Spec X5 Overland Build

[Henn28]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

Nice work Henn, you're going pretty hard-core at this project, consider a youtube channel!
I'm finally close to getting the wheels ready.
Have my 1.5 lift, ordered 285/70/17 tires today, and I have 17 black rims from Camaro

Then gotta figure our the spacers. I've installed those ebay flares, so I'll probably need huge spacers.
It seems the biggest tires I've seen people fit on this thread are 285/75/18?

I’ve got 275/70/16s on mine. I recall there were very limited tire choices once I decided on 16” Method rims. Can’t recall if it was the sidewall or thread width that severely narrowed my choices down at the 16” wheel selection. Fortunately Yokohama Geolanders worked and I’ve been super happy. Low noise (except on concrete roads), great in the mud and snow, and very good tread wear.

The tires rub just a bit on the inside at full lock so which I’ve addressed to some extent with the heat gun. I can live with a little rub. 285s would likely rub more. The fronts have a nice amount of poke outside the arches, but not the rears. I suppose I could get spacers, or I bet wider tires would fit great back there someday when the yoks wear out.

YouTube would turn it into a job and I’ve already got one of those. Thanks for the vote of confidence though! We’ll see if the motor blows up on me. That is a long, long way off though, as I’ve still got to rebuild it, and then find a rust free E36 sedan to put it in. Ideally I’d start with an M3 as they’ve already got the added bracing, etc. at the weak spots, but they aren’t cheap.

I got the other three cam bolts off of the 4.4 heads yesterday, labeled everything and shipped the vanos units to JimLev (on Bimmerforum) for a rebuild. Two things became clear once I had the cams and lifters out: I screwed up my lifter thought process when I changed course on the rebuild, and I’m flying blind on these springs.

I originally was going to rebuild this motor with M60B40 heads, but it ended up being easier to get my hands on 4.6 cams instead. The lighter VW lifters I was planning were for the M60 heads while the 32 M62 lifters I pulled out of my heads yesterday have a much smaller diameter lifter. OE lifters are expensive, but FCP sells an OE version for $10.

The S62 spring is dimensionally identical to the M62 4.6 spring, except for the coil bind height which is roughly 2mm greater. I have no idea if this is meaningful in the sense that the spring may bottom out at high RPM and grenade the motor, or if there is still enough “squish” remaining in the spring at full valve extension to preclude this. I’ll take the springs over to the machine shop when I drop the heads off today and see what they think.

Pics later when I get more time to post them.