Okay, let's see if we can get this story concluded. Last episode we left had us ready to leave LA on IH10 heading east @ around 10:00PM Friday 08/21.

We took far less pictures after we hit IH10 and headed east. And to be honest, much of it is a blur as we were taking turns driving (a full tank per stint usually) and one of us was usually sleeping. The first tank of driving I took and made it pretty far into AZ before getting ridiculously tired. My bud was asleep and it was getting dangerous so I decided to just pull over at a rest stop (Burnt Springs Rest Area), recline the comfort seats back, and take a nap. I still had over a quarter tank to go if memory serves... the rest stop was ~315 miles from LA. :(

So after sleeping for about 3.5 hours I think I resumed driving while Eloy (my buddy, I realize this is the first time I've said his name) slept. There is a reason I mention his name now. I finish my tank up which ended up being another couple of hours and about 150 miles. Drove through where I was born by Phoenix (Litchfield Park). We were getting good fuel economy (well, as good as an e53 can) and making good time. Didn't experience any significant traffic through the entire journey. Guess all of our bad luck was used up on Thursday's flights. So we filled up in, or around, Eloy, AZ and switched drivers. We thought it was kind of interesting. We mowed through New Mexico, but I did snap a pic at a pit stop we made to relieve the bladders. I also took a video of the sunrise before we got there at around 7:00AM because... well because it was a gorgeous day and why not?

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...0Trip%2045.jpg



We then switched drivers in Eloy and I passed the hell out. LOL, it's really hard to get good sleep while on the road. Usually you get a couple of hours if you are lucky and are then unable to get back to sleep. That's okay though and works fine when you have two drivers usually. So he drove his tank and ended up filling up somewhere around Van Horn, TX. I was awake for the last hour or so of his stint. He would have gotten a full 500 miles to this tank and averaged about 21MPG! Pretty damn good for a 6000lb vehicle with a ~370ish HP V8. We took this picture as proof.

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...0Trip%2047.jpg

Now before anyone jumps down my throat about driving the tank down that low. I've done it in literally every vehicle I've owned (15+). I've had to replace exactly 1 fuel pump and that was a 20 year old OEM one on a 1992 325i convertible. I replaced it with an equally old one from a 1991 325i coupe... and it is still rocking that fuel pump to this day just fine. I run my tanks from full to at least 1/8 tank. That's just how I am... ;). As long as you don't run the pump dry, cooling is not going to be an issue and as long as the sock is on the uptake tube, debris isn't going to kill it either. :thumbup:

My turn behind the wheel again it was ~6:00PM and we headed for San Antonio on our way to Houston. I got decent mileage but not as good as he did and filled up in San Antonio @ ~11:00PM after 430ish miles since gas is pretty cheap here. I tried to convince Eloy to stop at my house so we could shower and relax for a bit but he was ready to get home himself and get the driving behind him. Can't say as I blame him. I continued driving since I felt okay and he was pretty tired still.

After we left San Antonio though the sleeps did start to get to me. I drove for another hour and a half and my TPMS light came on. Really this just gave me an excuse to pull over at the "famous" Buc-ee's rest stop between SA and Houston. It's a huge truck/fuel stop with a giant convenience store. We went in to "hit the head" and pickup a tire gauge but as luck (our luck) would have it, they were sold out. Fortunately, one of the employees was kind enough to go out to her truck and let us borrow hers. All was well with the tires (they all read 40psi +/-) which is high, but with all the driving the heat probably had a lot to do with it. Eloy has been in the tire business now for longer than he'd like to admit and said everything is fine. The TPMS did go off for, I believe, the rest of the journey.

http://www.jacoroofing.com/capabilit...ees_luling.jpg

I was fried so Eloy took the rest of the trip. I woke up around Katy and we pulled into his driveway just before 3:30AM. A little worse for wear we went straight to bed in whatever we were wearing. Hygiene be damned! I got up around 9:00AM, showered (felt amazing), brushed, etc. and waited for Eloy and his wife to awaken. They did, we talked for a bit, I thanked him (and her for loaning him to me), and took off around 11:00AM to head back to SA. I pulled into my driveway almost exactly at 2:00PM to conclude the journey. My wife was happy to see me and really excited to see the vehicle. She wasn't sold on imola when I showed her in pics but loved it after she could see it in person. We pulled it into the garage and immediately washed it to get all the bugs and crap off. I use a rinseless wash so almost always wash the cars inside... I have the garage tied into the HVAC so it's much nicer washing in there than the 100+ degree heat. Here is a pic after a bath taken with a real camera instead of the cell phone I had been using, though the LG G3 did do a decent job.

