improving the handling for people first priority in your S Class tuning project. Drop the car by as much as 35mm and fit sports stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.
Our aim in S Class engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at the top end.
The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.
Power mods.
The following kits are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you start.
Getting the right sports upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.
Mercedes used a Supercharger on many engines throughout their range, and with a simple overdrive pulley you can boost the power output significantly. Add in twincharging, or a larger compressor and you can see some really impressive power gains.
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How to tune your car
- Improve the handling
Focus on Suspension improvements, such as coilovers and make sure the bushings are in good order and that the alignment is correct. Then focus on improving the brakes, with a big disk brake conversion kit and fast road brake pads.
- Remove restrictions
Focus on the intake and exhaust with filters being the common point of restriction in a tuned car. Intercoolers may also become restrictive on turbo engines so this may also need to be uprated.
- Burn more fuel & air
Increase the fuelling so it matches the air coming into the engine. The ratio is important so you need to improve the fuel pump and injectors, so the head mods, big valve conversions, fast road camshafts and forced induction upgrades extra supply of air is adequately met.
- Test and replace any weak parts
Weak areas are commonly the clutch, the turbocharger and pistons and crankshaft in a highly tuned engine. Makes sure these components will cope with your power aspirations.
- The Tune or Remap
A cars ECU controls the fuel, timing, spark and even the turbo in some cases, so to fully extract your gains you should remap the car last and this will fully release the power. Some cars are easy to map, and others require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project.
Modifying to Stage 1:
Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel, Remap, Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust.
Modifying to Stage 2:
fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, Power/Sport clutch, high flow fuel injector.
Modifying to Stage 3:
Engine balancing, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Sports gearbox, Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves).
Here are the model ranges and engine options we found for the S Class Mercedes over the last 40 years or so.
- W116 1972-1980 2.8 L I6, 3.5 L V8, 4.5 L V8, 6.8 L V8, 3.0 L turbodiesel
- W126 1980-1991 2.6 L I6, 2.8 L I6, 3.0 L I6, 3.5 L I6, 3.8 L V8, 4.2 L V8, 5.0 L V8, 5.6 L V8, 3.0 L 5-cylinder turbodiesel, 3.0 L 6-cylinder turbodiesel, 3.5 L 6-cylinder turbodiesel
- W140/C140 1991-1998
- 2.8 L 145 kW (197 PS; 194 bhp) I6
- 3.2 L 170 kW (231 PS; 228 bhp) I6
- 4.2 L 205 kW (279 PS; 275 bhp) V8
- 5.0 L 240 kW (326 PS; 322 bhp) V8
- 6.0 L 300 kW (408 PS; 402 bhp) V12 M120 (1991–1993)
- 6.0 L 290 kW (394 PS; 389 bhp) V12 M120 (1993–1998)
- 3.0 L Turbodiesel 130 kW (177 PS; 175 bhp) I6
- 3.5 L Turbodiesel 110 kW (150 PS; 150 bhp) I6
- W20 (1998-2005) Smaller than it's predecessor but boasts more interior space, new gadgets were added but it was slated as unreliable The rare AMG S63 had the 6.3 444bhp engine.
- 2.8 L 150 kW (204 PS; 201 bhp) V6
- 3.2 L 165 kW (224 PS; 221 bhp) V6
- 3.2 L 145 kW (197 PS; 194 bhp) I6 diesel
- 3.2 L 150 kW (204 PS; 201 bhp) I6 diesel
- 3.7 L 180 kW (245 PS; 242 bhp) V6
- 4.0 L 180 kW (250 PS; 250 bhp) V8 diesel
- 4.0 L 190 kW (260 PS; 260 bhp) V8 diesel
- 4.3 L 205 kW (279 PS; 275 bhp) V8
- 5.0 L 225 kW (306 PS; 302 bhp) V8
- 5.4 L 370 kW (500 PS; 490 bhp) V8
- 5.8 L 270 kW (367 PS; 362 bhp) V12
- 5.5 L 370 kW (500 PS; 490 bhp) V12
- 6.3 L 330 kW (450 PS; 440 bhp) V12
- 6.0 L 450 kW (612 PS; 604 bhp) V12
Your aim when modding the engine should be a nice flat torque output. You want to avoid sending all the power to be at the top end unless you are creating a competition car.
The aim of our pointers is to give a little insight into the world of modifying 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 modified parts and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest performance gains for your money as far as a single modified upgrades goes on a NASP engine.
The intake and 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 performance chip for the best performance gains.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 have flat spots and surges after your modified mods you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine. 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.
Breathing mods are usually next up. Air induction kits will only help to add performance if your cars air intake is restricted!
For most S Class engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter. On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of supplying cold air.
If you want the lovely induction roar of an induction kit and can feed cold air to it then by all means add a full induction kit to improve your driver experience.
Do not go with the widest exhaust you can find this will slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 2 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.
Getting a professionally ported and polished head with larger valves can fully maximise your power gains. A good heavy duty fast road power clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never make false economies or think that a standard clutch to cope. Turbo engines are just crying out to be Reprogrammed. You will see large power gains on most modern turbochaged cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and large modifications for your money.
We've also come across some owners playing with twincharged conversions and making some very high power figures.
The most significant power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. It is generally cheaper to bolt on a supercharger than it is to bolt on a turbo. Turbos provide boost in exponential proportion to increasing engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.
Superchargers will give a boost which is directly proportional to engine speed so is simpler. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.
Alloy wheel upgrades.
Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are usually less heavy than steel ones. Large S Class alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio.
With this in mind aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel your OEM settings. In all cases avoid going larger than 18 inches.
For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss S Class options in more detail with our S Class owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Mercedes Benz tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.
Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below. We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which mods work best for them on each model of car. Comments are used to improve the accuracy of these articles which are continually updated.
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