Bringing an E53 back from the dead

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(Cross posted to Xoutpost)

Back in December I picked up an X5 for $500. It had a blown motor and the PO let it sit for a while. I picked it up from her with the intention of putting a new engine in and using it as a daily driver while I FINALLY decided to get my E30 a stroker + turbo upgrade. Not to mention it would be more comfortable for me to drive as well as my daughter. According to the service advisor who had been dealing with her for 10+ years (she is the original owner and did most, if not all the maintenance at the dealer), it needed a window regulator and an engine. I called her up, offered her $500 as long as she had the title in hand. She accepted and that is what started the madness. lol

Here is the way she sat when I got her (nothing special, plus I only took one shot with my phone):


Before I was using the dealer shop, I had it towed home and thought that I could do the whole process at home. I was wrong from the start, but the X5 didn't just sit. I ordered the window regulators and installed them at home and kept it in the garage until it was time for me to make the decision for it to go back to the dealer to do the engine swap.

I went in one Saturday and managed to get her on the lift:


That engine bay was a mess. For starters, it had a missing cover for the spark plugs, the wiring harness was halfway unplugged (that made for a nice amount of frustration later on), nothing was capped off to shield itself from weather elements, and various other things that would piss a normal person off.

Dropped the engine, transmission, and transfer case with the subframe:


See that table? That's probably the best thing BMW has offered a dealership. I am still wondering how far my head was up my ass when I thought I could do all this at home in a single car garage.

Removed the engine, trans, and TC from the subframe:


The cut exhaust was a result of the tech that was helping me trying to cut corners. It would make for a nice fabrication later on that involved two trips to the auto parts store and a grinder wheel.

From there I separated the transmission from the engine and put both into our tire/storage room and would periodically finish the engine as a few weeks went by.

Here is the "new" engine:


Coolant passages were nice and clean. I was pretty impressed and also relieved that this was a motor that was taken care of for the most part:




Before I removed the engine, I drained the oil....well, I guess you could say PART oil. Water and sludge came out of the crankcase. This is what it looks like when you decide to keep driving with a blown headgasket:


Pretty gross, eh?

I'll continue with more pics on my next post.

[cmeptb13]

Damn! That's nice. I wish I could've gotten an x5 for $500 even with a blown motor.
This cries for an s54 swap.

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Damn! That's nice. I wish I could've gotten an x5 for $500 even with a blown motor.
This cries for an s54 swap.

Thanks. The paint has some swirls but its not too terrible. The interior has had it's better days. Not to mention is that ugly green/beige so finding interior bits for that is nearly impossible. Other than that, it's 100% mine. No bank or repo to take it away, which is a fantastic feeling. It will be getting a deep cleaning soon and once I switch tags from the E30 to it, the E30 is getting some goodies that I have postponed for a long 2.5 years. No crazy mods to this as it will be a functional DD.

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Here is the "new" engine with the exhaust manifold on with new studs, gaskets, and nuts:


I also completely resealed it minus a headgasket; oil pan gasket, rear main seal, oil filter housing gasket, and VANOS line seals.

Intake manifold back on:


Although I don't have pictures of it, I replaced anything that would potentially give me a problem in the near future. In this case, it was the crank case ventilation and its associated hoses, IM gaskets, throttle body boot, the plastic water lines that run underneath the IM. I hate doing a job twice and I am a firm believer in preventative maintenance.

Better shot of IM and such:


Also replaced the flywheel bolts:


I had a tech argue with me that I could reuse the flywheel bolts and that they wouldn't pose a threat. After confirming with the master tech, he said they were one time use and even if they weren't, it's not worth the chance.

Wiring harness attached to the engine:


Coils are in and she is ready to go back in!:




Called it a night and the next morning, I came in early to get a head start. Plus it was a Saturday, so I still wanted to enjoy the rest of the weekend


The most frustrating part of the whole process was probably coming across parts that were either missing or just misplaced. Had I not had access to a parts catalog and a nice wide array of parts that were readily available, this could have potentially been an abandoned project. But I kept on going.

