timmay77

I figured I would tackle this one. The non XI pipes do not fit an XI vehicle due to the front axle housing on the bottom of the block. You have to cut/indent the front turbo pipe to make it fit. The rear turbo pipe fits perfectly.

The VRSF pipes are pretty nice. They showed up 2 days after I ordered them. Tiago was great to work with. Answered emails the same day and quickly answered all of my questions.

My first attempt ended up being a bad plan, so I welded it back together and created a valley in the elbow. All in all, there are several ways to do this. I opted to cut out the valley and mold in some stainless plate, and weld it all back together. If you are handy with a torch and hammer, you COULD heat and bend. I did a little of both. I made a valley, welded one side, heated up the stainless, and hammered it down into the valley to weld into place. I probably removed more pipe than needed, but I am happy with the finished product. IF I were to do this again, it would be easy now that I know what is needed. Best option is to pull the car apart and make them to fit. $399 and some time and fabrication is much easier for me to stomach than $1100. Wow......

The outside of the pipe (side toward the wheel) needs more material removed than the inside (side towards the engine) due to the shape of the axle housing. The pictures will explain it better. The pipe is originally 3". I removed about 1" of pipe on the outside and about 3/4" of pipe on the inside to create the valley. I tried to measure where the valley was located on the pipe, but it wouldn't have been easy to explain. Pictures do it best.

I did this job while replacing my turbos, waterpump, and thermostat. Subframe was completely removed.

Putting VRSF non XI DP's on an XI is completely doable with a little fabrication.

Stock set up.








Modified pipe:

















Fitment:

olega_ts

Awesome job! Did you install OEM turbos? How does drive now with those pipes?
And my apologies if it is stupid question, but I always thought it would be easier (and cheaper) hollow out stock down pipe, remove just catalytic part out, no?

Island Road

Exactly...

I'm a bit speechless at the moment after seeing these pictures... While I do commend your effort in cutting the aftermarket E60 pipes to fit your XI I can't but think if you just De-catted your stock pipes aka the (front pipe) really it would yield more than likely the same flow now given you have the same restriction really.

The AR XI pipes are positioned / cut in a way not a lot is taken from the actually bend seeing as the bends are a bit different between the two pipes anyway. More than likely this cut resulted in the pipe being 2.5 inches or smaller hard to tell. If you wanted to save money cutting out the cats would of been the way to go for sure. While I am sure it will work just fine can't say the resulted effort would be worth it for the same restriction of a stock (De-catted) pipe would of offered. AR pipes can be had New for around $700 this time of year from vendors, especially on black friday sales. I guess I don't understand the reasoning behind this really when you have HRE wheels but opted to save a few hundred to "hack" up the pipe.

timmay77

Boy, aren't you just a ball of fun.....


*sigh"


Stock cats are 2" piping, and from my experience from doing my E39 M5 exhaust, double walled....... which probably makes the actual flow path less than 2". I can verify that once I get home and measure. Chew on those facts for just a bit, before bashing what I have accomplished above. Now, explain to me how you would decat the stock pipes? It sounds FANTASTIC on paper.


Yup, you are probably right, I reduced it down to probably 2.5" piping at that spot, which is still a hell of a lot better than 2" stock piping, and better than running stock cats, and to me, worlds better than spending this magical $700 you claim on AR pipes. Please post a link when you find them at that price. Cheapest I can find them for is $1000 shipped. VRSF pipes were $399 shipped, and about 3 hours of my time and some scrap stainless steel.


Thanks for the positive feedback. I can see where this forum will go for me. Every thread I post you seem to want to chime in with negative comments or have a "so what" attitude. While I enjoy helping out the community, you make it difficult to WANT to.


.....and the HRE comment? That's just rude and condescending. I don't WASTE money. I can afford nice things because I SAVE money where I can. Why spend $1000 on a set of pipes when I can make something comparable for $400. Do you really think 3" downpipes are necessary for those tiny ass turbos? LOL. No. do the math, that will tell you what you really NEED. 3" is complete overkill, but that's what the masses want.

