We have some nice updates to the engine, transmission, and rear differential.

With my DDE off for bench flashing I took advantage of having the X5 up in the air and inoperable. First was diagnosing the smoking and oil coming from the brand new hybrid turbo. Aside from mild-moderate smoking while driving I also noticed oil coming from the downpipe at the v-band and also lower flange. In addition there was oil dripping from the LP turbo but I believe that was an untorqued return line.


I removed the HP turbo to inspect it and have a look into the manifold. Both turbos felt perfect spinning freely and with zero unwanted shaft play. Oil lines were also removed to double/triple check no blockages. I ended up buying 3 new feed lines and replaced the 2 accessible ones. Shit picture but this is one of the original return lines, very clean and clear.



HP turbo off looking minty as it should


Peeking down the manifold I noticed some oil around the exhaust inducer.


What caught my attention was the crack in the casting which was adjacent to the inducer (and oil). I called Tim at this point to explain my symptoms, what I have done, and what I see. He explained most if not all M57 LP turbos have that crack in the casting, he said it usually happens in the first 20k of use and is inconsequential but he was happy to get the turbo back for inspection if I wanted. Tim also suggested I target my PCV system next as the likely cause.


Sooo off comes my Provent setup and on goes the little cyclonic thing BMW fitted from the factory. I checked the OCC for blockage or a faulty one-way valve but all was good. More on the oil saga later....


My upgrade valve body from Rod Sutphin arrived along with the DDE from BRR so it was time to open up the transmission.



Popped the DDE in


It's nice when you drain fluid and it's this clean.


Old pan/filter with the magnet swipe. This had ~20k on it.


My mechatronics seals and sleeves have plenty of life so I left them alone, *gasp* I know, I didn't perform preventative maintenance!


With the PPE high capacity oil pan being a flop the next best upgrade for the trans was the OEM e70 X5M oil pan. The X5M pan and filter are two separate items where OEM X5D is one unit. I also bought new ZF transmission bolts, they are 8.8 where the previous ones I had where made from very weak metal.

The other benefit of the X5M pan is the larger aluminum heatsink


Tight and crisp vs sloppy and flairy lol


VB, filter, and pan installed



I wasn't planning on executing the X5M diff swap at this time but manhandling my old stock diff out (previously) the seals were damaged and gear oil was escaping in a big way, the diff was coated and it was all over the exhaust. At this point I still had a couple days before the DDE would arrive to I decided to knock it out.


The QMVH harness finally showed up from Latvia after being delayed ~1.5 months thanks to USPS.

With the muffler heat shielding removed you can see the grommet with 4 screws that the harness passes through up into the cargo floor where the battery resides.


Harness ran up and over subframe, tight but I was able to thread it thankfully otherwise this part of the project would have been a much bigger pain in the butt.



New vent pipe


E70 X5D vs F85 X5M


Axles in



Go where you belong Mr. Diff!

An expensive cocktail of fluids and count em' 6 plugs.


Driveshaft, axles, and harness connected





Planning my next moves getting the exhaust reworked. The OEM piping you see (axle-back) will have to go. I will likely delete the remote valve too for simplicity, we'll see but the idea is to install the IVbrant resonator in the mid section and then have either dual 2.5" pipes ran around either side of the diff OR I will get some ovalized 3" pipe which should clear the diff and still follow the OEM routing you see here.


A little splash of Hot Shots to keep the injectors happy


With the DDE in, turbo installed, and transmission back together it was time to run the engine and fill the trans. The engine was idling for ~8 minutes while I filled the trans and once complete I peeked up the downpipe and was happy to report it was all dry. I gave the engine a couple light revs to 3k and this is what I saw after, uugh:


At this point I was thinking there was maybe an issue with the valve cover itself with something internal blocked. Some people mentioned I should check the injectors, that may help the smoking but it definitely wouldn't explain the oil ingress into the downpipe. I had already ordered a 5w-40 oil kit from FCP Euro. I always ran 5w-40 Rotella T6 but switched to 5w-30 Liqui Moly 2 months ago, this is also when I started to notice the smoking so I wanted to revert to 5w-40 just to observe any change. Turbo Tim also recommended 5w-40 for the hybrid setup.


After the oil change I decided it was time for a test drive to observe the smoking but also test the new valve body, new DDE tune, hybrid turbo, and new differential. lol Lot's to test! I drove around a bit with an open downpipe which was fun and deafeningly loud at WOT but I am happy to report the smoking issue has stopped. Not sure exactly if it was the PCV/OCC, oil viscosity, or what. MeKanic. I will probably reinstall the Provent at a later date and observe if the smoking comes back.

Here is a clip of the awesome sounds an open downpipe hybrid turbo M57 makes.