540i Used Supercharger

[Cryosignal]

Not entirely sure where this post should go, if I'm in the wrong place I apologize. Is anybody out there selling a used VF or ESS 540i supercharger kit? I have an 01 540i with the vanos motor.

[geargrinder]

LOL.

Short answer: No.

Long answer:

• The ESS kit for M62 is next to non-existent in the USA. When a car appears with one its a real unicorn. Don't focus on those, it'd be a crazy freak occurrence to find one on a car let alone for sale.
• Practically, Dinan & VF are the kits you might find.
• They come up for sale very rarely.
• Even more rarely are 'solid kits at reasonable' prices. Lets parse that in pieces.
• 'Solid kits' means - for your actual motor, not missing parts. I keep my eye on kits for sale, and they are 9 times out of 10 missing parts, normally significant ones. Some key tips for used kit shopping:
  
  • You need the big crank pulley. Many D-bags who do a quick-yank don't pull this, and its $$$ to buy from VF, or have custom made. Dinans kit is out of production so for them you're searching eBay for used parts, and every eBay d-bag think the Dinan name on anything is worth an extra $500.
  • You need the tune and/or DME (ECU). Many D-bag sellers will not have this and write off 'getting custom tune is no big deal'. No. Its going to be $$$ and/or a hassle. If they still have the DME w/ the tune on it, I or someone else could help clone that DME to your car before they flash it back to stock but many idiot sellers restore their car to stock before doing that step. VF WILL sell you a tune for their kit, but count on it being $$$. TTFS/Frank Smith has tuned some of these cars but that's not cheap either and ideally you take the car to him in MD.
  • Fairly obviously, the main blower bracketry is critical. The intake piping is semi-critical. Can you maybe fab it up? Maybe/probably, depends on how savvy you are w/ fab.
  • The blower is almost the least critical item in the kit honestly as you could buy one of those from Vortech in the next 5 minutes on the internet (although at least for the VF you may or may not need to make a minor mod to the volute). Sellers won't see it this way and will think the blower + a handful of nuts and bolts and hoses = 'full supercharger kit'.
  • Adapting a non-TU kit to TU or vice-versa is a HUGE DEAL. Don't let a seller tell you otherwise. Lots of little crap you have to mod or fabricate or source.
  • OK some of the smaller items are not such a big deal, and/or the 'home fab' could be somewhat easier to manage. Forum bros are your friends, we can help advise what will be hard or easy to self-fab.
  • Someplace I have a list of the VF kit parts to check against - if you do find one for sale... Needless to say I'm not usually a friend to a scammy used-kit-seller. Somebody I think had a Dinan parts list too someplace, maybe for E38?
  
  
• IMO a 'reasonable' price is hard to pin down, given that there is a big expensive 'wearing' part in the kit in the form of a blower, plus the high variability of what is in or out of the kit. $3.5-4.5k is the general price range if the kit is truly truly complete, with software, and in GOOD CONDITION (aka blower isn't overdue for a rebuild) and even includes some 'extras' or 'mods', then OK sure maybe more. Most sellers won't see it that way, and will price their 'miscellaneous selection of worn out kit parts' as if it was totally complete and just came in the box yesterday. For each of the big items missing you need to deduct a good chunk of money, and realize it will be time and hassle in some cases as well, since VF hates to sell individual kit parts, and generally if you are a used-kit-buyer they will treat you like a convicted pedophile.

For the VF kit at least, a bunch of us worked together to identify:

• Gaps / errors in the crappy VF install documentation
• Some of the design weakpoints and suggested modifications / improvements to the system
• Some part number crossovers (so you don't have to go to VF for a cheapo GM compatible tensioner that is $30 at any Autozone for instance)

Here: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ation-Addendum

Re posting it here, this isn't really the spot, theoretically all 'FS or WTB' threads are supposed to be in the marketplace area... honestly it doesn't bother me, but like swearing, its one of the things this site is a little excessively anal about.

