I am looking into getting an E34 540/6sp and possibly supercharging it, and my main concern is that all that I have seen in my are are well over 100k miles. Also, the three that I have called on so far all have the original Nikasil blocks and may have less than optimal engine lifespan. So I'm wondering what are your folks experiences with supercharging these older cars? And what is the general reliability factor for these higher mileage engines on forced induction? I may just keep it stock or do chip, gears, or exhaust. Feedback for the (reliability-conscious) much appreciated.
Thanks,

Jeff

with how many problems there are with those engines I would leave it stock or just chip it. I supercharged my E34 525i with 125k miles on it and its doing great. But as we all know the straight 6 is bmw's bread and butter and these older 8's just dont have the pedigree. however you may be able to prove me wrong but if you blow yur engine your gonna wish you hadent.

with how many problems there are with those engines I would leave it stock or just chip it. I supercharged my E34 525i with 125k miles on it and its doing great. But as we all know the straight 6 is bmw's bread and butter and these older 8's just dont have the pedigree. however you may be able to prove me wrong but if you blow yur engine your gonna wish you hadent.

Thanks for the feedback. I too would have no worries with FI on a BMW I6. The I6 is perfectly balanced, has virtually no vibration and as such just plain holds up better over time. Not to mention it's about half the price to rebuild or source as a V8. I love the I6 in my 02 330Cp. But I'm looking for four doors, a little bigger car, and a bit more power. Stock vs. stock the 540 runs about the same as my 330, so I'm still looking for a little more heat. Not sure how much difference the chip will make alone...

Hey arcticool,

I own a 95’ 540i 6spd. I supercharged it about 6 months ago. It’s am ESS kit. The installation took a lot of patience, time, and some custom work. ESS’s intake didn’t work right so I had to make one and their oil feed line fitting didn’t work either. Other than that it was pretty strait forward. If you not experienced with working on your car I would recommend a professional install the kit. My car has 151,000 miles on it but the block was replaced at 75,000 miles with an alusil one. The performance is very impressive, I haven’t dynoed it yet but it definitely is putting over 400 at the crank. As for reliability, it’s not my daily driver but now that I’ve put some miles on it I feel comfortable taking it on a trip without any problems. M5wanabe’s comment about the M60 motor is incorrect. In fact the architecture of the M50 I6 and the M60 V8 are very similar. The biggest difference is that the M60 V8 block is aluminum, therefore, it’s not recommended to go over 10 psi because it will were the cylinder walls out prematurely. There are a lot of M60 and M62 (virtually the same motor) V8’s out there with superchargers that haven’t caused any problems. If you have any other questions feel free to ask, Christopher.

That's good to know. It's too bad the fit and finish is not up to par. For 6200 bucks I'd think they could at least make it bolt up properly. Not exactly confidence inspiring. BTW, how was their customer support through all this? Did they have an 800 number or email support? Also, how much cutting of the fender was involved? Got any pics?
Thanks for the info,

Jeff

That's good to know. It's too bad the fit and finish is not up to par. For 6200 bucks I'd think they could at least make it bolt up properly. Not exactly confidence inspiring. BTW, how was their customer support through all this? Did they have an 800 number or email support? Also, how much cutting of the fender was involved? Got any pics?
Thanks for the info,

Jeff

Hey Jeff,

I agree that it should been a direct bolt-on for the price. The biggest problem is that they basically took the kit they use for the e39 540i and made it work on the e34 540i. The reason for this is they switched over to the Vortech supercharger insted of the Powerdyne supercharger. The superchager is a definate improvement but it seems they just made the e39 kit fit into the e34 engine bay. The bracket bolted in fine and as for the fender all you need to do is take a round-headed hammer and massage the fender a little bit. I didn't have to do any cutting. As for tech support, I used my cousin's company CES Performance, so he did all the communication with ESS. I sent them the ecu and within a week and a half they had sent it back. The intake set up I just did myself. When I get a chance I'll post some pics. The only other thing ESS sliped up on was the charge pipe from the superchager to the intake. My car dose not have traction control and because of this the throtle body is in a different position. They had to send me a little extra piping to make it work. However, most 540's have traction control so this probably won't be an issue. If you don't have traction control just tell them before you order it. If you have any other questions just let me know, Christopher.

