Oh heck yeah! That's my boy. Looking good man. Glad to hear Those 330i Super Sprint replicas are working well. EBay is truly the way to go. I dropped coin on some Active Autowerks 330i headers last time. :doh: They were beautiful, but expensive and unnecessary. And yes, open headers are LOUD! Wake the dead loud.You gotta jump on it just once, just once.Let us know how you like the new found power, sweet sound, and how it plays with the Euro 2 tune. VIDEO IS NECESSARY! I'll be making a post with details on my new header project on a seperate post.

Hey man I gotta do my vanos seals and valve cover gasket as well. Let us know where you sourced your parts and price. Always looking for a deal. Keep it up man!

Haha. Okay, I promise I'll jump on it. I was really worried during the install. The clearance between the sway bar and header was close! But after the bolts went in for the bar and flex plate, it opened up more. Replaced all the studs and nuts while I was in there. The old ones were rusty crusty and all the studs unscrewed from the head, instead of the nuts. Just looked up those active autowerks headers. Holy Balls you weren't kidding... Those should be made of gold for that price.

For the vanos, I bought a kit on amazon. It comes with everything you need to do the seals. The same company makes a stage 3 kit which has everything to do the seals and the bearings on the inside. I didn't really feel like dropping 2x the cash so I just did the stage 1. A new vale cover gasket is a must while your in there. My old gasket wasn't too bad. But a few of the rubber seals that go on the nuts securing the valve cover were leaking and dripping oil onto the exhaust manifold. It also made it a little easier to access some of the header bolts. Here's a link, before I forget. Out the door, I was still under $100 with the valve cover, rtv, and the vanos kit. Not bad....

Anybody know how many 5 and 6 speed X's were made? I've been looking. But, Couldn't find anything...

Hi. I've heard that only about 5% of E53s were equipped with manual gearbox. 3% were sold in Europe and 2 in USA. These are not precise numbers but rather ballpark figures.

I had heard that it was a small number. I have had BMW salesmen tell me that there was no such X5. Now all we need is the total production numbers and we can guestimate a manual tranny prodution number. Mine is a 2006 6 speed.The last year, I wonder if many were made that year.

I looked on wikipedia, total production for the facelift (2004-2006) was about 100,000. Meaning Roughly 1000-2000 6 speed manuals were produced. Thats not many. Now you need to factor in all the totaled ones...

I picked up a very nice manual 2002 X5, 1 and a half years ago out of Rhode Island from its second owner. It only had 19k miles on it (apparently it was used by an older gentleman to drive to the Hamptons every other weekend)
After putting about 8k miles on it, I think I have finally fixed everything part that has gone bad from old age. So besides sun damage to the paint, it is not looking too bad

Nice low mile find. Maybe you can hire a pro to do some pain restoration. It might cost you about a grand to get some one really good. Unless the pain is too far gone.

The only spot it is really bad is just above the front windshield. otherwise the door frames in some spots lost their paint but still have the primer.

Hi there - I know I am late to the party but I just acquired an '04 6 spd with 83k. Black / Tan. Beautiful car. I have been searching on and off for a long time. It has UUC short shift kit and a few other mods so I wouldn't be surprised if PO is here on Xoutpost. I am in the Boston, MA area.