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...nally%2015.jpg

We took it to my parent's house later that day (Sunday 8/23) if you've lost track) and I took them for a spin. They really liked it, though I doubt they could understand why I would go through so much effort for this particular example. Non-car people just don't get it do they? So we brought her back home and put her back on the ramps. I wanted to change the oil. I don't know what they put in it at the dealership. We had checked the oil at the start of the trip and it was spot on... but we noticed a decent 6" diameter puddle at my buddy's place after sitting for 6 hours. I checked it at the time and it was at least a half quart to a quart low. Damn! Thought this was too easy. So I lifted it up and wanted to take a good look at the undercarriage. Crawled all under it and noticed a heat shield nut missing (already replaced with new OEM). Everything else was amazingly clean, save for the newly formed oily area around the drain bolt. I wanted to change the oil anyway, and already had a filter kit ready so I set to it on Monday.

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...nally%2001.jpg

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...nally%2004.jpg

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...nally%2006.jpg

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...nally%2010.jpg

Look at how clean that chain is. It didn't come out on camera, but everything visible inside the engine is just as clean. It seems this X5 was well cared for it's whole life. It will continue to be pampered... probably more so.

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...nally%2003.jpg

After some inspection, it turns out the dealership that had done me the favor of changing the oil had either not used a new crush washer or not tightened the drain plug nearly enough (25NM). Or maybe a combination of the two. That's where the leak was originating. After a complete drain, of whatever bulk oil they had on hand I'm sure, I threw in 5qts of Valvoline 10w30 SunPower full synthetic, 2.5 quarts of Valvoline 20w50 VR1, and a quart of Lucas oil additive to bring it up to 3/4 on the dip stick. Now I know mixing oils is a bit weird, and probably frowned upon, but this will not be in the engine that long. I plan on SeaFoaming the engine in the near future. Even if it was, I doubt it would have any negative effects. Here is what I drained out after the trip... will total the miles up in a follow-up post with trip costs, but we'll say about 2000 miles. Ended up being ~7.6 quarts that came out. So it leaked about a quart.

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...nally%2002.jpg

After the change I haven't noticed any leaks at all. Been perfect. I'm hoping the lucas and 20w50 will help with the valve stem seal issue as it did in my 4.4i. I haven't seen any puffs after stop lights even before the oil change and don't let the truck idle for very long. Next time I go through a drive through I'll have to check it out. But that brings us to the end of the journey. The big girl is now home, and I am guessing for a very, very long time. If not permanently. This truck is special and I kind of like to collect special vehicles (not that I have anything really special except this truck). So we'll see. So far I love it, the wife loves it, and I continue to smile every time I drive it. :D Trip $$$, fuel, and mileage totals to follow... it's 1:30AM and I've spent 2 hours writing this. :(

THE END, THANKS FOR READING!

what a quality adventure. car looks immense and as you say very well cared for indeed. a beautiful example of a rarity.
good luck and happy motoring buddy.

Congrats dude. That is awesome. It's always fun getting a new car

congrats! I just bought a similar car myself.. 2006 imola red 4.8is with 68k miles.. probably not as prestine as yours but I love it.. I'm in Houston btw. if you ever come down, hit me up! Let me know if lucas stop leak helps you any, I do get the white smoke while idling too long.. so if i'm at the light for more than 2 minutes I put the car in Idle and tap the throttle a little. hahah I love the sound of the stock exhaust. I recently changed my oil to T6 5w40.. I contemplated on doing lucas or liqui moly stop/ oil saver.

