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I remember reading a similar exchange on views on blowing a M54 engine over 10 years ago. At the time an expert on the auto transmission (from England if memory serves) sunk the whole idea when he suggested the GM tranny would not handle the extra power without major upgrades and/or a programming upgrade.
As the weakest link in the E53 has always seemed to be the tranny this ended the discussion. |
^Do the E46's use the GM or a ZF trans?
OP, if you are worried about blowing the engine, FI is not for you. Buy a V8 powered e53. A lot simpler and less headache (although they come with their own set of problems) compared to building a "fast" i6 e53. |
The 3.0L I6 E53 uses the GM tranny. It was suggested in the discussion I mentioned that the power/weight of the E53 was right at the top end of what the tranny was built to handle. I believe Dinan worked the software to remove the "soft shift" to help with the extra power. No expert just a simple parrot repeating (from old memory) what other "experts" said FWIW.
I tend to go with the "there is no replacement for displacement" adage. As a quick aside: When BMW decided to win F1 they selected old BMW 1502 engine blocks from used scrappers, tested them, rebored etc as necessary and used them with a blower to enter and win the F1 driver's & manufacturer's championship in something like 360 days. That was back in the late 70's or early 80's. So there is no doubt they have had good engineers at some time. |
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You know, it is essentially a toy now. Like that 3rd car, that sounds amazing, pulls like a raging bull, and looks 20 years younger than some new shit out there. It was supper funny the other day. I went to visit friends for a big BBQ. All the people in the party, pull up in some sort of Asian/Jap model of a car. All of their fam and friends. Maybe 20 or so cars in driveway and street. Not one car there was German. Wife came out and said to me, you know, I don't want to sound like a car snob at all, but none of the new cars parked here look as stunning as the 15 year old X5. Yup, i agree. I want a new x5m so bad. I don't drive it enough though. Can't justify dropping $1k a month for something that gets 4k miles a year max. |
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If have to import it -:(.
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When one makes the decision to do performance mods they should also expect there will be some problems, less reliability, more maintenance and at some point of improvement they will find the weakest link. That doesn't mean that any of those things will happen but go in accepting that could be the case.
In your case, start with a compression and leakdown test. If it doesn't pass don't do anything until it does. When it does, do some research on what other owners have done with the same engine. It is wise to never break new ground. Do the same mods others have done, same brands, no differences. Safest route is to research only the same model and year X5 as you have. I don't think you will find much. It is fine to research E46s and other models with the same engine but that info has to be applied to the drivetrain limits of your vehicle. Rule of thumb is that .1 increase from 0-60 will cost $1000 or more. I always start with low restriction exhaust and cold air box. That will improve the performance of even a stock engine some. Butt dyno feels like it is more than it actually is and it improves the sound of the engine and exhaust, more fun driving it. And, other mods will want more air in and more air out anyway. Next I would research to see if someone like Turner motorsports has a plug and play tune. I would be surprised if you find one for an X5 but I expect you can for an E46. Another option is going to a local custom tuner. Stock tunes are always conservative and HP/TQ curves are aimed at efficiency more than performance so it pretty easy to bump it up. My guess is that adding 50HP with whatever TQ increase comes with it will not exceed the limits of the drivetrain even if it exceeds the BMW max spec but that's something to spend some time researching. 50HP at the crank will only be about 35HP at the wheels. I recently added 150HP to our X5M with just a plug and play tune. If I break something, oh well, s$%t happens. If you want more than 50HP, a turbo, nitrous or a supercharger, and be safe, you would need to address the internals--that's expensive, especially if you can't DIY. You could buy a newer X5 that has more than double the performance for less than that expense. |
Plug n play tune is of interest to me. I'm thinking along the lines of cold air intake and maybe an ECM reprogram for max low torque vs efficiency. Big deal if I get 14 vs 16 city.
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FYI, last I checked Dinan still offered the trans software for some models. It's well worth the price if available. It makes the shifts firmer, changes shift points to get more out of HP/TQ curves, increases the max RPM before wide open shifts and in manual it won't shift until you do so. |
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