This is great information, much appreciated.
BTW, not that it's a primary concern (it won't be my daily driver) but what kind of mileage are you getting with FI vs without?

This is great information, much appreciated.
BTW, not that it's a primary concern (it won't be my daily driver) but what kind of mileage are you getting with FI vs without?

Before I was getting about 18 mpg. Mind you I have a heavy foot and don't drive alot of highway miles. On the highway I would say I could get 22-25 mpg. Now, I'm scared to calculate it. My trip computer dosen't work correctly any more because the fuel injectors are larger so it thinks I'm getting great gas mileage. I can tell you I deffinatley have to stop for gas more often. If I didn't have such a heavy foot I think I could get similar highway mileage but city mileage is deffinatley going to suffer.

Haha, yeah, that's to be expected ;-)
I usually get about 24 in my 330. So yesterday I cleared the mpg and drove to work as easy as possible just to see what I could get. My drive is about 10 minutes city and just over a half hour freeway. I got 31mpg over, which really surprised me. Of course I couldn't resist coming back and the average came out to 27. Now if I could just keep my foot out of it...

One more quick question that has me a bit perplexed.
I saw in an earlier FI thread that someone had a 7psi supercharger on their 540 and due to clogged catalytic converters was actually 11psi. This doesn't sound right to me that chamber pressure could be increased by blockage on the output. After all the exhaust valves are closed when the piston is coming up and compressing right? Please correct me if I'm wrong...
Also, are you running some kind of pressure gauges and if so where do you install them to monitor chamber pressure?

One more quick question that has me a bit perplexed.
I saw in an earlier FI thread that someone had a 7psi supercharger on their 540 and due to clogged catalytic converters was actually 11psi. This doesn't sound right to me that chamber pressure could be increased by blockage on the output. After all the exhaust valves are closed when the piston is coming up and compressing right? Please correct me if I'm wrong...
Also, are you running some kind of pressure gauges and if so where do you install them to monitor chamber pressure?

I honestly don’t know for sure. I have a friend of mine that owns a Ford Lightning and when he eliminated his cats he lost horse power. So it sounds like it’s possible to loose power by having too little backpressure on a supercharged car, but to gain 4 psi because of clogged catalytic converters sounds high. I just dynoed my car and got 340 whp. I don’t have any cats right now and my intake manifold was leaking. I just replaced the seels on my intake manifold and am going to go dyno my car again soon. I’ll take my high flow racing cat with me and run the car on the dyno with and with out and let you know what the results are going to be.

As for a boost gauge there are a couple of vacuum lines running out the back of the intake manifold. A good boost gauge kit should come with a vacuum line and a T connector so you can connect it to one of these lines. It’s not hard at all. The hardest part will be feeding the wire through the fire wall to the gauge.

I thought by removing cats,you lose torque not hp?

Hmm interesting, so it's monitored at the intake manifold...
In this case, there would be no way of knowing actual pressure in the cylinders, nor if a clogged catalytic converter was causing extra pressure. Kinda thinking now this guy I mentioned was off base in his assessment.

BTW, definitely look forward to your dyno results.

Hmm interesting, so it's monitored at the intake manifold...
In this case, there would be no way of knowing actual pressure in the cylinders, nor if a clogged catalytic converter was causing extra pressure. Kinda thinking now this guy I mentioned was off base in his assessment.

BTW, definitely look forward to your dyno results.

Yeah, I could a pound or two increase but not 4 psi. Anyways, here's the most recet pic of my car.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n79/cpc540/540i/Fling0725.jpg
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n79/cpc540/540i/

non-intercooled?

non-intercooled?

