Supercharging an E39
Discussion
I've got an e39 530i touring and keep thinking about getting a supercharger installed. Something like this:
http://www.ca-automotive.co.uk/products-Y2FyX21ha2...
I really can't justify spending £5k on the car that I'll be unliklely to recoup if I ever wanted to move it on.
Any suggestions / experiances?
http://www.ca-automotive.co.uk/products-Y2FyX21ha2...
I really can't justify spending £5k on the car that I'll be unliklely to recoup if I ever wanted to move it on.
Any suggestions / experiances?
hadenough! said:
I've got an e39 530i touring and keep thinking about getting a supercharger installed. Something like this:
http://www.ca-automotive.co.uk/products-Y2FyX21ha2...
I really can't justify spending £5k on the car that I'll be unliklely to recoup if I ever wanted to move it on.
Any suggestions / experiances?
Might be worth checking here http://www.simpsonmotorsport.co.uk/default.asp?id=...http://www.ca-automotive.co.uk/products-Y2FyX21ha2...
I really can't justify spending £5k on the car that I'll be unliklely to recoup if I ever wanted to move it on.
Any suggestions / experiances?
There's an ESS supercharged 3.0 E39 in their project cars section.
Hi
I also have a Touring and want to make a 'fast' version of it !
The difference is, I want to keep my Touring long term, so any money I spend on it making it go fast will ensure I get my money's worth. If you are already thinking about moving it on, then I'd say look at the kits which can be easily removed to return the engine to standard and sell of the S/Charger separately at that time?
Don't forget, you'll need to uprate the suspension and brakes as well, not forgetting things like renewing suspension components, having the engine examined and any parts replaced considered past their best.
My plan is to drop in an E39 M5 engine, at the moment, you have a 530i so on paper it's 231 bhp, and an upgrade would take you to perhaps 330-340 bhp? Perhaps try a 540i Touring and if you still want more power, supercharging that? A very well known 540i Super Charged Touring in the USA I know well and the owner who created it and the current owner as well, I've met. That was a top end conversion to take it to 427bhp and it drives so fantastically ! there's a couple more US side Supercharged E39 Touring's I know the owners of
Cheers, Dennis!
I also have a Touring and want to make a 'fast' version of it !
The difference is, I want to keep my Touring long term, so any money I spend on it making it go fast will ensure I get my money's worth. If you are already thinking about moving it on, then I'd say look at the kits which can be easily removed to return the engine to standard and sell of the S/Charger separately at that time?
Don't forget, you'll need to uprate the suspension and brakes as well, not forgetting things like renewing suspension components, having the engine examined and any parts replaced considered past their best.
My plan is to drop in an E39 M5 engine, at the moment, you have a 530i so on paper it's 231 bhp, and an upgrade would take you to perhaps 330-340 bhp? Perhaps try a 540i Touring and if you still want more power, supercharging that? A very well known 540i Super Charged Touring in the USA I know well and the owner who created it and the current owner as well, I've met. That was a top end conversion to take it to 427bhp and it drives so fantastically ! there's a couple more US side Supercharged E39 Touring's I know the owners of
Cheers, Dennis!
williamp said:
cant relly help with advice, but I know they sold a Bentley Arnage with a twin turbo version of the BMW 4.3l V8 found in the 540. I have often thoguht it would be great to fit a Benltey engine to the 540. Just to see, you understand...
Little known fact: When Cosworth developed the twin turbo BMW V8 engine for the Arnage, early versions were tested in innocuous looking 540i saloons as the Arnage platform prototypes were not yet availible. They were epic "sleepers" 
DennisCooper said:
Hi
I also have a Touring and want to make a 'fast' version of it !
The difference is, I want to keep my Touring long term, so any money I spend on it making it go fast will ensure I get my money's worth. If you are already thinking about moving it on, then I'd say look at the kits which can be easily removed to return the engine to standard and sell of the S/Charger separately at that time?
Don't forget, you'll need to uprate the suspension and brakes as well, not forgetting things like renewing suspension components, having the engine examined and any parts replaced considered past their best.
My plan is to drop in an E39 M5 engine, at the moment, you have a 530i so on paper it's 231 bhp, and an upgrade would take you to perhaps 330-340 bhp? Perhaps try a 540i Touring and if you still want more power, supercharging that? A very well known 540i Super Charged Touring in the USA I know well and the owner who created it and the current owner as well, I've met. That was a top end conversion to take it to 427bhp and it drives so fantastically ! there's a couple more US side Supercharged E39 Touring's I know the owners of
Cheers, Dennis!
Dennis,I also have a Touring and want to make a 'fast' version of it !
