My E39 touring project

[five&dime]

Many of you probably know my dad on here (diseazd).

I thought some might be interested in the project I have been working on for the last year. It is almost complete.

1999 BMW E39 528 touring/station wagon.

Custom ordered from the factory in Mojave metallic brown (only E39 in this color)

GM performance LSx 427 built by Thomson which should be making close to 600 RWHP. LS7 rotating mass with titanium rods & intake valves, sodium filled exhaust valves, heat treated crank, LS7 heads and intake manifold. Comp cam, springs, retainers, rockers etc. E67 LS7 ECU kit, Cadillac CTS-V accessory kit, Autokraft oil pan. Tremec Magnum 6 speed manual with 2.66 1st gear and an LS9/ZR-1 dual clutch setup with Zip performance light weight steel flywheel.

Diff is from an M5 with an E46 M3 3.62 gearset (over the 3.15 that came stock) Also went from a 2 clutch diff with 25% lockup to a 3 clutch with 40% lockup.

Suspension consists of Fortune Auto custom built coilovers and a Shroeder stock car 1.5" front sway bar.

Other mods include full black interior swap, back alcantara headliner and pillars, E38 7 series sport seats, Volk TE37 reps in 19x9.5/10.5, blackout window trim, tinted windows, M5 front and rear bumpers and M5 headlights that I custom built using Nissan Murano projectors.

Here are some progression pix.

Right now, the front diff mount is getting reinforced as well as full 3" header back dual exhaust with twin Magnaflow 3" cats and dual Borla XR-1 multi core 3" mufflers that will be fitted with quad 3" single wall stainless tips.

Edited June 21, 2013 by five&dime

[five&dime]

[five&dime]

Edited June 21, 2013 by five&dime

[five&dime]

[five&dime]

Final exterior look

[five&dime]

Lastly, first start. No tune and no exhaust in this video.

[Diseazd]

The kid has real talent......It looks like a factory installation....everyone needs 600 horses in their family wagon!

[Patcon]

Love it. I like a great Bimmer. Do you have any 0-60 or 1/4 mile times. I would love to know. I like a great sleeper about as much as anything. That project took a lot of time and money. Especially the go fast parts. How fast do you want to spend?

Charles

[five&dime]

Thanks! The retail on most of this stuff would have been off the charts but luckily I know some people I sold my old turbo E34 to fund this as well.

I only just fired it up for the first time last week. Still need to get a driveshaft made. Will have some hard numbers when it gets tuned. I am hoping it runs in the low-mid 12's with a 0-60 in the low 4's.

Edited June 22, 2013 by five&dime

[Carl Beck]

Looks Great to say the least. Gee.. "what kind of Gas Mileage does it get"?

On a swap of this nature - I always wonder about connections to retain the OEM Tach, Oil Pressure, Coolant Temp. gauges - as well as the OEM A/C hookup and Cruise Control etc. Did you attempt to retain any of that - or did you just swap everything like that out - and replace it all with after-market stuff?

Carl B.

What did you do?

[five&dime]

Carl,

Thanks for the compliment! It should actually get mid to high 20's.

Most of the guys who have done the swap splice the GM function sending wires to the BMW gauge cluster wires. Then they program the cluster to read the GM output signals which can be complicated. Only one person has hooked up the A/c b/c there seems to be an issue making the OEM BMW switch (which is canbus), trigger the GM compressor. A friend of mine makes the gauge drivers for lingenfelter. It's a small box that you run inline with all of your gauge wires from the GM bulkhead to the BMW cluster harness. Then you tell the driver what the input signal and output signal is and it does the translation so you don't have to learn BMW programming. The gauge driver also has a relay port which we will use to run the A/C. In the end, all of the gauges including the MPG's should work correctly. At least that's the goal. The gauge drivers can work with any input/output signals. Perfect for any engine conversion.

Edited June 22, 2013 by five&dime

[Carl Beck]

Wonderful! Great information .. I appreciate it.

Carl B.