ucsbwsr

Happy to report that the Hexons don't appear to have received any damage when my engine blew which is relieving as I found chunks of metal in the manifold when the turbos were removed.

Currently I am running JB4 Map 5 with 91 octane so the turbos are only making 15ish psi, we will see how things go once the boost gets turned up.

Evan

Lotus99

That's really sad. I used to have their bars, and they were awesome and really transformed the car. Where did you hear though that they're shut? Their website as well as their store are still up and running...

E6x (2003-2010) - 5 - BMW Model

Racing Dynamics | Style. Power. Performance.

ucsbwsr

When googling "RD Sport" there is a little business synopsis on the right where it says permanently closed. They website is from like 2008 and their last FB page post was Jan 2014 so I don't know for sure that they are closed but that is how it looked at a quick glance.

Evan

Lotus99

Hmm... It may be that they just can't be bothered to update their Facebook page. I bought mine in Feb. 2015, which is a year after you indicate, and they were still around, and I was emailing back and forth with someone at RD about the settings even. I bought mine from PYSpeed at the time, so perhaps reaching out to them might help.

hatterasman

I spoke to Frederico Pavloni of RD Sport on the phone awhile back (months ago now). He told me he had one set of E61 sways left that he was willing to sell them. I even received an invoice but never heard back after sending payment information.

I followed up several weeks later and he told me he sent that set of bars out to a shop for measurements because they were contemplating another production run due to interest in the E61 product.

From my conversations, he indicated that RD Sport was transitioning back to Europe (Germany) Their euro site (racing-dynamics.net) is up, but doesn't have any products listed.

I got impatient and purchased a M5 Sedan rear sway.

ucsbwsr

Been breaking in the clutch, about 100 miles to go of engagement-heavy city driving to reach to golden 500 mile mark. Although I must admit there have been a couple WOT 3rd gear pulls to log.

A couple pics of the wagon being a wagon.

Evan

At Lowes


Weekend hike in Orange County with the squad.

535XI Wagon

It is so excited to see it back on the road!
GC lite my next move! Congratulation!

Mart_J

what an epic build well done, wish we had this engine avaliable in the e61 over in the uk

ucsbwsr

Thanks, still working through some bugs but overall very happy with the result.
You guys get enough cool wagons over there, go buy an RS6 Avant or something.

Evan

ucsbwsr

My trans was "temporarily" installed up to this point with old hardware, insulations and shields omitted to make the trans support fabrication easier. Now that the support is done and the clutch is broken in I took the opportunity to install the final pieces and also (hopefully) address some issue I have been having with my clutch.

Issues
- When the wagon is cold there is some friction in the clutch, with the pedal pressed to the floor and trying to select a gear, the wagon will start to move forward without the gear fully selected and clutch still pressed. Sometimes at idle with the clutch out shifter out of gear the rear wheels will slowly spin while on jackstands. There is clearly some unwanted friction going on, maybe clutch is too thick? Oddly enough the issue disappears at warmer operating temps.

- When the wagon is cold it is nearly impossible to select gears from a stand still, the shifter won't get into gear without using uncomfortably strong force. Currently running Royal Purple Syncromax but might experiment with other fluids to see if it helps. People are quick to point at the gear oil being cold and syncros not lubricated and that certainly might be part of it but if there is friction with the clutch as noted above then it would likely be hard to get into gear anyway regardless of fluid.


This weekend in addition to "finalizing" the transmission and surrounding trim pieces I wanted to inspect the clutch and various components to make sure everything is installed correctly. I didn't find anything abnormal which might contribute to my friction issue.


Trans coming out (again).


Insulation and shielding to reinstall


With my merge collector off I took the opportunity to clean it up a bit and replaced the gaskets.


My clutch was engaging in the first 15% of travel so I added a couple washers to my fork pivot, 2 washers was the way to go as engagement is now around 80% travel which is what I am used to with BMW clutches.


New pressure plate bolts and trans mounting hardware


Even from my relatively light break-in driving which only consisted of a handful of pulls and no 1st gear rips or launches there is some signs of stress on the guibo. I will be keeping my eyes on this as it now may be the weakest link of the drivetrain.


As you can see with my exhaust hanger and the oem heat shield the architecture is a bit different with my transfer case out of the picture. Exhaust is nice and solid with it's over mounts and v-bands so no worries there but I trimmed the damaged heat shield so it won't cause unnecessary drag.
BEFORE


AFTER


Pic with everything installed


Took a little cruise up PCH with a friend and grabbed a beer at Ballast Point Brewing.