[setho]

I agree with GG in this, as you are realistically better off buying the kit brand new from VF. Alone, they will sell the tune for $1,000. So if you think your getting a sweet deal for a kit at 5k used without tune, your wrong.

To add on, VF has recently made adjustments to their kits and tunes to make install easier and more friendly, mainly being that there is no more resistor to solder in for the MAF.

Bracketry from a Non vanos to vanos sucks... Hard. You need to modify both the timing covers and brackets. Also, non vanos kits dont come with the secondary air relocation piping and a few other key components that youll need to decide whether or not you can modify and live without.

Finally, new VF kits are now on a special-order basis unless you can find a vendor that has them in stock. This means that you will be waiting for quite some time for VF to put the kit together. We have called recently as a potential customer was interested in getting a kit through our shop

[Mannyf540]

Maybe if you reach out to ESS Tuning.
But like GG said, the kit is not common in the states.

[blarf]

every eBay d-bag think the Dinan name on anything is worth an extra $500.

As long as someone's willing to pay a premium for the Dinan garbage there will be sellers that charge a premium. After poking at the 540 again today and being reminded of why each and every single piece of Dinan kit on this car is crap I can only hope their s/c kits are better quality. There is one advantage though: their old stuff is generally CARB certified.

[geargrinder]

Maybe if you reach out to ESS Tuning.
But like GG said, the kit is not common in the states.

They dont really sell that kit over here Manny. I've known people who have contacted them and tried to get the M62TU kit in USA with no luck. They sell the M5 / S62 kit here but not the M62TU.

[geargrinder]

As long as someone's willing to pay a premium for the Dinan garbage there will be sellers that charge a premium. After poking at the 540 again today and being reminded of why each and every single piece of Dinan kit on this car is crap I can only hope their s/c kits are better quality. There is one advantage though: their old stuff is generally CARB certified.

LOL. That is true. Although, in my state - even though theoretically, they should recognize CARB cert kits, being a CARB-based regulatory system, in reality I hear the fascist bureaucrats still fight it tooth and nail. Basically "every car modification is illegal tampering" is the viewpoint here now. I'm gonna have to buy property in NH just to register cars in the future. Anyway.

The Dinan kits come in a few varieties/revs I think... some use these 'Turbotronics' modules which are basically glorified piggybacks or worse (I think the "T-9" module is maybe just a MAF resistor in a fancy $$$ box). I think there were some later versions that were more streamlined? Same for the blowers they used... early versions different from later... The Dinan kits do seem to make good power on dynos, and seem pretty reliable, from the number of guys I've met who've DD'd them for years, but you might as well just kill yourself if you need parts.

[Mannyf540]

They dont really sell that kit over here Manny. I've known people who have contacted them and tried to get the M62TU kit in USA with no luck. They sell the M5 / S62 kit here but not the M62TU.

Wow... such limited choices!!

Thad, we need your kit!!

[tptrsn]

Haha, so it seems!!

Better yet probably, either Toolman2's or wagons ho's screw blower kits should be more installer friendly, and possibly easier to tune than a turbo setup, albeit with potentially less ultimate potential.

If my car was a TU, maybe I'd feel different as I'd know exactly what is needed to make a turbo setup work on cars that comprise a potentially larger market. The pre-TU cars seem to be pretty scarce around here, and there is a lot of difference between the two versions...

[geargrinder]

Yeah... whatever happened to the ol' Ho'bag? He's been disappeared for long time and it seemed like he was just on the verge of going public with some real results and whatnot..

[wagons ho]

Still the plan. Vanos electronic throttle easy. Mechanical throttle much more difficult to package.
With age, comes patience.

[geargrinder]

Naaawwww. I'm old AND impatient. Worst of both worlds mate.

Glad to hear from ya tho bud, would be cool to see some pixorz / stories of what you're up to sometime.

[topaz540i]

My car is available for prototype testing after you get the software safe...

[tptrsn]

I missed where he said he was working on software. ??

Ho'Bag doesn't give up much in the way of details, even when you pry him for it offline.