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Thanks to @darren_mk I finally got a set of Startec lights to complete the aesthetic I was going for. So stoked with how they look on the car. The difference is night and day. Also had my little helper help me wash the car due to my injury and then she washed hers haha

Piecing together my M42/44 hybrid. Ended up ponying up for some valve springs so I can rev the nuts off it. Schrick cams are backordered and the exchange rate sucks so that will be phase two. The flywheel weighs nothing and everything's been balanced so it should be pretty zingy.

The mighty tractor successfully survived its first outing, although wasn't left completely unscathed. The main issues we did encounter were to do with the transmission. On the way there I went for a brisk overtake and was met by a slight thump, a warning gong and a transmission failsafe message on the cluster, leaving the car stuck in 3rd. Pulled over, off-on and she carried on as usual. The first subsequent shift from 5th into 6th came with a slight jolt but smoothed out thereafter. Still accelerated and changed gear without issues unless you were absolutely mashing the throttle. Knew to take it a bit easier from there on but same thing did happen once more on the way back on an uphill passing lane. Seems like the same issue @euroriffic is experiencing although flagged up different codes, 4F51 - Gear check 5 in my case. Another less pronounced issue I noticed was that when steadily cruising between 50-60 & 70-80 kph at around 1600-1700 RPM, the transmission would produce a slight jolt as if it was shifting gears but would then just stay in the same gear. If I kept the revs constant it would do it roughly every 10 seconds or so, so I just started slightly accelerating out of that range. This did not generate any fault codes. I've yet to do any sort of service on the transmission so that'll be the next mission. Will do the mechatronic sleeves, new filter and fluid as a first stage and see what, if any difference that makes. Will note down the separator plate number and then look into doing new solenoids & Sonnax Zip kit in the future. The only other, more humorous problem we ran into happened on the final toilet stop on the way back. Upon returning to the car the driver's door handle decided it'd had enough and left me stranded like a muppet. Turns out it had succumbed to a very typical fault with the door handle carrier where a pivot point for the rod just breaks off. Luckily managed to do a hack fix with some safety wire which is potentially sturdier than the original design. Will add a new carrier to the next order to have on hand just in case though. Must not have been the first time the car suffered from this issue as the vapour barrier was rather crudely hacked up to gain access so had to get creative with some duct tape until I source a replacement. Why people do this kind of sh*t instead of just peeling it back is beyond me. Overall though, really happy with it as a road trip car - nice and comfortable, plenty of room, cruises as a steady 2,000 RPM at 100kph, holds the road well and just feels solid overall. I find myself being way calmer at the wheel of this thing than the E46. In the latter you're just constantly tempted to row through the gears and act a bit silly, whereas in the less rev-happy X5 is a nice relaxing cruiser that keeps the heart rate nice and stable. Clocked up a good 1,200km's across the 4 days, averaging under 9L/100km, which for a big 'ol lump isn't all too bad. There's definitely something up with the fuel level sensor though. Filled her up in Nelson, clocked up 650km's since and it's claiming to still have over half a tank left in it. I somehow doubt it'll do 1,300km on a single fill but would be beautiful if it did. Who needs a Prius, ey...

Yes, they are in normal factory tune. However when internet tuners start mucking around with them you can get issues. I would want more details of the tune to understand how well it’s been done.

The engine's barely broken in at that mileage. Just bought an X5 with the same M57N engine with 290k on the clock and it's ticking along beautifully. Delete the swirl flaps & EGR and it'll easily be good for another 200k with basic servicing. Bimmertune have some good kits with free shipping. My main concern with it would be the transmission. Looks like it's rocking a 5-speed GM which don't have the greatest reputations. The recent flush might be a good thing, or could be a red flag. I'd grab a scan tool along and see if there's any codes saved in the EGS module.

M57 motor, regarded as pretty bulletproof

2013 M135i repower: N55/8 speed replaced with S55/ Manual from F82 BMS intakes/charge pipe VRSF down pipes Upgraded intercooler/performance radiators Performance Oil cooler BootMod3 tune Apex wheels with fresh Michelins To do list: NBT upgrade Driveshaft Hoops for Cert LSD Birds Suspension upgrade: https://southernbm.com.au/products/birds-b-series-sport-suspension-kit-f20-f22-f23-f30-f32-nvoz9

The whole car market has taken a massive dive over the last 18 months, from new cars, through used and into classics and week-end toys. Combination of economy being in the shitter and the bloodbath of electric cars, can’t beat supply v demand!

Thanks David, yeah I've got a homegrown four channel CAN bus translator based on a PIC32MK that I'll be using at the core of this project. I've been extremely slack with keeping this thread up to date, so time for another update. Since the last post, the gearbox crossmember has been finished. And fitted to the test chassis, alongside the modified propshaft (135i gearbox flange, retubed, E39 540i from CSB backwards): Onto the next job, creating a custom coolant hardline between the coolant reservoir and electronic thermostat (still needs some brackets): While on a roll with bending up hardlines, an oil supply hardline was fabricated as I didn't want to have -AN fittings visible off of the oil thermostat. For this I also machined an adapter fitting for the oil thermostat. The coolant and air conditioning hardlines I had been working on previously were also finish welded: Next up was making the N54 engine loom use the E39 e-box grommet: And the shift linkages were modified: (Not quite sure where the selector rod photos went unfortunately) Propshaft had a fresh CSB and CV joint installed: I'd also performed the typical maintenance on the N54 I'm going to be using, namely replacing all of the gaskets I can easily access (valve cover, sump, VANOS solenoids, etc) and injector decoupling elements. New spark plugs and coil packs (standard N54 items for now) will also be used. Looking nice and clean in there. Nice and clean down under too. The next major hurdle was fabricating exhaust downpipes; there's not a lot of room to work with unfortunately. The vehicle will need to keep the catalytic converters for passing emmissions testing during LVVTA certification, so those were extracted from a factory downpipe set. To complete the factory-like look, some small brackets were designed and 3d printed: And laser-cut and machine folded: Welded on and oxygen sensors added: I'm extremely happy with how these downpipes turned out; they're currently off being ceramic coated (in an effort to keep under-bonnet temperatures down). A few months have also been spent working on electrical and electronics, starting off with a jump-start terminal. The E39s all use engine-mounted jump-start terminals, while the N54 never came with an engine-mounted jump-start terminal - all usages of the N54 have them mounted on the chassis. For this, I designed and 3d-printed a jump-start terminal that will attach to the intake manifold: And finally printed out of PA-CF: Mounted and wired in the fuel pump (EPKM) module: Designed a replacement case for the Comfort Access module, allowing it to attach to the same bracket as the factory E39 PDC module: Created an adapter loom for between the E39 X6001 and E9x X6011 / X6021 engine connectors: The wiring is still ongoing at this stage - chipping away at it slowly.