Congrats to the OP on his new manual trans E53!

Have had our 2001 since new, ~ 145,000 miles now, (3 cars so it is not/has never been a DD). Still runs like a top, and is the 2nd best car I have owned in 62+ years of lots of cars.

Orig clutch, et al.

Tips: 2nd gear starts are often easy, esp on flat or downhill grades.
1st is a stump puller, short shift to 2nd or 3rd frequently, for me.
I have had the trans fluid R&R a few times over the years: Redline, forget the weight.

Have Style 132 staggered 19" wheels on it for past 19 years, in place of the orig Style 69 18" sport package wheels.

Have opened the moon roof maybe a half dozen times; don't care about it but the point is the less a moon or panorama roof is opend/closed the less likely it is to every leak, imo.

Long day trips, NC Mtns to NJ to see our adult kids a couple three times a year: easy 20-21 mpg by the arithmetic tank to tank. Often ran 89 or whatever on those tank emptying trips. Car didn't care at highway cruise speeds, imo.

Oil/filter regularly when newer, now just once a year whether is needs it or not. Switched to M1 0W-40 years ago: cold morning starts at our nearly mile high Mtn home altitude and I like the 40 weight aspect for those long fully warm/hot engine day trips. Just my opin.

Yes, cruise RPMs are high; has not seemed to have a deterimental effect on the 3.0 IL 6 over 23 yrs and those nearly 150,000 miles.

Recall a poster or two back in the old days of this board's previous iterations doing 6 Spd R & R vs our 5 speed trans...

Have fun, enjoy the car and that 5 Spd is a bit of a 'car safe/can't steal it' in today's world, imo. ;)

GL, Ol'UncleMotor

Ok,
Thank you Guys. I’m right on the money .. Just seemed like I was reving too high to get on highway
. As for another question, would a newer 6 speed bolt up? Would it be a lot of programming to make it work? Is it THAT much better, or just more rowing of the gears.

A 7500 redline might be a stretch for a stock M54. But with a bump up to 6950, with that 80 hp (about roughly what my stage 1 setup was) created an all around solid drive without being over done.

I highly recommend the vanos upgrade. It restored the low end to its original spec when the engine was first built. Once those seals fail, the loss is noticeably there.


E53 RiPPeR
XOuTPoST jUNkiE
ReVELaTiON 22:21

Please tell me more. What is this stage one, and vanos upgrade.

That might really be all I need. It doesn't need to be fast it would just be nice to get out of the way a little bit better and not wind out to 5-6k every 3 seconds.

Longer term I would like to pull the motor and completely rebuild it for the supercharger, but maybe that's just not necessary. It was rather sludgy and the cam lobes were worn, so I would like to do some heavier work on it at some point. Soon I will be ripping the e36 m52 head apart to fix the lifters and timing chain so we'll see how that goes. :thumbup:

That uuc clutch is pretty good. I smoked it in reverse a couple times already. It really requires a good bit of focus and is touchy but it is very nice. There was a week or so I was getting a lot of chatter but that was driver error.

Of course, coming from a drag-racing and vintage muscle car background, the term "stage one" brings two things to mind: 1) the Buick GSX 455 "Stage One"... "For 1971, Buick added the brand new*455 cu*in engine into its restyled GS. The Stage 1 package had an even hotter cam, bigger valves in special high-compression heads, a distributor with a different timing curve and a modified Rochester carburetor." It was a beast of an engine in a great looking car, that I admired and actually trained working on in '72, at the GM Training school (under Buick auspices), and raced against several times in my highly-modified '66 Chevelle. I had more horses, but the Buick had more style!

and 2) a Nitrous Oxide "Stage 1" injection kit. Which usually means a single stage of Nitrous squirted into the carburetor or into the manifold runners (in 50 to 150 HP-adding blasts). Some racers used several "stages" of injected Nitrous, but many went too far and blew their engines. My personal experience with Nitrous was with a 50-hp "top shot" kit, that I configured to squirt down from my air cleaner into the carburetor secondaries at wide-open throttle. I used it for a very short time on my early 327-400 HP street-strip engine, and it certainly would up performance instantly. I loved the increased performance, so much, that I went to a big-block 427 for the next racing season (sans Nitrous). If I had the money, I might try a 50- hp Nitrous kit on the M54, but my budget precludes buying spare engines.

Also, motordavid stated that he had "opened the moon roof maybe a half dozen times; don't care about it but the point is the less a moon or panorama roof is opened/closed the less likely it is to every leak, imo"
which I agree with, wholeheartedly. In fact, I disabled and sealed mine (using clear Paint Protection Film), so I'd never have to worry about sunroof leaks again. The clear film isn't noticeable, and lasts for years, even exposed 24-7-365 to Texas weather, but I check it every time I go out to the X5, just in case.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

My second E53! STICK SHIFT
 

The reference to stage 1, was when the my supercharger kit was set at 6 lbs. (which is roughly 84 hp if tuned properly). My tune at the time was for pump gas, at 91 octane. The stage 1 setup in my opinion, made the manual SAV very capable at that point. You could have a couple of passengers, or some weight without feeling like something was holding you back. Had I had the 8 lb. flywheel installed during this period, it probably would have been all that was needed to get the tank moving proper. But I ended up at stage 2 (10 lb. boost with water/meth injection) prior to my flywheel, short shifter, DSSR, clutch upgrade, and especially the CDV delete.

I had my vanos seals upgraded, and that brought back a decent amount of missing low end power. Even with horsepower upgrades it is in my opinion VERY important to make the necessary repairs to the receiving M54 power plant. Otherwise you’re working backwards, and starts really adding up!

Do you have the 8 lb. flywheel? There are two different weights. I have never smoked the clutch, (mine is Kevlar) but I have stalled it a hand full of times. LoL.. The UUC equipment really cleaned up the sloppy factory 5 speed setup my X had. It was a night and day transformation!


E53 RiPPeR
XOuTPoST jUNkiE
ReVELaTiON 22:21

Topics are all over the place...

Its very simple. The 4.6IS came with 3.91 ratio diffs. Most other BMWs have a 3.6X ratio, including the models that came with a manual transmission. So your manual transmission likely came from something with 3.6-something ratios.

Fortunately, the 4.4i came with 3.62 or 3.64 (can't remember which). Swap those in and you'll be more appropriately geared.

Topics are indeed all over the place. LoL.. The discussion pertains to the 3.0 which has 4.10 diffs. All 3.0’s came with 4.10 diffs.

Swapping the 3.0 diffs for 4.4 diffs will negatively impact acceleration. We’ve definitely beaten that bush!


E53 RiPPeR
XOuTPoST jUNkiE
ReVELaTiON 22:21