DIY: Evolution Racewerks Chargepipe

[r33_RGSport]

Dear all,
I have done this upgrade for a while and would like to share with you.
This upgrade is not necessary as our car is covered by 4 yrs / 50k miles warranty.
But, I personally don't want this flimsy OEM chargepipe to blow up or cracked on me while I am away from home. As if it happened, the car won't be driveable as the car will go into a limp mode. It is known to happened even without any mods in the car due to its design and material used by BMW.
The other advantage of this upgrade is, it will gives you more stable power delivery since the pipe will not expand up by the turbo boost as it is made of aluminum pipe.
So here is the DIY that I've made on how to replace it. This mod, I rated it at medium hard.

Here is the detail on the difference between OEM and Evolution Racewerks chargepipe.

OEM Chargepipe:
- Plastic molded piping with plastic cast flange where it is plastic glued together.

Aftermarket Chargepipe (in this matter is by Evolution Racewerks):
- Aluminum pipe with CNC machined flange welded together.



I greatly recommend this upgrade if you have a piggy back tuning chip as the boost number is higher than stock. Again, this is known to fail even in stock boost condition.

RGSport-N55_Chargepipe.pdf

Here is one of the picture of damaged OEM chargepipe that I've found.

[opasha]

Nice job, Ben, and thanks for sharing .

42pilot, any comments or expert advice regarding this modification? Pros and cons? Let us know .

[r33_RGSport]

@opasha, thanks.
FYI though, this mod only for the N55 motor.
I believe there has been no issue on the N63 or N63tu motor.
Believe it or not, even the new F80/F82 M3/M4 has this issue.
I saw 3 people broke them already.

[Taran.J]

Originally Posted by r33

@opasha, thanks.
FYI though, this mod only for the N55 motor.
I believe there has been no issue on the N63 or N63tu motor.
Believe it or not, even the new F80/F82 M3/M4 has this issue.
I saw 3 people broke them already.

Big issue, can't believe BMW doesn't offer a "Performance version" Or let warranty pass through for a more solid piece. Dinan needs to produce one or buy out ER's

[42pilot]

Originally Posted by opasha

Nice job, Ben, and thanks for sharing .

42pilot, any comments or expert advice regarding this modification? Pros and cons? Let us know .

Looks good to me - nice welding on the example shown. I assume the fitment is good too which should always be a concern.

We have this same option for the F250 Powerstroke too, but its not for the expansion of the plastic (which is negligible and has no impact on performance with boost going to 30 psi vs the BMW at less than half that) - it's for very high boost (50+ psi) or the bling effect. The only real downside (assuming the build quality is good), is heat soak especially sitting in traffic. Plastic does not hold heat like aluminum or aluminized steel. Heat in the intake sucks performance out of motors and the pictures show how this part is shoe-horned deep in the engine compartment.

If the OEM BMW part fails during warranty, I would have the dealer fix it before I shell out one cent on any aftermarket part. If you are out of warranty, this looks like a good option.

[r33_RGSport]

That's a good point on the heat soaked from sitting in traffic. But based on my experience, on the inline 6 (N54, N55, and S55 motors), all the high heat in the engine bay are on the passenger side since that's where the exhaust and turbo is located.
Unlike the N63/N63tu V8 motor, the heat is all located on the rear top of the motor.

I also agree that you can always get it warrantied as I mentioned. I prefer to upgrade this since it will benefit me (which I think it is the main benefit) from not being stranded while away from home (which happened to me on the first week of ownership of this F15 X5), luckily I was still in the convenient of the hotel. But the hassle and time wasted, I think it worth more than a few hundred bucks that you spend on upgrading the chargepipe. And unfortunately BMW won't replace your time wasted due to their design flaw, they will only replace the damaged part.

[cfm56d7b]

@r33_RGSport Thanks for sharing. Our other vehicle in the family is 2015 X5 with N55 engine.

The warranty will expire in 6 months. Replacing the charge pipe is the first item on to do list.

Did you replace the CP yourself?

What was the ER part number?

Any concerns about fit, etc?

[r33_RGSport]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

@r33_RGSport Thanks for sharing. Our other vehicle in the family is 2015 X5 with N55 engine.

The warranty will expire in 6 months. Replacing the charge pipe is the first item on to do list.

Did you replace the CP yourself?

What was the ER part number?