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n79/cpc540/540i/img1854xe5.jpg

So fare, yes it's non-intercooled. How about you?

Wow, beautiful car man. What color is that? Also, what body kit/wheels are those? Great choices all around...

BTW, that blower is huge. About twice as big as I expected- friggen basketball under there!

Wow, beautiful car man. What color is that? Also, what body kit/wheels are those? Great choices all around...

BTW, that blower is huge. About twice as big as I expected- friggen basketball under there!

Thanks for the complement, sorry I can't remember the color off the top of my head.

Here's my mod list:

95’ 540i 6spd
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> </o:p>
Engine & Drive-train:
-ESS Supercharger
-Custom 3” headers back Stainless Steel Exhaust
-Spec Stage 3+ 6 puck Clutch
-Spec light weight aluminum flywheel
-UUC short shifter
-Quaife 3.45 lsd diff
Suspension, Wheels, & Brakes:
-H&R Springs
-Bilstien Shocks
-Polyurethane front control arm bushings
-DCR 19” Custom 3 piece wheels
-UUC front Big Brake Kit 332mm rotors
Exterior Styling:
-Siedle Tuning front bumper
-M5 mirrors
-Euro rear bumper molding
-Painted trim and door handles
-Euro e34 M5 rear wing
-shadowline trim
-Euro Clear blinkers all the way around
-Angel Eye headlights
-tinted windows
Interior & Sound System:
-Custom gauge cluster with AFR, Boost, & Oil Pressure
-Sound system with Sony head unit, JL’s all the way around, JL amps, and a JL 12” W3 Sub
-95’ M3 steering wheel

Yes,very beatiful car!I am researching 'coolers and the least expensice quote I got is $2800.So I just might say furgitaboutit and put in a LSX 650hp n/a engine swap.

Yes,very beatiful car!I am researching 'coolers and the least expensice quote I got is $2800.So I just might say furgitaboutit and put in a LSX 650hp n/a engine swap.

go WA injection. i'm looking into custom air-water. the materials are btw 400 - 1200 depending on manufacturers and how gheto you want to go. there's not that much fab work, but quality should be ojective, so labor might add up nicely.

Wow, beautiful car man. What color is that? Also, what body kit/wheels are those? Great choices all around...

BTW, that blower is huge. About twice as big as I expected- friggen basketball under there!

I jst remembered the color, Calypso Red. :)

That's quite a mod list. Must have been a lot of work...
After having done it all is there anything you would change if you did it over?
For example, how is the ride quality compared to stock?
And I've been looking around for your bumper and LSD but haven't been able to find them online. Were they custom made?

That's quite a mod list. Must have been a lot of work...
After having done it all is there anything you would change if you did it over?
For example, how is the ride quality compared to stock?
And I've been looking around for your bumper and LSD but haven't been able to find them online. Were they custom made?

It's hard to say what I would and wouldn't do if I started over. Just don't go into it unless you'er willing to spend some money. If I added up all the money I spent on this car over the past seven years I'd probably start crying:eyecrazy

The front bumper is a Siedl Tuning bumper. I bought from a company that imports them from Germany. I forgot the name of the company but if you go Siedl Tuning's web page they should have a link.

As for the lsd I lucked out and found a guy that had a brand new Quaife diff sitting at his house for the past 3-4 years and just wanted to get rid of it. I got it for about half price ($680.00!). I then found a brand new Dinan ring and pinion from Brett Anderson at KMS-Koala Motorsport www.bmwdiffs.com (http://www.bmwdiffs.com/) for $300 (that's cheap) . He could build you one for a price $$$. Then I had my local mechanicl rebuild my diff. All together I spent about $1,500.00. If you go to someone like KMS or Diffsonline it'll probably cost around $3,000.00 to replicate my diff.

Yep, I hear ya- the mods can add up pretty quick, esp performance parts like LSD. I spent quite a while trying to find Siedl Tuning's web page but I think maybe they are out of business or something...