Although it wasn't 100% buttoned up and good to go, I decided to crank the engine real quick to make sure it started up with no issues:


The engine was throwing a code for all the oxygen sensors and because it was late at night and I was so tired, I initially thought the cats were clogged or the sensors were completely ruined from the PO. Turns out I was wrong; I just had the oxygen sensors switched around. Whoever dug into this before me just started unplugging shit without marking anything. I ended up fixing that later on in the parking lot on my lunch break. :D

I didn't take any more pictures because I was in the home stretch to get it done. Plus when you're focused on getting something done before summer time, you don't take the time to stop and snap some pics. I wish I would have so everyone gets a better idea of the headaches that I went through, but ultimately cleared them up one by one.

The M54 is a fantastic engine in its own form. I believe it was the last true engine BMW put effort into before everything switched to electronic control (N5x, anyone?). At first, I was quite intimidated at tackling this particular motor, but because I had some experience on it with my E46 330i, I just used that as a small reference.

[N2MYE30]

Nice to see something different. :up:

[Victell]

Awesome read. Im thinking about a 3.0 x5 and found this thread.

Why do you think so highly of the m54, besides less electronic control?

[JGood]

That's a hell of a project! As I started reading the thread, I thought it was an m62. I was thinking to myself, you are insane. It took me 12 hours just to do valve cover gaskets on my old 4.4 e53. Looks like the 3.0 has a bit more room to work around. How much time do you think you have invested in the removal/reinstall? To do it again, would you drop it out from the bottom with the subframe again, or just pull the engine/trans with a hoist from the top?

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Awesome read. Im thinking about a 3.0 x5 and found this thread.

Why do you think so highly of the m54, besides less electronic control?

Sorry for the uber late response! I need to start subscribing to my own threads. lol

The M54 is pretty much the perfected M50..or at least in my opinion. It's incredibly smooth, and as with all of BMW's 6's, it will last a very long time with normal maintenance. It is still a motor you can work on at home with the right set of tools. I have never had to buy a special tool when working on this engine.

While the 3.0 lacks that grunt that the V8 X5's have, you are less likely to run into any problems. I do know that the 4.4's like to be leaky and there isn't much space to work on them in the engine bay compared to the 3.0.

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That's a hell of a project! As I started reading the thread, I thought it was an m62. I was thinking to myself, you are insane. It took me 12 hours just to do valve cover gaskets on my old 4.4 e53. Looks like the 3.0 has a bit more room to work around. How much time do you think you have invested in the removal/reinstall? To do it again, would you drop it out from the bottom with the subframe again, or just pull the engine/trans with a hoist from the top?

I would drop it out from the bottom again. Although it looks challenging, I can tell you it is much easier to do it like they did from the factory. My original plan was to rip it out from the front, but that wasn't going down after I got underneath it. You're not damaging the front end of the vehicle and it is only 6 large bolts. The time to do this added up had to have been a solid 16-20 hours. But because I took my time, I spaced this out over a few weekends. I was working at the dealership when I did this, so I was in no rush to get it completed. But when I did, it was a giant relief. I still think I did a great job considering I'm only a parts guy. :pimp:

[slammin.e28]

Bravo!

I love M54s! On my wishlist is an x3/5 with a 3.0 and 6sp manual trans.

One day.....

Loved reading this. I need to go through my e46s M54 CCV bullshit sometime.

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I have contemplated a 5 speed swap! But, I must finish my E30 first. That has been on the back burner for too long and I just recently started going to town on it.

I sometimes feel that this auto trans is going to shit out on me when I least expect it. lol

[Roysneon]

I don't care what people may think of them, I'd love to have any kind of x3/x5. I even really like the new x6, especially the //M but that's so far out of my price range it actually is pretty funny.

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I don't care what people may think of them, I'd love to have any kind of x3/x5. I even really like the new x6, especially the //M but that's so far out of my price range it actually is pretty funny.

Well, this is an E53...and one of the first years of the 6 cylinder model. I expected a LOT more things to go wrong. Luckily, they haven't.

At first, I was planning on flipping this and making a profit. But after driving it and realizing it is a good daily driver, I decided to keep it. It is easy to get in and out of and just recently, I used it to go to Home Depot and get materials to make a work bench. Given the cargo area with the seats folded down, it's decently spacious. I have put 2 motors and a folded/disassembeld engine hoist in the back of it. It has my respect at this point. I really can't complain. Most 25 year olds don't have 2 paid off BMWs :p

[golde30]

With the cheap price of s54 drivetrain nowadays, I would have swapped that bitch.

[E30 Wagen]

I'm extremely envious of you right now. I think I'd want a diesel engine in a X5 myself.