Hello everyone,
Turbos on my 08 wagon are staring to go and I began looking at possible replacements.
The big question is, if I want "modest" 400whp, really don't need more, do I stay with new stock turbos or go to RB's, Vargas or Hexon? I just want some bump in power and reliability for street driving.
All opinions are greatly appreciated!

 

I will not claim to have a ton of knowledge here, but I am going through the exact same thing. Here is my plan......


Stock turbos
RBTurbo silicone inlets (group buy on N54tech right now)
Modified 535i Kittyless DP's (I am going to modify them to work on an XI, because I refuse to spend $1100 for the AR's specific to the 535XI)
VRSF 7" FMIC
Charge pipe with Synapse BOV.
JB4 G5
DCI
OCC
Eventually Stage 2 Fuel It and some E85.

From my understanding, I should be between 400-450HP AWD.

 

Thank you Tim!
What charge pipe are you going to get (specific for 535xit)?

 

I'm making my own based off of my OEM pipe. Again, I can't pay that much for a simple piece of tubing when I can fabricate it myself. I already have the OEM type flange machined out of aluminum, just need to do the final fitting of the piping, then weld it all up.

 

I have a strong feeling that when you'll be done modifying your wagon it would as epic as your M5 ( I read a lot about it on m5board)

 

LOL, thank you, but this is my daily driver. If I had planned on making it as crazy as the M5, I would be going with different turbos and would be stepping completely outside the box like Evan. I just want to do some easy upgrades, since I have to replace stuff anyway, yet still keep it reliable. Reliability is my #1 priority.

 

But damn Hexon sounds promising gents !
I follow Island Road thread want to hear his opinion.

 

I would upgrade for reliability reasons. Vargas has a nice Stage 1 offering for people in your situation. They are like and oem+ turbos, offering a slight bump in power and much improved reliability.

Hybrids are a great choice for the N54 engine if you don't mind spending a bit more and completing various bolt-on mods to compliment the turbos. They can make enough power to give RWD traction issues and AWD Drivetrain issues, hybrid frame turbos have just been pushed to 700whp which is crazy as they are the size of a donut.

My hands are huge but these turbos are SMALL.

Evan

 

Hands down I would grab the RR550s for sure. Our install went flawless, and the turbos perform awesome. We have yet to ramp up the boost seeing as though our DME needed new mosfets. We have a custom tune on the way from Wedge Performance that should put is within the 26psi range. Hexon just had a 10% off as well so you could try and still jump on that if you contact them.

We just put NGK plugs in and S55 coils along with a repaired DME. Now it's on to the tuning side of things. Right now we are waiting on "Maxboost" module. Logs and vids will be coming but right now if you were to buy turbos I would go Hexon for sure with some VTT inlets.

 

R550's should arrive in a couple of weeks, upgrading turbos first and then later down pipes and intercooler