Always nice to have a new 'pride & joy' and looking for excuses to go somewhere in it...
Seems like a very nice example and extremely well cared for, as you say. Glad you identified the source of the oil leak and it was an easy fix. Curious about your mix of engine lubricants - not heard of anyone ever doing this before (apart from additive) and interested to hear more about the results.

Crystalworks thanks for providing the highlights on the trip. Sounds like it was great fun seeking out this rare treasure. I noticed that your vehicle has a number of Dinan components on it. Does yours include the bigger mass air flow housing and throttle body that attaches to the engine intake? I have a set to install on my 4.6is that I intend to install this fall. Dinan claims that once you install the modified MAF and throttle body you have to have the X5 tune installed also so that it runs. Lastly I know that your vehicle had the Dinan exhaust installed does this include the center muffler/resonator that the two cat pipe outlets feed into? thanks again.

Thanks much. I hope the read was worth the time. Took a helluva long time to write. :rofl: I guess it is kind of a cool story, but as I said before it seems to have happened so fast from purchase to pickup to drive home that it almost seems surreal. This thread helps me remember all the cool things that happened.

Thanks Josh. Definitely fun getting a new car, but more so with this particular one. I get a new car at least once a year... but it's never anything this special. I'm going to start looking up build numbers and such to see how special it is with these options.

Well congrats to you to then. Nice mileage! The Lucas I used is not a stop leak, but more of an oil conditioner. Kind of like motor honey that I use during head assemblies. Very thick stuff. I'll keep you updated. When I switched to 20w50 on my 4.4i it virtually eliminated the smoking... I had to let it sit idling for 15+ minutes before it would happen. I will actually be back up in Houston this next Saturday most likely (5th of Sept.) to help Eloy look at an e92 M3. He's got the itch now to get back into a really nice BMW after our experience and drive with my X. :thumbup: I'll shoot you a PM and maybe we can meet to get some shots.

Thanks, and definitely excited. LOL after all the driving in the first few days of ownership my Fuellog app says the yearly gas costs will be $45000... :D. Haha.

I was ecstatic that the leak turned out to be the drain plug. And even after isolating it, I was worried they had stripped the lower pan... Fortunately they had not. The lubricant mix was a weird coincidence. They had 5qt jugs on sale @ Oreillys of the SynPower for $26. Couldn't pass that up. I normally run VR1 20w50 in all my older cars, and had 3 qts here at the house. So that's the reason for the odd mix. I've done it once or twice in the past... but I change oil @ no longer than 5k intervals so there isn't enough time for the difference in lubricants to be an issue anyway. I'm hoping the Lucas swells the seals a little bit... and in combination with the future changes of only 20w50 VR1 it will mitigate the VSS smoking. It never smokes on stop lights which would be an immediate repair needed for me. Fast food drive through is also an almost immediate repair necessary situation for me so I'm hoping it doesn't do that. Hah I refuse to be driving around in such a sexy BMW that smokes off the line. ;)

No, mine does not have the bigger MAF and I doubt it has the throttle body either. I think it has tans software though, and maybe ECU, as mine shifts pretty aggressively. Much more toward the sporty side than my 4.4i. Not the harsh bump associated with a fault, but distinct quick shifts. Only way to tell for sure would be a top speed run to see if has the factory limiter on it or the Dinan one. I would tend to agree that to run the MAF and throttle body you would need their tune. And would definitely want it anyway since tuning is where you are going to get most of your gains from those mods.

As for the exhaust. It is just mufflers. The center resonator remains stock. From what I could find they did not offer a replacement section for that resonator... though I may replace it with a Magnaflow X pipe in the future if, for some strange reason, I get tired of the current noise it makes. Which is awesome!

Just arrived home from vacation, and got to read thru all of this! :thumbup: Sounds like a good time, Congrats on a beautiful machine...

OH, but dat exhaust does it for me!!!

Nice looking ride! Amazing road trip story!! ever find out who was owner #1??
:cool: