Blackknight530i 530i6 -> M5 Conversion Build Thread

[JimLev]

When you do the right side exhaust can you post a few pics of the cuts? I still need to do that to my car. Got the parts I need to do it, just not a lot of free time now that the LS3 has got my undivided attention.

[blackknight530i]

When you do the right side exhaust can you post a few pics of the cuts? I still need to do that to my car. Got the parts I need to do it, just not a lot of free time now that the LS3 has got my undivided attention.

It will be done by a friend at his shop, so I can take final pics, but may not have during pics.

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[blackknight530i]

Ok, pictures have finally been taken:





There is a bit of dust from it being in the garage for over a week, but it came out really nice.

[blackknight530i]

I can already tell that I'm going to need to pull the rub strips from the doors and clean behind them, LOL. Before it was a seamless line of dirt on the top and bottom of them from back to front, but since the fenders were painted, now the line stops early. I'll be taking the front door ones off eventually anyways to put the M5 badges in them once I have the exhaust and mirrors done (so as not to pose before it's complete, LOL).

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Looks really good!!! Sometimes, a fender bender can lead to good things!

[Jason5driver]

Does look fantastic !
Why do you have the car sitting so high ?
Most coil-overs will have a range at what height the car needs to be at.
For example, my H&R’s need to be at least 1” lower from the stock ride height.
Having it lower might help the ride.
I would talk with Ground Control.

[cnsorial]

Car is looking great, Paul. I’m glad you got it fixed to your satisfaction.


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[blackknight530i]

Does look fantastic !
Why do you have the car sitting so high ?
Most coil-overs will have a range at what height the car needs to be at.
For example, my H&R’s need to be at least 1” lower from the stock ride height.
Having it lower might help the ride.
I would talk with Ground Control.

Too high?

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[computiNATEor]

Too high?

Nah, I just think Jason likes everything slammed

[dannyzabolotny]

Can't say I'm a fan of the painted rub strips, but it came out pretty awesome! It honestly looks like a brand new car at this point, haha. My buddy got into a similar predicament with his 540i— he got cut off by somebody and insurance gave him a check to cover a whole front respray, but he's taking that money and investing it into paint materials to do the entire car himself, talk about lemons turning into lemonade, eh?

Do you plan to still keep the spare tire with the M5 quad exhaust? I'm always curious to see solutions that keep the spare tire, because that is a feature I never want to give up (I've already had to use my spare tire once in under 2 years of owning my 540it).

[blackknight530i]

Can't say I'm a fan of the painted rub strips, but it came out pretty awesome! It honestly looks like a brand new car at this point, haha. My buddy got into a similar predicament with his 540i— he got cut off by somebody and insurance gave him a check to cover a whole front respray, but he's taking that money and investing it into paint materials to do the entire car himself, talk about lemons turning into lemonade, eh?

Do you plan to still keep the spare tire with the M5 quad exhaust? I'm always curious to see solutions that keep the spare tire, because that is a feature I never want to give up (I've already had to use my spare tire once in under 2 years of owning my 540it).

Personally, I love the painted rub strips. I always thought the flat black ones looked like a base model 528i or something. Always bothered me that the M5 didn't get painted ones like the "premium" non-M cars, LOL.

Yeah, I plan to keep "a" spare tire in the trunk when done. Right now I have a 255/35/19 spare on one of my old Style 95 front wheels, but I guarantee that it won't fit when I modify the trunk floor. It actually is too big currently and lifts up the trunk floor and you have to remove the jack to get it in, LOL. I should have kept the 245/35/19 tire on that wheel as it fit properly. Anyways, getting side tracked. If the full size 245/35/19 tire won't fit, I'll just swap it out for a donut spare and I should have no problem fitting that. That would at least get me home to where I could put the style 95 wheel on and not be running around on the donut while waiting for a new tire. I have had to use the spare a few times and would like to have some kind of backup. Brian did a dual exhaust on his M5T conversion and still has the full size spare in his, but the wagons have deeper trunk floors and his wheel is tilted slightly. I can't do that in the sedan.

[dannyzabolotny]

Personally, I love the painted rub strips. I always thought the flat black ones looked like a base model 528i or something. Always bothered me that the M5 didn't get painted ones like the "premium" non-M cars, LOL.

Yeah, I plan to keep "a" spare tire in the trunk when done. Right now I have a 255/35/19 spare on one of my old Style 95 front wheels, but I guarantee that it won't fit when I modify the trunk floor. It actually is too big currently and lifts up the trunk floor and you have to remove the jack to get it in, LOL. I should have kept the 245/35/19 tire on that wheel as it fit properly. Anyways, getting side tracked. If the full size 245/35/19 tire won't fit, I'll just swap it out for a donut spare and I should have no problem fitting that. That would at least get me home to where I could put the style 95 wheel on and not be running around on the donut while waiting for a new tire. I have had to use the spare a few times and would like to have some kind of backup. Brian did a dual exhaust on his M5T conversion and still has the full size spare in his, but the wagons have deeper trunk floors and his wheel is tilted slightly. I can't do that in the sedan.

I dunno, the black trim seems sportier to me. But it does look better on lighter colors, whereas on a dark car like yours it would definitely get a little lost. I think the body-colored trims bother me more with white and silver cars.

Good to know that the tourings have deeper trunk floors! I wasn't aware of that. When I do my dual muffler setup, I plan to keep it as a muffler delete, so that would decrease the amount of space required, at least compared to a "proper" setup with the mufflers, right?

[blackknight530i]

I dunno, the black trim seems sportier to me. But it does look better on lighter colors, whereas on a dark car like yours it would definitely get a little lost. I think the body-colored trims bother me more with white and silver cars.

