Mercedes M282 Tuning

"All you need to know about tuning the Mercedes M282 engine!"

The Mercedes M282 are fantastic to work on and with the optimum sports tuning mods like ECU maps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will really improve your driving opportunities.

We shall consider M282 tuning and provide tips on the greatest modifications.

History, Power & Specs of the Engine

M282 DE14

• (109 PS; 107 hp) 180Nm (133lbft) at 1,375 rpm
• (136 PS; 134 hp) 200Nm (148lbft) at 1,460 rpm

M282 DE14 LA

• (163 PS; 161 hp) at 5,500 rpm 250Nm (184lbft) at 1,620–4,000 rpm

Tuning the Mercedes M282 and best M282 performance parts.

Best M282 tuning parts

The greatest M282 modifications on an engine are as we have found the ones that give the best value for money.

We won't be swayed by popular M282 modifications, they need to be cost effective.

Significant gains on the M282 can be made from camshaft upgrades. Altering the camshaft profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the torque and power output.

Fast road camshafts usually boost the bhp and torque across the rpm band, you may sacrifice a little bottom end torque but high end rpm power will be lifted.

Race camshafts, boost the high end rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Competition cam will just annoy you whilst on the daily commute, because the lumpy idle will make the car prone to stall and smooth driving at low rpm becomes impossible. If you are developing a track car this doesn't matter as you are in the high end of your RPM range anyway and that is where you want the power to be.

You should ideally match your bhp range to your driving style so for a car used daily stick with a shorter duration M282 cam

Each engine responds better to more or less aggressive cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The engine timing and fuel pump and injectors also have a large bearing on the bhp gains you'll get.

A longer valve duration can alter the bhp 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.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include:
Sports exhaust header/manifold, Fast road camshaft, drilled & smoothed airbox, Panel air filters, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Intake manifolds.

Typical stage 2 mods often include:
Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, high flow fuel injectors, Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, induction kit.

Typical stage 3 mods often include:
Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Twin charging conversions, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Competition cam, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Engine balancing & blueprinting.

ECU mapping should help to release the full potential of all the parts you've done to your M282.

(In some cases, as the factory ECU is locked flashing is not an option, so an aftermarket ECU is the route to take, and many of these will outperform factory ECU's but make sure it has knock protection and that you get it setup properly.)

It will usually give you around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NA (naturally aspirated) engines, but figures achieved will rely on the parts you've done and the condition of your engine.

Forcing more fuel and air into each cylinder is the main goal to any engine modification job.

Intake manifolds take the air during the suck phase from the air cleaner and allow it to be drawn into the engine and mixed with fuel.

Shape and flow rate of the Intake manifold can make a large change to fuel mixing and power on the M282.

I usually find intake are in desperate need of aftermarket tuning parts, although a few car makers provide decently flowing intake.

Increasing the M282 valve size, getting 3 or 5 angle valve jobs and porting and head flowing will also increase bhp and torque, & more importantly will allow you to get an improved bhp and torque increase on other upgrades.

Turbo upgrades

NA (naturally aspirated) engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your M282

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

When the engine has a turbo already fitted tuning mods are simpler to install and you'll see that turbo charged engines are made with stronger components.

However every engines will have power limits

See where you'll find these limits and upgrade to better quality crank and pistons to utilize the power.

There are many car owners spending a lot of money on turbo charger upgrades on the M282 only to have the M282 go up in smoke when it's been finished.

Bigger capacity turbochargers often suffer no power at low rpm, and little turbochargers spool up quickly but don't have the peak rpm bhp gains.

Thankfully the selection of turbo units is always moving on and we commonly find variable vane turbo units, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end power.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust flow into 2 channels and flow these at differently angled vanes in the turbocharger. They also improve the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is common that there's a limit in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the M282 when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

We see 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped power at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large bhp gains, although more complex to setup. We have this article covering twinchargers if you want to read more.

Fuelling

When you raise the torque you will need to pay attention to the fuel delivery.

More torque needs more fuel. We strongly recommend you to over specify your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% to the flow rate when buying an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and gives some spare capacity should the engine require more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

All the following flywheel power targets will assume an injector duty cycle of 80% and a base of 58psi of fuel pressure at idle.

4 Cylinder turbocharged engines

• 58 PSI 340cc/min 200hp
• 58 PSI 511cc/min 300hp
• 58 PSI 682cc/min 400hp

4 Cylinder NA (naturally aspirated) engines

• 58 PSI 285cc/min 200hp
• 58 PSI 426cc/min 300hp

4 Cylinder supercharged engines

• 58 PSI 312cc/min 200hp
• 58 PSI 468cc/min 300hp
• 58 PSI 625cc/min 400hp

Exhaust

You may need to improve your exhaust if your exhaust is actually creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll find the exhaust flow rate is fine even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow through the engine but do not go too big or you might just stuff your flow rate and make things worse. So generally speaking, keep to a size of 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Common exhaust restrictions are in the catalyst installed, so adding a better flowing race alternative such as a sports catalyst pretty much removes this restriction, thanks to it's larger size and surface area, and will effectively raise the performance to levels you would expect without having a catalyst installed, but keeps the car road legal.

Weak spots, Issues & problem areas on the M282

The M282 engines are generally reliable and solid units, as long as you follow the manufacturers service schedules, and use a good quality oil to ensure longevity. Few problems should happen as long as they are regularly serviced and maintained.

Carbon build up in the head, particularly around the valves which will sap power or create flat spots, this is a larger issue on direct injection engines but should be looked out for on all engines. We have tips on removing carbon build up.

Some of our members have had issues with flat spots or glitches after applying mods and upgrades or tuning, this is not usually related to this engines design, so instead see our article on diagnosing flat spots and problems after tuning which should help you get the bottom of this issue.

Regular oil changes are vital on the M282, especially when tuned and will help extend the life and reliability of the engine.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your M282 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our M282 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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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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