The difference is, I want to keep my Touring long term, so any money I spend on it making it go fast will ensure I get my money's worth. If you are already thinking about moving it on, then I'd say look at the kits which can be easily removed to return the engine to standard and sell of the S/Charger separately at that time?
Don't forget, you'll need to uprate the suspension and brakes as well, not forgetting things like renewing suspension components, having the engine examined and any parts replaced considered past their best.
My plan is to drop in an E39 M5 engine, at the moment, you have a 530i so on paper it's 231 bhp, and an upgrade would take you to perhaps 330-340 bhp? Perhaps try a 540i Touring and if you still want more power, supercharging that? A very well known 540i Super Charged Touring in the USA I know well and the owner who created it and the current owner as well, I've met. That was a top end conversion to take it to 427bhp and it drives so fantastically ! there's a couple more US side Supercharged E39 Touring's I know the owners of
Cheers, Dennis!
From what I've read, the M5 conversion is massively massively complicated and one of the reasons for sticking with a 6 rather than an 8 is the apparent better steering feel.
I'm pretty confident in the condition of the car mechanically as I've had it for 18 months in which time its done about 18000 miles, had an inspection 2, an oil servce, had the auto transmition fluid changed, the auxiliary belts changed, and disks and pads all round, plus coolant and brake fluid change.
I wouldn't have though brake / suspension upgrades would imperitive as in general I'm not going to be driving any quicker, it'll just be that the car gets up to speed more quickly IYSWIM.
Hi
It's massively important to uprate your brakes if you are thinking to supercharge. It's very easy to type 'I'm not going to drive faster' but in real life and driving, you are going to be driving whenever you can, just that amount faster!! You shouldn't uprate your car by 100 bhp or more, without upgrading your brakes and suspension over the standard items. It seems to me that you need to re-think a few elements in this respect as when it comes to modifying your car at this sort of level, you MUST be able to stop much better than the oem setup can provide. Suspension will need to be looked at and uprated with this large increase in power as well. To think you 'only' have to put the supercharge on and nothing else is incorrect. Have a read around on modifying cars to the Supercharging level to get more information. I suspect, that if you are currently worried about the cost of a supercharger only, you'll need to re-think your plans when you add in the extra elements that must be upgraded to match as well.
The circa 100-120 BHP increase you are looking for is a significant amount above a 540i. Perhaps a cheaper solution would be to get one, and I think you can transplant the 6 cylinder steering rack if the steering feel is a significant requirement with you. £2000 or so for the V8 headers for perhaps 25-30 bhp increase on it's own, and if you combine that with a full exhaust, re-map and better induction you'd perhaps see 35-40 real bhp improvement on the 540i standard figures - so putting you perhaps at 315-320 bhp. You could probably get away with uprated brake disks/pads instead of the Big Brake Kit you'd probably need to go for with the 530i S/C conversion.
The M5 engine swap is involved for sure, and one of the biggest headaches from Steve who did the UK's well known example when I met and spoke with him was tricking the M5 ECU into thinking a rear wash/wiper was fitted! Things have moved on since then and more knowledge means the conversion is more straightforward than when it was first done.
I think you do have some evaluating to do !
Cheers, Dennis!
It's massively important to uprate your brakes if you are thinking to supercharge. It's very easy to type 'I'm not going to drive faster' but in real life and driving, you are going to be driving whenever you can, just that amount faster!! You shouldn't uprate your car by 100 bhp or more, without upgrading your brakes and suspension over the standard items. It seems to me that you need to re-think a few elements in this respect as when it comes to modifying your car at this sort of level, you MUST be able to stop much better than the oem setup can provide. Suspension will need to be looked at and uprated with this large increase in power as well. To think you 'only' have to put the supercharge on and nothing else is incorrect. Have a read around on modifying cars to the Supercharging level to get more information. I suspect, that if you are currently worried about the cost of a supercharger only, you'll need to re-think your plans when you add in the extra elements that must be upgraded to match as well.
The circa 100-120 BHP increase you are looking for is a significant amount above a 540i. Perhaps a cheaper solution would be to get one, and I think you can transplant the 6 cylinder steering rack if the steering feel is a significant requirement with you. £2000 or so for the V8 headers for perhaps 25-30 bhp increase on it's own, and if you combine that with a full exhaust, re-map and better induction you'd perhaps see 35-40 real bhp improvement on the 540i standard figures - so putting you perhaps at 315-320 bhp. You could probably get away with uprated brake disks/pads instead of the Big Brake Kit you'd probably need to go for with the 530i S/C conversion.
The M5 engine swap is involved for sure, and one of the biggest headaches from Steve who did the UK's well known example when I met and spoke with him was tricking the M5 ECU into thinking a rear wash/wiper was fitted! Things have moved on since then and more knowledge means the conversion is more straightforward than when it was first done.
