Find out about "M176 Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Mercedes M176

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Mercedes M176 engine!"

Popular tuning sites like TorqueCars often are seeing threads requesting information on how to improve the M176 from people inquiring about getting more power from the M176 and wanting to know what are the things tuners recommend when it comes to M176 upgrades. So let us look into Mercedes M176 parts and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some problems along the way.

The Mercedes M176 have loads of potential and with the ultimate motorsport modifications like a remap, turbo kits and camshafts you will definitely improve your driving experience.

Let us examine the options for your M176 tuning and provide tips on the best mods that work.

The best M176 modifications on an engine are usually the ones that give the biggest return for your money.

We won't be swayed by popular M176 modifications, they need to be cost effective.

Improving air intake on the M176

You need air matched to fuel for an engine to work. If there is not enough fuel then it will run lean, if there is little flow of air it runs rich sapping power which risks damage to the M176. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So Pushing air into each cylinder is the primary aim to any performance tuning project.

It is common that there's a limit in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the M176 when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

When tuning you may well find you need to get an air sensor or flow meter capable of upto 4 bars to cope with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited power at a much lower level.

Engines intake headers flow the air from the air cleaner and allow it to be sucked into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

The bore size, shape and flow rate of the Intake can make a substantial difference to to fuel atomisation and engine efficiency on the M176.

Many mass produced engine headers are ripe for a performance upgrade, although a few makers provide reasonably well designed headers.

Big valve conversions on the M176, getting 3 or 5 angle valve jobs and porting and head flowing will also increase torque, the fantastic side effect is it will give you increasing the torque increase on other mods.

M176 performance cam tips.

Different M176 engines respond better to mild camshaft durations so view each engine as unique.

The engine timing and fuelling also have a large bearing on the torque gains you'll hit.

Altering valve 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.

Significant air intake, and exhaust improvements on the M176 can be made from cam upgrades. Changing the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the bhp and power output.

NB: Fast road camshafts commonly raise the performance across the rev band, you might lose a little low down torque but top end will be better.

Motorsport and race camshafts, raise the top end band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Motorsport camshaft will just annoy you whilst driving around busy urban areas.

You should ideally optimize your power band to your cars usage so for a car driven daily stick with a fast road M176 camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the M176

Before we break the best tuning upgrades down into stages of tune, let's list the most effective tuning upgrades for you.

1. Suspension Upgrades - always improve your cars handling
2. Brake Upgrades - Even before adding power improve those brakes
3. Intake - make sure the intake is not restricted, use filters and intake upgrades to improve this
4. Exhaust - as with 3 ensure there is not restriction in the exhaust, cats are the usual bottleneck
5. Tunes - remapping, piggyback ECU's and aftermarket ECU's can all make decent gains
6. Fuelling - when you've increased power you'll need to match this with more fuel
7. Turbo upgrades - Improving the intake with a large turbo and better flowing intercooler will be the biggest power gain you'll see (but one of the most complex).

This video guide to tuning cars is a great starting point to work from in your project.

Stage 1 M176 parts:

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

Stage 2 M176 parts:

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

Stage 3 M176 parts:

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

ECU flashing allows a tuner to fully realize the full potential of all the parts you've done to your M176.

You will typically expect to see gains of approximately 20-30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but power output usually differs on the parts you've done and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the M176

To get a turbo working on a NASP engine there is a lot involved, from lowering compression ratio to improved fuel supply and mapping, so we have found a great guide to helpavoid the common pitfalls or end up with an unfinished project because you were not told what you were getting into by doing this on the M176.

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

When an engine has a turbocharger upgrades are relatively easy and you will discover turbo engines are built with more solid components.

There are practical limits for every engine, with some being incredibly solid and some only able to handle stock power

Discover these restrictions and install better quality crank and pistons to survive the power.

It's not unheard of people spending a a stack of money on turbo charger upgrades on the M176 only to suffer the indignity of watching the M176 throw a rod when it's finished.

Large upgraded turbo units tend to experience low end lag, and small turbo units spool up more quickly but do not have the peak end torque gains.

Over the last 20 years the world of turbos is always evolving and we now see variable vane turbos, allowing the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.

Twin scroll turbos divert the exhaust gases into two channels and feed these at differently profiled vanes in the turbocharger. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large bhp and torque gains, although more difficult to configure. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the M176

Don't miss you'll need to ramp up the fuel delivery when you are increasing the performance - it makes the car more thirsty. Experienced tuners recommend to be generous with your flow rate on the injectors.

As a rule of thumb add 15% when fitting an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and allows some spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

Don't forget that different fuel grades will usually require different settings, a high octane fuel will burn more efficiently than lower octane fuel for example. A car will trim fuel supply to keep within the ideal air fuel mix but at the extreme ends you may need to adjust your injector capacity, or the mapping or you'll get flat spots and potential lean or rich fuel issues..

Recommended M176 performance exhaust upgrades

We'd only recommend you look to boost your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if your current exhaust is creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you should find that your flow rate is still ok even on modest power gains, but on a serious tuning project with a big boost in power you will certainly need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Please dont run with the largest exhaust you can get you'll reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between one and a half to two and half inches. Your exhaust design, the bend angles and construction are what have more effect on flow rates than your pipe width to a certain extent. So the exhaust design is a big factor.

Typically exhaust restrictions are traced to the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a freer flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Catalyst removal (NB:catalysts reduce harmful engine emissions) is illegal in most countries and regions.

Faults issues and things to look out for on the M176

Like most engines an M176, should have few issues if it gets properly serviced and looked after.

We cannot stress enough the need for oil changes with the correct grade of oil on the M176, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned M176 this is more important than ever and close attention should be paid to your maintenance schedule.

If you are interested in learning more or getting impartial tuning advice for your M176 why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about M176 tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their M176.

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This entry was posted under Makes and Models. Tags: engine, mercedes
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