CSF HIGH-PERFORMANCE ALL-ALUMINIUM HEAT EXCHANGER Mercedes CLA C117 Coupe 2013 -> CLA 45 AMG (360 Hp)

Keep your charge temperatures consistently cooler with CSF's High-Performance All-Aluminium Heat Exchanger for Mercedes-AMG E63 AMG and more! 

This multi-fit CSF heat exchanger replaces the small heat exchanger with an upgraded unit. This upgraded unit has a significantly improved design, specifically designed to keep charge temperatures consistently cooler. 

The Problem

As you probably already know, as the turbocharger compresses air this heats it up. This hot air is bad for the engine as it will reduce the knock threshold and limit the safe power output of the engine, killing fun. Aftermarket ECU software increases boost pressure, this means that the air will be compressed more and thus, heat up more. 

The factory heat exchanger is designed for standard power levels and expected type of use, as soon as you go outside of the factory power levels and expected type of use, your factory heat exchanger will begin to struggle. As well as this, as your radiator goes through its life the core will deteriorate externally as well as fill with contaminates internally to reduce its cooling power.

The Solution

The CSF heat exchanger for the Mercedes-AMG E63 and more is a larger, more efficient heat exchanger for significantly improved cooling power. CSF’s cores are unique in that it uses our B-tube design for the radiator tubes. 

The B-Tube core is comparatively stronger than the O-Tube which allows the tube to be made using less material, improving heat transfer and being much lighter than an O-Tube radiator of the identical sizing. This, combined with the dual laminar flow and improved surface area inside the core allow for an efficiency improvement of around 10-20% vs. an O-Tube core heat exchanger of the same size. Whilst more expensive to manufacture, for performance use, it is the perfect heat exchanger tube design! Alongside this our high-efficiency multi-louvred fins are optimised for each application. 

With the increased cooling power charge temperatures are kept consistently cooler, restoring power lost through hot charge air temps. This means you will enjoy more power, more of the time, in more conditions! 

How the CSF design does it 

In the chart below you can see the OEM core (original) design vs. the CSF core design. The CSF core is deeper, has more cooling tubes and a much larger flow area. This results in a huge increase in cooling performance. 

CSF Manufacturing, Testing & Finish

All of our heat exchangers are manufactured in our own factories, this means we have total control over our production, unlike other white-label brands. Our heat exchangers start life in our factory as an aluminium sheet and from there we create our own B-tubes, multi-louvred fins and end-tanks as well as CNC machine all of our fittings. The core is then CAB brazed and the end-tanks and fittings TIG welded together by our master welders. 

All of our heat exchangers are individually leak tested and go through a 30 point fitment inspection to ensure critical dimensions are per our design. 

To finish our heat exchangers our signature 1-hour ‘show-stopper’ finish is applied, however, this has currently been suspended during the pandemic in favour of our high-lustre satin finish. 

Fitment List

This CSF High-Performance All-Aluminum Heat Exchanger is a replacement for OEM part number 197-500-01-03 which at the time of writing was fitted to the following vehicles: