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Old 11-26-2019, 12:39 PM
ucsbwsr ucsbwsr is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: San Diego
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Where to begin? Lots to cover so I will get to it.

I added twin Diode Dynamics Stage 6" "wide" light bars as reverse lights. I run a single DD bar on my E61 and it's amazing, this is double amazing. Tapped into OEM wiring, mounted to the subframe braces. These offer tons of light and with their optics and location tucked forward under the bumper you aren't going to be blinding people when reversing ...unless thy happen to be on their hands and knees for some reason.







Installed H&R 1.2 front springs, they come with adjustable links for the rear but before ordering the springs I already DIYed some adjustable links by modding the stock units. I hear mixed reviews on the H&R springs and the ride quality but I figured I would give them a shot and come to my own conclusion. I should really get some struts which are intended to operate lowered but as part of the experiment I wanted to see how the stock struts performed, I replaced thin bushings and upgraded from teh "3rd row" bump stops to the "sport."







Rear links set to 65mm as H&R recommends, I like the drop but those tires are a bit thin



I like custom stuff and I like turbo noises so I "built" aka trimmed and assembled some silicone and metal. The goal was to retain the cold air source like stock but shorten the intake ducting and hopefully increase turbo response and flow capabilities. Freeing up room in the engine bay is always a bonus. I plan on dyno testing this vs stock to confirm performance later. I have a detailed thread on this project in the forum, just search!
Stock intake for reference


My intake





Thick boy tires. The Michelin PSSs originally on the 612M wheels were 285/35/21 and 325/30/21 A 30 profile tire is too thin IMO for a 5,000+lbs SUV. With the short gearing and only 6 spd trans on the diesel I wanted meatier tires to A) add comfort and B) give it some longer legs at highway speeds. The added rotational mass will hurt acceleration and braking a bit but I have some solutions lined up for that.

These are Continental SportContact 5P 285/40/21 and 325/40/21 If you recall I test fit a 285/45 front tire that DIDN'T fit up front, that is the matching tire for these monstrous rear tires. With tire sizes limited in 21" I had limited options and this was staggered setup was my best option. I am not crazy about the Hot Wheels raked look but this was a function>form modification. The front tire looks perfect, if they made a matching 325/35 rear it would have been ideal buuuuuuut they don't! These rears have a 31" diameter!





At some angles the rear tires look out of place and at other angles they just look beefy. The exaggerated rear flares do help the rear meat blend in a bit.






Apparently the 3rd row got some use with the previous owner, good for them. Aside from a comical test to see if all 6'8" 255lb of me could fit in there I have never and will never use it. I bought the X5 with 3rd row for the load leveling so this seat is nothing but added weight and cargo space. 100lbs and 6 cu/ft of cargo space to be exact! I purchased some of the OEM cargo rails but will install once my new non-3rd row cargo floor arrives.




Now onto the good stuff. The diesel motor has been chock long enough, time to let that motor be efficient. In addition to the bump in MPG, and +150whp and +150wtq with the DPF, SCR, and Uerea tans gone that is another 100lbs lost.



Cleaning as I go



Fabbed up a block off plate for the low pressure EGR connection




Malone Tuning + Flashzilla tuning device. I currently have Stage 2, 2.5, and 2.9 to play around with. Currently running 2.9 and will data log and see if we can't make some tuning revisions to optimize everything.




Let's take a moment to appreciate this Rawtek exhaust, this features a 3.5" DP and an high flow cat in the mid-pipe. Rawtek is more expensive than other X5D exhaust options but with build quality like this the price is easy to justify for the discerning enthusiast.








The real headlight retrofit is coming soon until then I wanted to test out these new Philips XV2s.


Since removing the rear DVD system I had a void in the console, the gentleman who bought the system was supposed to send me his storage cubby but I never heard from him so I sourced the parts from eBay. Hard to see but now I have a place to put "oddments" as BMW would say.


With some exhaust sensors now rendered useless I went through the engine bay, removing what I could, rerouting some items, and giving a little nip/tuck to clean things up. Happy with how it is looking.

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