2017 50i Build

[Djhumvee]

Just getting back into my shop working on this again so I figured I should start a thread of my build.

Bodywork: I have f85 bumpers and side skirts, carbon front and rear diffusers and carbon sideskirt trims. Working on a custom rear spoiler (top), nothing goofy or anything just something with a little "aggressive" looks to it. The X5 is solid white now with the ivory interior, doing a full dip in a matte pearl white.

Lighting: I disassembled the headlights and changed the halo and eyebrow to orange, I am able to change it all back to white by switching a white if I wanted, but the orange looks mean!! also used a custom orange led strip behind that clear piece where the blinker is, looks so much better, and de-chromed everything and painted a combo of gloss and matte black. Also upgraded the projector lenses, wasn't a direct fit they were just a hair to wide in diameter so I had to use a wet belt sander to shave them a little bit.

Wheels: I have the 20" Ferrada FR2's, bronze with black lip, I had the have the hubs on the rears cut larger to fit on our side hubs, still need to order tires, wheels are staggered, 10's up front 11.5 in back. carbon bmw roundels I need to adhere to the center caps.

Brakes: I have Tonys brake kit in yellow with brembo lettering, and stainless braided lines, not installed yet.

Engine: I have s63 manifolds, intercoolers, and new oem turbos (all cerakoted with piston coat) with ported inlets, will be using custom intake boots that go from the turbo inlet to a Dinan intake. instead of the stock cwa50 intercooler pump I will be running dual cwa100's and dual heat exchangers with a 1.5 gallon reservoir I made to fit inside the driver fender. I need to do the upper oil pan gasket at some point too and when I do that I place on putting new rod bearings in.

Exhaust: 3" downpipes cerakote piston coated with titanium heat wrap, 200cell cats after the downpipes for smell purposes only, resonators and custom x pipe going back to an f85 muffler with carbon tips and an aftermarket valve controller.

Tuning: I am really not sure yet, some people have had issues throwing the cross bank headers onto N63's due to each of the O2 sensors reading both banks, I really didn't think it could matter a whole lot but apparently its a thing.. it got me wondering if I could just get F85 DME's and program my vin into them, then just get a BM3 stage 1 tune? There's a tuning shop a few miles away I might check with them, and I've reached out to someone that people were recommending too but they're in Turkey so we'll see what they say..

[Djhumvee]

I know people are going to say "should have just gotten an f85", well you're probably right lol. I didn't intend to go all out like this, when I bought this in 2021 I paid 34k for it, and f85's were 50k and up so it was just out of my budget.. I found the f85 body parts for next to nothing, then later on a saw a pair of new f85 oem turbos on eBay for 1500 so I figured.. gee ill just get those and the S63 manifolds which are cheap on eBay too and I'll have a nice little turbo upgrade, lol nope not so easy..

[Djhumvee]

Wrapped the Downpipes, and did extra wrapping near where the trans lines are, these have also been cerakoted with piston coat. Forgot to take a pic of the wrapped headers but you can still sort of see them in the pics. Also not that impressed with the Arm Downpipes, they want you to use a 3" band clamp that has a tab welded on but there's not way on earth it would have worked, also the flex joint was rubbing on the motor lift bolts so I took it off for the clearance.. I feel like these downpipes should have been made another inch longer coming off the back of the turbo.

[Chilled]

Originally Posted by Djhumvee

Engine: I have s63 manifolds, intercoolers, and new oem turbos (all cerakoted with piston coat) with ported inlets, will be using custom intake boots that go from the turbo inlet to a Dinan intake. instead of the stock cwa50 intercooler pump I will be running dual cwa100's and dual heat exchangers with a 1.5 gallon reservoir I made to fit inside the driver fender. I need to do the upper oil pan gasket at some point too and when I do that I place on putting new rod bearings in.
Attachment 3558239

Looking good dude.

Those turbos, do they have the updated compressor housings or is that stock for an F10? BTW, on the intake boot, Once the alternator is in + wiring, there is not as much room in there as it looks and unless those housing change things up. The sides are not symmetrical.