Any concerns about fit, etc?

Yes, I replace it myself, that's why I made the DIY.

Part# BM-ICP009, I have it listed on my website.

Fitment is great.

[cfm56d7b]

Awesome. Thanks!

[mikeson]

Nice, and thanks.

[TDOT_X5]

Ben,
Nice work on the DIY. Very helpful. Thank you.

This morning I tried to install the same ER chargepipe and ran into an issue with the breather valve. The breather valve fit but does NOT seat or clip in. No matter how hard I push down, It just won’t clip in.
Have you or anyone else experience this same issue?

Sucks I had to reinstall the stock chargepipe.


Part number on: BM-ICP009BA

[r33_RGSport]

Originally Posted by TDOT_X5

Ben,
Nice work on the DIY. Very helpful. Thank you.

This morning I tried to install the same ER chargepipe and ran into an issue with the breather valve. The breather valve fit but does NOT seat or clip in. No matter how hard I push down, It just won’t clip in.
Have you or anyone else experience this same issue?

Sucks I had to reinstall the stock chargepipe.


Part number on: BM-ICP009BA

It is quite tight fitment to the aluminum pipe.
Try lube it with WD40 or some grease.

[TDOT_X5]

Originally Posted by r33_RGSport

It is quite tight fitment to the aluminum pipe.
Try lube it with WD40 or some grease.

I’ll try that, thanks!

[JWK170]

Just broke the piggy bank on recent mods I purchased from you Ben and just getting them installed next week, but count me in on the upper and lower ER pipes in the next 2-3 weeks.

The more I have been reading into this topic the last few weeks, the more reports I have came across of CP failures even on stock engines.

Always a great resource of information to this forum Ben, but my bank account sure dislikes you!

[r33_RGSport]

Originally Posted by JWK170

Just broke the piggy bank on recent mods I purchased from you Ben and just getting them installed next week, but count me in on the upper and lower ER pipes in the next 2-3 weeks.

The more I have been reading into this topic the last few weeks, the more reports I have came across of CP failures even on stock engines.

Always a great resource of information to this forum Ben, but my bank account sure dislikes you!

Haha. Don't be like that.
No one will buy from me anymore soon.

[fbuzila]

Originally Posted by r33_RGSport

Haha. Don't be like that.
No one will buy from me anymore soon.

damn r33_RGSport I didn't even receive the stuf from you yet and now I see this? I need a second job or win a lottery or something!

[r33_RGSport]

Originally Posted by fbuzila

damn r33_RGSport I didn't even receive the stuf from you yet and now I see this? I need a second job or win a lottery or something!

Hahaha.
No pressure.

[t04d]

Just did this last night using your write up, r33_RGSport

Took me a little over an hour and I struggled a bit to get the chargepipe to connect to the throttle body, but overall this was a pretty easy install. Thanks a ton for writing these instructions up!!

[r33_RGSport]

Originally Posted by t04d

Just did this last night using your write up, r33_RGSport

Took me a little over an hour and I struggled a bit to get the chargepipe to connect to the throttle body, but overall this was a pretty easy install. Thanks a ton for writing these instructions up!!

Good to hear.
Yes, the throttle body part is a bit tricky, but once you got it lined up, it will just slide in.

[jg425]

Installed mine the other day, all the connections are tight and I keep getting a check engine light saying MAF reading high. I just clear it, but has anyone else had this happen? Not sure if it the Racechip Ultimate or the chargepipe, or both that is causing the light to come on.

[r33_RGSport]

Originally Posted by jg425

Installed mine the other day, all the connections are tight and I keep getting a check engine light saying MAF reading high. I just clear it, but has anyone else had this happen? Not sure if it the Racechip Ultimate or the chargepipe, or both that is causing the light to come on.

Never had such issue. Did you get everything correctly? The O-Ring inside the inlet to the throttle body? The Breather fully snapped in? All sensors reconnected properly?

[t04d]

Originally Posted by jg425

Installed mine the other day, all the connections are tight and I keep getting a check engine light saying MAF reading high. I just clear it, but has anyone else had this happen? Not sure if it the Racechip Ultimate or the chargepipe, or both that is causing the light to come on.

I have the dummy plug installed at the moment on my Racechip as I just had the MPPK installed last week. Was planning to plug the Racechip back in either this week or next. I wonder if I'll throw a CEL once I plug it back in.