I think you do have some evaluating to do !
Cheers, Dennis!
The Simpson Motorsport car was on Autotrader recently, but is now gone (I just looked..). It was up for £4,250, still with the blower etc. fitted.
I have been intrigued by the blown 530 idea too, and got as far as ringing Simpson, who were very helpful and friendly. They did point out that it is possible to take the blower off and sell it separately, and said that there is a market for second hand ones. However, as the 530 project car has turned up for sale with the kit still on, it has clearly been too much of a pain for the last owner (which doesn't surprise me at all). I liked the idea of the relatively light, not too thirsty, rack-and-pinion steering i-6 with more “grunt”. But, as Dennis Cooper rightly points out, one has to upgrade the suspension, brakes, etc. and have any other thing that is not quite right sorted out... then, it adds up to a lot of money.
Personally, I gave up on the idea, and decided either to put up with a need to scream the whatsits off the old 530 sometimes (the current plan...), buy an E39 M5 and put up with the thirst and the M-tax (actively under consideration), or wait for BMW to build a new car I might like (apparently, according to another thread somewhere on here, a new N/A 530 petrol is emerging – if I could just spec it with a manual box, no i-Drive, and cloth/alacantra seats... dream on, eh?).
I have been intrigued by the blown 530 idea too, and got as far as ringing Simpson, who were very helpful and friendly. They did point out that it is possible to take the blower off and sell it separately, and said that there is a market for second hand ones. However, as the 530 project car has turned up for sale with the kit still on, it has clearly been too much of a pain for the last owner (which doesn't surprise me at all). I liked the idea of the relatively light, not too thirsty, rack-and-pinion steering i-6 with more “grunt”. But, as Dennis Cooper rightly points out, one has to upgrade the suspension, brakes, etc. and have any other thing that is not quite right sorted out... then, it adds up to a lot of money.
Personally, I gave up on the idea, and decided either to put up with a need to scream the whatsits off the old 530 sometimes (the current plan...), buy an E39 M5 and put up with the thirst and the M-tax (actively under consideration), or wait for BMW to build a new car I might like (apparently, according to another thread somewhere on here, a new N/A 530 petrol is emerging – if I could just spec it with a manual box, no i-Drive, and cloth/alacantra seats... dream on, eh?).
I ran a ESS supercharger (stage 2 kit) on my Z4 3.0, same M54 engine if I remember correctly. Had it for 18 months and did around 12000 miles. It was a little troublesome at the start, but I had the first kit in the UK in 2007, so partly installation problems and a duff inlet gasket. ESS flew over from Norway to help resolve the problems with the new kit, very impressive. It's a twin screw type, so saps very little power, about 2bhp I think and has internal water cooling. The other plus is it makes maximum boost at 2000rpm, where as a traditional centrifugal only manages this with maximum RPM. This makes for a very rapid car even low down, so much grunt.
Mine went from 230bhp to 360bhp. Once bedded in was very reliable except for a coil pack problem, but that could have happened anyway.
I should never have sold that car!!
It's a very expensive way to extract power, but some people will spend £2k on an intake, exhaust and remap for 5-10bhp, this was 125bhp+, no messing around. Very docile when you wanted it to be and didn't use much more fuel.
If you want something a litlte different and a project to work on, then do it
Mine went from 230bhp to 360bhp. Once bedded in was very reliable except for a coil pack problem, but that could have happened anyway.
I should never have sold that car!!
It's a very expensive way to extract power, but some people will spend £2k on an intake, exhaust and remap for 5-10bhp, this was 125bhp+, no messing around. Very docile when you wanted it to be and didn't use much more fuel.
If you want something a litlte different and a project to work on, then do it
You pays your money...
I put one on a friend 330s wagon.. It works for sure..
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
I put one on a friend 330s wagon.. It works for sure..
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Funnily enough, that's what I have now, 1 of only 7 manuals sold in the UK
Pics here - http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1018271
I've had a few cars since the supercharged Z4 talked about above, including a E39 540i, but the 550i is a real beast, does everything I need, well except for topless motoring. Just wish it was geared a little more appropriately, it's only (minor) flaw. The best overall car I've owned I'd say.
Pics here - http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1018271
I've had a few cars since the supercharged Z4 talked about above, including a E39 540i, but the 550i is a real beast, does everything I need, well except for topless motoring. Just wish it was geared a little more appropriately, it's only (minor) flaw. The best overall car I've owned I'd say.
hadenough! said:
The more I think about it the more I think an E61 550i is the answer.
Dont forget the 545i. Some of these have sold for 7 or 8k recently. I believe the only bad news is that they have some very complicated self adjusting suspension which is made of chocolate.What about a 335i/d Touring?
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