I didn't want to spend any money modding my E55 since I figured I would get rid of it within 2 years. However I have grown to love my car and I might actually keep it until its full lease term!

That being said I am interested in doing "stage 1" type mods. This primarily includes a pulley mod and possibly an ECU flash. The issue I've had is that I know what things SHOULD cost, but there is a huge disparity in their ACTUAL cost.

Most stage 1 kits I've seen are between $4K and $5K installed, which is INSANE. The pulley part itself shouldn't be more than a few hundred bucks, and the ECU flash shouldn't be more than a grand or so.

Quite frankly, I modded my 996TT with an ECU, exhaust, and coilovers for LESS than $5K. I see no reason to spend as much on easier and cheaper mods.

Thoughts?

 

even a few hundred for a pulley is insane to me.

 

Vadim, formerly of GMG racing, has his own shop and sells a complete Stage 1 kit for $2495, roughly 40% less than the Kleemann kit, but still 50% more expensive than it should be.

Any other leads?

 

An option you'll see on mb world is to get the ASP pulley. It's one of the largest out there and is the cheapest at $800. I know, still a crazy amount for a simple pulley. But it does the job, and you can run it without an ECU tune. It's recommended to upgrade your cooling system however. Installation of all this is another story of course.

I bought my car with the ASP, 80mm throttle body, upgraded IC pump, and separate supercharger IC coolant circuit. It runs nice and strong. Previous owner ran 11.7 @ 118 with DRs. I'm considering a tune one day, but having a non-standard setup is a bit trickier than going the standard VRP, Renntech, Kleeman routes. I personally can't stomach their costs either, but I'm not a baller like half of the people here. I come from much cheaper platforms than this.

 

Thanks root. I just learned about the ASP today. Someone on MBworld is selling their ASP because they installed a VRP instead. They claim not to notice a difference, but that begs the question: why keep the VRP and sell the ASP then?

 

Couple of reasons just out of speculation. 1, the quality of the ASP is sometimes in question. You'll notice in the pictures on mb world that its in two pieces that are welded together in not the most elegant manner. However, I haven't seen any real problems except for one guy who kept having his belt get shredded. My guess is that he just got a bad one. 2, the tuning aspect. It's tricky to go through these "stages" when you are not using the pulley from the tuner since his tune was made for his equipment.

For the second reason (maybe a little the first), I was actually considering doing this as well. However, I just can't justify the cost.

 

vadim has been working on my E63 and i have been very satisfied thus far. also, vrp's prices are very competitive within the market.

 

$5k for a pulley and a tune? thats crazy

 

mines all renntech and its a beast...you will love the pulley/ECU mods!

 

Best bargain is VRP.

 

I was considering going with ASP on my SL55 but was scared off due to a "need" for a cooling kit which runs about 3k or so

I too would love to find a cheaper alternative to these CRAZY kit prices, which are insane

 

I used www.letmotorsports.com for my heat exchanger,pulley,tune ,i/c pump it cost about $2,200.00 .

 

ive heard great things about vrp even though i used renntech on my cls55

 

The IC cooling system on the SL is much bigger than on the E. It's a weak pint of the E model and that's why it's replaced so often.

I have an ASP pulley, Evosprt headers and VRP tune. The tune made everything work better together, gas mileage too.

 

It was posted on another forum. Is there any potential issues that could or should be looked out for befor i further my interest? Thanks and help is appreciated.

-ozz