For the IC, who not just got the interchiller route like SR or Tony did? Granted allot more $$.

When you do the rod bearings, any chance to doco how far you had to drop the subframe and/or what you had to ublot/clip to do it.

*EDIT* is that a fluro green sticker in the turbo??

[Djhumvee]

Originally Posted by Chilled

Looking good dude.

Those turbos, do they have the updated compressor housings or is that stock for an F10? BTW, on the intake boot, Once the alternator is in + wiring, there is not as much room in there as it looks and unless those housing change things up. The sides are not symmetrical.

For the IC, who not just got the interchiller route like SR or Tony did? Granted allot more $$.

When you do the rod bearings, any chance to doco how far you had to drop the subframe and/or what you had to ublot/clip to do it.

*EDIT* is that a fluro green sticker in the turbo??

Thanks man. The green sticker are you talking about the one on the left waste gate? If so yeah it's some sort of sticker that was already there with a part number or something.

The turbos idk about an updated compressor housing, it's been a while but I believe they were matching part numbers for the f85. Yeah I do think it is going to be pretty tight making an intake, I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it lol.

So the IC I was almost thinking of the interchiller route but one of those guys that did it I think had issues at first and blew up his AC or something, it might have been Panda aka Autolust? So I just figured I'd play it safe and just upgrade the pumps and heat exchangers.

Yeah I can definitely do a write up on the rod bearings, I think the subframe gets completely dropped doesn't it?

[Chilled]

Yeah that green sticker thing. Is it worth taking the compressor off and trying to clean it out? It looks like the other side still has the half torn of paper left.

Just looked at the P/N those are definitely from an m5 + it looks like compressor bore got bored out, so I doubt the stock m5 or the f85 boots will fit as they use a single inner o-ring. The stock 50i boots may as they have that orange o-ring.


Also on the lack of symmetry, here. The pie cuts are identical but see how little clearance there is on bank 5-8 to that 2 connector thing.

On the clearance issue, on the stock f85, the issue is not length (to the back of the IC/airbox) but the height of the inlets. They sit too low and back straight cooling lines and the Alternator.


more pics on how my 2.5" bend it butting up against cooling and + terminal
https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...3#post30749893

Originally Posted by Djhumvee

Yeah I can definitely do a write up on the rod bearings, I think the subframe gets completely dropped doesn't it?

Cheers, blindly hoping that is not the case.

[Djhumvee]

Originally Posted by Chilled

Yeah that green sticker thing. Is it worth taking the compressor off and trying to clean it out? It looks like the other side still has the half torn of paper left.

Just looked at the P/N those are definitely from an m5 + it looks like compressor bore got bored out, so I doubt the stock m5 or the f85 boots will fit as they use a single inner o-ring. The stock 50i boots may as they have that orange o-ring.

I'll have to look at the other waste gate, I think the stocker is still on that one too just not visible in the pic.. I bored out the compressor housing on these, I cut off and ground down the mounting threads for the intake boots too and had to sand around the outside of the inlet so it wasn't "cone" shaped, I made it parallel rather than a slight "cone" shape so that silicone would slip over it nicely and not want to get pushed off.. If I have to I will buy a bunch of pie cuts and make one like yours, I was going to see if these silicone elbows and carbon 45 would work but sounds like it probably won't..

[Djhumvee]

Chilled Aren't the M5 and F85 turbos the same tho? real oem is telling me that they are?

[Chilled]

Originally Posted by Djhumvee

I'll have to look at the other waste gate, I think the stocker is still on that one too just not visible in the pic.. I bored out the compressor housing on these, I cut off and ground down the mounting threads for the intake boots too and had to sand around the outside of the inlet so it wasn't "cone" shaped, I made it parallel rather than a slight "cone" shape so that silicone would slip over it nicely and not want to get pushed off.. If I have to I will buy a bunch of pie cuts and make one like yours, I was going to see if these silicone elbows and carbon 45 would work but sounds like it probably won't..