Good to know that the tourings have deeper trunk floors! I wasn't aware of that. When I do my dual muffler setup, I plan to keep it as a muffler delete, so that would decrease the amount of space required, at least compared to a "proper" setup with the mufflers, right?

Pretty much can't do a dual muffler setup while keeping the trunk floor, so yeah, muffler delete is better.

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[purplecty]

Ok, pictures have finally been taken:





There is a bit of dust from it being in the garage for over a week, but it came out really nice.

Looks fantastic! I am a fan of the gloss finish painted rub strips. I may do the same to my e38 with a gloss black instead of flat as well...

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[JimLev]

Looks good Paul. Did you have the trunk sliced and diced for the real M5 right side muffler?
I'm going to do something similar to what Brian had done. Hope the spare will still fit in mine.

[blackknight530i]

Looks good Paul. Did you have the trunk sliced and diced for the real M5 right side muffler?
I'm going to do something similar to what Brian had done. Hope the spare will still fit in mine.

Haven't done the trunk floor mod yet. As I said before, keeping a muffler on the right side is pretty much impossible while keeping the spare. I will be using Brian's Borla exhaust with muffler delete, so shouldn't have too big of an issue. Problem is, the Borla has two pipes per side coming out of the resonators, so a bit bigger than a normal muffler delete.

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[blackknight530i]

So, more developments .

A few members on M5board pointed me to an ad for some Carbon Black M5 mirrors for $400 and I talked to the guy and said since I need to paint them anyways, I got him down to $300 for them. Then I talked to Braymond141 on there and he sold me the driver side window switch panel and passenger side mirror module for $125. I've got my same paint shop (Dents Charlotte) doing the paint work on them for $35 each and will be picking them up Friday. All that will be left is picking up my painted M5 trunk spoiler and the exhaust for it to be a complete conversion and ready for M5 badges .

In other news, I drove the car to AL again this past weekend and once again, it was very "bouncy" and felt underdamped. It also felt like I had a vibration from the rear that was similar to when I had a bent rim before I got the Apex wheels, which was accentuated by the stiffer suspension of the GCs. Well, I started to look at changing the damping settings and tonight I took apart my parcel shelf to see about adjusting them, when I saw this:



If you look closely, you can see a pool of oil at the bottom of the nut and all over the threads. I think the shock has begun to leak. I'm not sure how much has leaked, but it could very well be the cause of the "underdamped" feeling and possibly even the vibration I was experiencing. An email has been sent to GC to see about getting a replacement, so hopefully that goes smoothly. I would love it if they could send one in advance, but if not, I guess I can work with my old Konis/M5 springs in the back for a while.

Anyways, that's it for now. It's due for an oil change soon, so will be putting some fresh LiquiMoly 10W-60 in and getting a new Blackstone report. I expect it to be just as good as before, but I like the consistency of knowing how the engine is wearing. Have about 73k miles on the engine now and still runs strong.

[computiNATEor]

Do you think the Konis are "enough" for a daily driven car? I was super happy with my FSDs on the I6 sport package springs, and I'm considering the Eibach Pro-kit springs w/ FSDs again.

[blackknight530i]

Do you think the Konis are "enough" for a daily driven car? I was super happy with my FSDs on the I6 sport package springs, and I'm considering the Eibach Pro-kit springs w/ FSDs again.

Yeah, Konis are fine for pretty much everyone that likes a sport package. I have them on my wagon and they are nice. I just like being able to be a bit lower and hopefully as comfortable and more controlled.

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[Jason5driver]

Wow...
Too bad about the Ground Controls.
Please keep an update on what happens.
Thanks, Jason.

[blackknight530i]

Hey guys, I'm still waiting for the new GC rear shock, which should be in next week, but I did get my new M5 mirrors back from the paint shop today and installed them. They came out looking fantastic, but a couple things happened that I either didn't notice before, or while at the paint shop. One thing is the motor for the up/down movement on the passenger side mirror is not working, but it's easy to set manually. I think this might have been bad originally, but I never tested it out before taking them to the painter. The other thing is the glass on the driver side mirror has a crack in it. I don't think it was there before sending it to the painter, but I can't be certain, so I'm not going to make a big deal about it with them. I had been considering getting a set of aspherical glass anyways, so maybe this is just the reason to go ahead and do that.

Now, all that's left to make the outside look like a proper M5 is the exhaust and trunk spoiler. I'll hopefully be picking up the spoiler this weekend and replacing the current one from Taiwan, which, although it looks pretty decent, isn't a true M5 spoiler like the other one I have is.

Here are some pics of the new mirrors installed:

[computiNATEor]

So when you do the exhaust, are you going to get the rear floorpan from a factory M5, or slice the spare tire well?

[cnsorial]

Car looks amazing, Paul! I really need to look into getting those mirrors, they look so much nicer.


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[blackknight530i]

So when you do the exhaust, are you going to get the rear floorpan from a factory M5, or slice the spare tire well?

No way am I doing the trunk floor swap. If were a welder and had a lot of time, maybe, but paying someone to do that would cost a fortune.

I will be having someone do the trunk floor mod just enough to fit the muffler delete I already have. Thing is, I have a Borla cat-back that has 4 pipes coming out of the resonators, so the muffler delete pipes are wider than normal and will require a bit more space than most. I would like to still keep some kind of spare tire, but might need to be a donut.

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[blackknight530i]

Car looks amazing, Paul! I really need to look into getting those mirrors, they look so much nicer.


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Thanks! I agree, they do look much better and seem to really top off the conversion.

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