Island Road

haha not trying to give you a hard time just wondering why you went this route. I was only shocked cause on some of the photos it looks as though it was cut down a lot, it would be good to get a measurement. Also stock DP should be 2.25 not sure if double walled though. As for de-catting there are a few ways to go about it, just cut the cat and replace with straight pipe (then sell cats!) or some people have actually drill them out but I would not advise this at all. As for the lower price on AR you won't see it posted at all but we were able to buy them for that price via a vendor on black Friday sale. If you PM a few vendors on other forums that sell N54 stuff and deal with AR you can get a lot better price on items especially if you go back and forth with vendors and have them try to beat prices.

Again I am not trying to be negative at all here just curious as to why you went this route that's all, if you were able to only cut down .5 inches and took a few hours of your time that's great and it def works personally wish I had a welder and knew how to weld. As for giving back to the community I love to see the E61 grow I wish it was a big as the E9X but we take what we can get. I don’t know if I would say I don’t give back, I think this community does a great job helping everybody out below are just a few things.

• Gave the E61 up multiple weeks at a time over the course of 6 months so the community could have coilovers setup that is affordable while also deleting the rear air-bag now a group buy.
• Provided MHD tuning with the first E6X map as a base to use in their software.
• Tester to Hexon turbos that now some users are running on these forums not to mention a ton of the E9X guys.
• Provided E61 Wagon rear so Quad diffuser could be make for all E6X Mtech rears

I spent a lot of my time on the 335i boards seeing as I started with that and all the products trickle down.

The HRE comment was a Joke relax. Actually the math has been done the Stock downpipes, 2.5" vs 3" DP as well some years ago. Back to back dyno testing proved that a going from 2.5 to 3" resulted in about 20hp difference under the curve and this was back in 2009 with our limited tuning ability so in reality full 3” is not overkill at all. In fact the stock turbo record for these tiny snails is over 500whp running on full E85.

Anyway no hard feelings the car looks great and any opening to your exhaust is going to help a lot! If you have not already hit up Terry at burger an MHD backend flash, and don’t stop posting because of my behalf Cheers! P.S. Nice M5

Lotus99

Timmay, my 2 cents...

I don't think there's a need to get so defensive for him questioning your thought process / reasons for doing what you did. I know I was thinking the same thing when I read it.

Tons of work and skill obviously went into what you did and big props to you for that, but not all the decisions we all make modifying things are always rational. So once in a while, someone else questions it. It's a forum. We come here to post, and expect opinions agreeing / disagreeing with ours.

I recall you went a few rounds with me too like 6 months ago on the topic of the 535xi badge placement and you said you were going to leave the forums over it... https://5series.net/forums/e61-touri...cement-141030/

It shouldn't come down to that every time. Take it easy dude.
.

timmay77

No worries. This sub forum seems to be ruled by few. That's just how it goes. You guys are always right, and the rest of us are wrong. It's amazing how tainted these threads become so quickly...... Thank you for further tainting the thread with value added information, just like in the thread you linked. Your knowledge in that thread was huge as well.

And you're right, I did say that. But after this, I will stop posting. It's not worth the headache.

I'll just leave this here. It amazes me how people just spit stuff without knowing the facts. Oh well, it is what it is.....

In the end, I couldn't care less what you do. Waste $1100 on a set of pipes, use stock ones, don't care. This is what I did. It worked for me, my car is fast, my AFR's are awesome, I'm making amazing boost, having fun. I just can't stand people that post up on assumptions and guesses, clogging a thread. I am just offering up an option for those who want to try it.

Enjoy.


Discharge flange of the stock pipes, that is double walled, and tapers in. I would venture to say the ID of the stock pipe past the cat is 1.75-1.9". Go ahead and clean those out and use those. I am sure the research that shows 2.5" vs 3" would apply to the stock cats. Well done.....

rice_rocket88

Well, I for sure will say you did a great job. After seeing what you did.. I am NOT going to try to cut and weld.. or "hit with a hammer" to try to dent that pipe. I hope to have welding skills one day, right now I just throw on as much slag as I can and clean it up.. hehe.

+1 for all the great info, I can say I appreciate all the extra pictures and info you've given. I have looked around for more detailed pictures myself, and those shots you included really do fill in all the gaps I have in my head how much involvement there is in it.