Just looking at how close the actuator is to that lip, it looks like you will need to drop it at least 5mm to allow a silicone hose to slide over. Just FYI, I don't think 1D pie cut will clear the 5-8 as per above. From memory mine were tighter, don't have the cad file on this laptop to check. Granted mine have a 20mm lip before the pie cuts to allow a straight silicone clamping onto the airbox.

Originally Posted by Djhumvee

Chilled Aren't the M5 and F85 turbos the same tho? real oem is telling me that they are?

The post 2014 i think are, the pre are slightly different. That's what caught my eye, the housing casting, the actuator mount and the compressor inlet (the outer shape) are different.

[Chilled]

Originally Posted by Djhumvee

Thanks man. The green sticker are you talking about the one on the left waste gate?

Miss read this first, not waste gate. Inside the compressor housing.

[Djhumvee]

Originally Posted by Chilled

Just looking at how close the actuator is to that lip, it looks like you will need to drop it at least 5mm to allow a silicone hose to slide over. .

Shoot you're right, I was fitting everything after I removed the actuators damnit lol. Im working building the exhaust right now, I got from the downpipes to where they meet in the center tacked up, once I finish the exhaust ill check out that actuator and maybe oblong the holes a bit for the actuator or something..

[FCX5]

Looks great. I for one love unique builds like this. Nicely progress and very impressive skills.

[Cbozz]

that's a pretty awesome build dude!!

[sukhk527]

This is sweet dude, props to you for uniqueness. Got me wanting to mod my headlights lol.

[Djhumvee]

Originally Posted by sukhk527

This is sweet dude, props to you for uniqueness. Got me wanting to mod my headlights lol.

Oh man the lights are the best thing, gotta see them in person! When the whole rig is all done I'll do a YouTube walk around and stuff.

[Djhumvee]

So UNP Tunes said they can do a custom tune for the O2 situation with the crossflow manifolds, and they'll tune out the intercooler pump from throwing any error codes.

[Djhumvee]

I elongated the mounting holes for the right waste gate and can just barely get the silicon hose on now over the inlet of the turbo. These silicon reducing 90's just barely clear the alternator, I could actually trim the turbo side if I had to and that would sneak them away from the alternator even more. I layed the intake in place over the mock up and it looks like it'll line up, ill obviously have to trim the carbon 45's to the right length but you get the idea..

[Djhumvee]

Actually I see what Chilled was talking about with the + connection on the alternator. The silicon boot pushes up against it. I can trim a half inch to a full inch even off the turbo side of the silicone so that would obviously give the clearance I need.. Since it's silicone and not plastic I wonder what the long term effect would be if I left it touching, I can't imagine it would wear through the silicone?

[Chilled]

Looks good, I wish mine was that simple. No idea on the life of the bends if they are touching the terminals. I have no choice, the inserts move the turning point so far out its ridiculous. If they wear thought, I see replacing them as a cheap/quick service item.

How is the clearance on the oil funnel? The question I would have is it a good idea to be pushing on it considering that it is plastic and if that breaks .....

Originally Posted by Djhumvee

So UNP Tunes said they can do a custom tune for the O2 situation with the crossflow manifolds, and they'll tune out the intercooler pump from throwing any error codes.

Nice, I wonder if they could go the other direction? Could open up some custom manifold options.

Did you end up cleaning these out?

[Djhumvee]

Originally Posted by Chilled

Looks good, I wish mine was that simple. No idea on the life of the bends if they are touching the terminals. I have no choice, the inserts move the turning point so far out its ridiculous. If they wear thought, I see replacing them as a cheap/quick service item.

How is the clearance on the oil funnel? The question I would have is it a good idea to be pushing on it considering that it is plastic and if that breaks .....



Nice, I wonder if they could go the other direction? Could open up some custom manifold options.

Did you end up cleaning these out?

So the oil filer it actually doesn't touch at all.

Ohh is that the green sticker you were talking about previously?? That's actually not a sticker its like printed onto the core.

So with the tuning I would think if they could go from non crossflow to crossflow they could also go crossflow to non. There is a guy in the M8 forum who used/is using Motiv to go from cross bank to custom non crosssbank manifolds.

[Djhumvee]

Got some of the exhaust built, got as far back as the x pipe..