Danny's X5 4.6 Thread

[X5UK88]

Amazing.

I really would love to do this myself, but having done no real engine work myself, I'm not sure if I could do it.

[itsbrokeagain]

Wish there was a way to like this thread. Because I'd like it a thousand times.

Kudos to you for the extensively detailed rebuild. I'm always in a rush doing such work so I never take pics.

[dannyzabolotny]

Originally Posted by X5UK88

Amazing.

I really would love to do this myself, but having done no real engine work myself, I'm not sure if I could do it.

I'll let you in on a little secret... the very first thing I've ever done with a car was rebuilding the timing chain guides (on a 200k mile 2001 540i). I had never really done anything past changing the oil at that point, but I bought some tools, watched some videos, read some threads, and dived right in. These engines aren't rocket science, and everything that could go wrong has been extensively documented, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

Originally Posted by itsbrokeagain

Wish there was a way to like this thread. Because I'd like it a thousand times.

Kudos to you for the extensively detailed rebuild. I'm always in a rush doing such work so I never take pics.

Thanks! I just remember the super detailed threads I read about this stuff when I was a noob, and they gave me the confidence and technical know-how to tackle a chain guide rebuild with pretty much zero prior mechanical experience. I'm a web developer by day, so working on cars was completely foreign to me when I started out. Now that I know a little more about cars, I'm happy to contribute to the community

I've always taken plenty of pictures when doing these kinds of jobs, not only to share it with the community but for my own reference. For example, when I was finishing up the reassembly on the X5 I had forgotten how the vacuum lines went, so I just pulled up my photos and found a picture of how they were.

It did get a little tricky to constantly pull out the DSLR, but that's why I use gloves when working on cars, so I can use my phone/DSLR for pictures without destroying them with dirt and grime.

[V8 00USH]

Well done Danny - will definitely be a thread I'll be referring to when I get round to doing mine.

[dannyzabolotny]

Originally Posted by V8 00USH

Well done Danny - will definitely be a thread I'll be referring to when I get round to doing mine.

Thanks!

Last night I swapped the cylinder 8 ignition coil with a good used Bremi coil. Apparently the malfunctioning coil wasn't an eBay one, it was a newer Genuine BMW one, but a "Pulse" brand that was made in China. This one had a production date of 2013 and it was already acting up, how sad. Meanwhile the replacement Bremi coil I had laying around is from 2001 and is still working perfectly. I haven't had any misfires after that, so hopefully that means the problem is solved.

Also, I started thinking about how to make the exhaust a little louder. I know in the E38/E39 community the easiest and most common method is to just chop off the last muffler while keeping the resonator intact, that way you get the extra noise but without any drone. Would that work for the X5 4.6?

[CleanIsFast]

Beast lives! Once I get the space and tools to do something like this, I'd love to give it a go.

[itsbrokeagain]

Originally Posted by dannyzabolotny

Thanks!

Last night I swapped the cylinder 8 ignition coil with a good used Bremi coil. Apparently the malfunctioning coil wasn't an eBay one, it was a newer Genuine BMW one, but a "Pulse" brand that was made in China. This one had a production date of 2013 and it was already acting up, how sad. Meanwhile the replacement Bremi coil I had laying around is from 2001 and is still working perfectly. I haven't had any misfires after that, so hopefully that means the problem is solved.

Also, I started thinking about how to make the exhaust a little louder. I know in the E38/E39 community the easiest and most common method is to just chop off the last muffler while keeping the resonator intact, that way you get the extra noise but without any drone. Would that work for the X5 4.6?

Chop the middle resonator out. I hate muffler deleted cars, IMO they sound like balls.

Web developer eh? Small world but I saw your comments spring up on Jalopnik about that 'can we just be nice' go-karting blog

[dannyzabolotny]

Originally Posted by itsbrokeagain

Chop the middle resonator out. I hate muffler deleted cars, IMO they sound like balls.

Web developer eh? Small world but I saw your comments spring up on Jalopnik about that 'can we just be nice' go-karting blog

Yeah, I see a lot of people chopping their X5 resonators out and replacing them with X-pipes. This is weird to me because in the E38/E39 world, chopping out the resonator means awful drone and loss of torque. Everybody in the E38/E39 world just does a muffler delete, so I thought about doing that on the X5 since the exhaust system isn't too different. I want a low grumble that's loud enough to bother people, but not so loud that I can't comfortably daily drive with it. I'm not really looking for subtle, I'm 24 and I want to be a little obnoxious while I can still get away with it

And yeah I'm a web developer as my day job. I'm all over the comments section at Jalopnik, that's like my second home. Pros and cons of using my real name as my username everywhere I guess, haha.

[X53Jay4.8is]

Originally Posted by dannyzabolotny

Yeah, I see a lot of people chopping their X5 resonators out and replacing them with X-pipes. This is weird to me because in the E38/E39 world, chopping out the resonator means awful drone and loss of torque. Everybody in the E38/E39 world just does a muffler delete, so I thought about doing that on the X5 since the exhaust system isn't too different. I want a low grumble that's loud enough to bother people, but not so loud that I can't comfortably daily drive with it. I'm not really looking for subtle, I'm 24 and I want to be a little obnoxious while I can still get away with it

And yeah I'm a web developer as my day job. I'm all over the comments section at Jalopnik, that's like my second home. Pros and cons of using my real name as my username everywhere I guess, haha.

The middle resonator is just a big muffler. Many have changed this component out with a magna flow x pipe thus giving the X5 a tone adjustment without drone. The middle resonator has a lot of sound packing in it and does cross the two streams of exhaust flow. So putting an x-pipe in place eliminates the packing thus increasing the tone of the OE muffler system without the drone. I would try this first before hacking any other section of the exhaust system. I would not cut off the rear mufflers. If you can find a Dinan exhaust now that is something deep sound and nice bark at wide open throttle but civil during daily around town driving.

[V8 00USH]

I've recently done the X pipe mod on mine to compliment the 2 stainless aftermarket rear silencers and even now it doesn't drone. It's almost as quiet on idle as it was standard but when you open the taps people definitely know about it.

What I did notice when I fitted the X-Pipe was that I lost a little of the 'muscle' car unbalanced type sound and it became a little bit more raspy. I'm half tempted to do a H pipe mod on it next to try and regain that sound back.....and might even decat too just to be completely obnoxious....sorry neighbours! The V8 sound is just too good to ignore! Don't get me wrong it does sound awesome now but I just prefer the unbalanced burble.




Cold start video......check out my annoying hazard light issue!!