Car tuning tips:M272 Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Mercedes M272

"Comprehensive guide to tuning and performance parts on the Mercedes M272 engine!"

TorqueCars often are getting messages asking about how to improve the M272 from people inquiring about getting more power from the M272 and wanting to know what are the best tips on M272 upgrades. So let us look into Mercedes M272 upgrades and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

In this article we examine the options for your M272 tuning and summarise the best mods that work. Mercedes M272 are popular engines and with the right performance modifications like remaps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will improve your driving enjoyment.

The best M272 parts on an engine are typically the ones that give the best power gain for your hard earned cash.

We won't be swayed by popular M272 parts, they need to be cost effective.

Improving air intake on the M272

You need air and fuel for an engine to work. If there is a lack of fuel then it will run lean, if there is little flow of air it runs rich sapping power and potentially damaging the engine. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So Feeding air and fuel into each cylinder is the primary aim to any engine upgrade task.

You'll commonly see there is a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the M272 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 sapped bhp and torque at a much lower level.

Intake flow the air during the suck phase from the intake filter and allow it to be fed into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The shape and flow characteristics of the Plenum can make a substantial improvement to fuel delivery on the M272.

Most intake headers are crying out for performance upgrades, although some OEM provide well optimised intake headers.

Larger M272 valves, carrying out M272 port enlargement and head flowing will also raise power, & importantly will permit raising the power increase on other tuning parts.

M272 performance cam tips.

Some M272 engines respond better to more or less aggressive cam durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The map and fuel pump and injectors also will say much on the power gains you'll achieve.

Altering valve durations 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.

The camshaft profile plays a big part in the engines power output so camshaft upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake & exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen camshaft profile, so large engines power gains are on offer for camshaft upgrades.

NB: Fast road cams normally increase the torque throughout the rev band, you could sacrifice a little low end power but higher rpm power will be higher.

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 Race camshaft makes it harder when on the daily commute.

You should ideally optimize your engines power to your cars usage so for a typical daily driver stick with a mild fast road M272 camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the M272

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 M272 parts:

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

Stage 2 M272 parts:

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

Stage 3 M272 parts:

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

ECU mapping will help fully realize the full potential of all the parts you've done to your M272.

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

Turbo modifications on the M272

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 M272.

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 your motor has forced induction upgrades are going to net you a larger power gain and turbo engines are built using better components.

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

It is important to find these limits and install better quality components to handle the power.

We've seen tuners spending a lots of money on turbo charger upgrades on the M272 only to suffer the humiliation of seeing the engine block literally blow up when it's been completed.

Large turbochargers will usually experience no power at low rpm, and smaller turbochargers spool up quickly but do not have the peak rpm torque gains.

In recent times the world of turbo chargers is always moving on and we now see variable vane turbo chargers, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.

Twin scroll turbo chargers divert the exhaust flow into a couple of channels and direct these at differently designed 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 power gains, although more difficult to setup. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the M272

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to pay attention to the fuelling when you start extending past 20% of a torque hike. At this point we flag up the need to over specify your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add another 15% when specifying an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and gives you 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 M272 performance exhaust upgrades

You should look to upgrade your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if your current exhaust is creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll find your flow rate is still good 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.

Sports exhausts can help equal out the flow of air through the engine.

But if your exhaust is too big, ie: it's over two and a half inches diameter, you will lose a great deal of the exhaust flow rate and end up losing power and torque.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be located the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a freer flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

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

Faults issues and things to look out for on the M272

Like most engines an M272, 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 M272, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned M272 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 M272 why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about M272 tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their M272.

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