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      05-08-2017, 09:07 PM   #1
m5james
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Switched another X5 to Evans waterless coolant

I'd switched my prior E53 X5 just before Bimmerfest 2015 where I drove from Seattle to Hollywood to Vegas to Seattle in 1.5 weeks time. No issues and worked like a charm yet again.

http://www.evanscoolant.com/how-it-works/

I'm about to round to 100k on my 2010 X5M, which as many BMW owners know, is the time to do some major services. I can't find the specific article but there are many that mention it. Nevertheless I paid a buddy who used to work at BMW of Seattle to do the transmission, diff and transfer case fluids on both my X5M and the GF's 535xiT. While he was at it, mine needed a rear diff gasket.

Over the past few months I've had an issue where I was topping off the coolant once a month but never saw anything on the ground. Two days after I get it from my buddies shop, I noticed that the drivers front tire is practically tucking into the fender and the passenger rear is jacked WAY up in the air, there was yellow fluid all over the drivers side underpanels and naturally freak out thinking maybe he missed something. Low and behold I had a hairline crack on the expansion tank between the tank and engine itself, so the leak would get blown around the bottom of the frame rail and I never saw it.
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'10 BMW X5///M - Alpine White on Sakhir Orange - JB4 w/ HCP Stage 2 BEF, NGK 97506 @ .20, SS tubing & BMC filters, gutted cats, AC Forged 312 22's, H&R 2"
'98 BMW 740iL - ///E39 M5 6spd swap, fully built engine (sleeved, P&P, cams), 3.46 LSD, H&R Stage 2/Bilstein HD, Magnaflow 14816's
'97 BMW 328ci - ///E36 M3 clutch & L/W flywheel, Z4///M 18's

Last edited by m5james; 05-08-2017 at 09:42 PM..
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      05-08-2017, 09:41 PM   #2
m5james
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While likely not necessary to replace the expansion tank, I removed the fender liner since at the time I was wondering of maybe the shock had blown out due to all the fluid everywhere and even though I found nothing on the shock itself, I couldn't source where this yellow fluid was coming from. Needless to say, this was kind of a bitch due to space and BMW uses rivets to attach the fender to the liner, which I've replaced using normal expansion rivets.



Without thinking about it until after I'd found the crack, said fluid was simply Zerex G-05 coolant, which I've used myself in the past since it's available locally, cheaper than BMW coolant and is still phosphate-free, something that prevents us from using all makes all models coolant

Having all this apart made it much easier to very access to the plugs on the bottom of the expansion tank and remove the hose on one of the electric water pumps. This location also helped to drain the coolant from the block, radiator(s) and a straight shot into my bucket once I turned the key on (engine still off) and flooring the gas pedal for 10 seconds, which in turn causes the electric pumps to turn on in order to self bleed the system. Last but not least was the hose that is on the bottom of the radiator that feeds to another smaller radiator in the drivers side lower grill opening. Oddly these radiators have no petcock.

Once drained, I blew out whatever remaining coolant I could using compressed air at the 5 locations I had dangling and open. I reconnected everything and poured in the Evans Prep Fluid. For the record I didn't do this on my E53 since I was able to find the blocks drain bolt but I couldn't find one on the E70. I ran a gallon of that around the system to flush out as much of the old coolant as possible then redrained everything again.

I was never able to find something stating our total cooling system capacity so I played it save by getting an Evans four pack off eBay for $160 shipped...1 gallon of prep and 3 gallons of coolant. I ended up using about 2.5 gallons of the coolant itself, so hopefully that means I did a good job of draining out the old stuff. It's only been a day but it's good to go so far.
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'10 BMW X5///M - Alpine White on Sakhir Orange - JB4 w/ HCP Stage 2 BEF, NGK 97506 @ .20, SS tubing & BMC filters, gutted cats, AC Forged 312 22's, H&R 2"
'98 BMW 740iL - ///E39 M5 6spd swap, fully built engine (sleeved, P&P, cams), 3.46 LSD, H&R Stage 2/Bilstein HD, Magnaflow 14816's
'97 BMW 328ci - ///E36 M3 clutch & L/W flywheel, Z4///M 18's

Last edited by m5james; 05-08-2017 at 09:58 PM..
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      05-08-2017, 10:06 PM   #3
m5james
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Now to figure out why the truck isn't sitting level even though I've measured with digital calipers and made sure the lowering links are the same length. I've read disconnecting the battery for 10 min could reset the system to needing to connect my laptop and run a test plan to reset everything...which I don't know how to do.
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'10 BMW X5///M - Alpine White on Sakhir Orange - JB4 w/ HCP Stage 2 BEF, NGK 97506 @ .20, SS tubing & BMC filters, gutted cats, AC Forged 312 22's, H&R 2"
'98 BMW 740iL - ///E39 M5 6spd swap, fully built engine (sleeved, P&P, cams), 3.46 LSD, H&R Stage 2/Bilstein HD, Magnaflow 14816's
'97 BMW 328ci - ///E36 M3 clutch & L/W flywheel, Z4///M 18's
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      05-09-2017, 07:36 AM   #4
deansbimmer
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I've run Evans NPG in a couple of my previous M3's one of which was pushing more boost than was really safe for the engine... That car ran for 25k miles on the Evans before I sold it. It's a fantastic coolant. It runs at lower pressures which is easy on the cooling system, but I didn't want to run it at zero pressure (make it harder for the system to purge air pockets).

I can't fault it at all for what it is. I don't run it on my daily drivers as I do not want the risk of being left stranded needing coolant and not having any with me. Water is a contaminant to Evans coolant. Although you can add water to it in an emergency, I don't like the idea of losing $200 in materials and the labor of having to flush the system again to remove the water.

Instead, I replace the cooling system and rock OEM blue coolant. Yes more expensive, but the preventative maintenance yields much better peace of mind on higher mileage trucks.
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      05-22-2017, 12:20 AM   #5
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Did you flush the coolant in the intercoolers? I've wondered what would be gained with a better technology coolant in the intercoolers. Or maybe just some Water Wetter or similar in there.
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      05-22-2017, 10:40 PM   #6
m5james
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Quote:
Originally Posted by deansbimmer View Post
I've run Evans NPG in a couple of my previous M3's one of which was pushing more boost than was really safe for the engine... That car ran for 25k miles on the Evans before I sold it. It's a fantastic coolant. It runs at lower pressures which is easy on the cooling system, but I didn't want to run it at zero pressure (make it harder for the system to purge air pockets).

I can't fault it at all for what it is. I don't run it on my daily drivers as I do not want the risk of being left stranded needing coolant and not having any with me. Water is a contaminant to Evans coolant. Although you can add water to it in an emergency, I don't like the idea of losing $200 in materials and the labor of having to flush the system again to remove the water.

Instead, I replace the cooling system and rock OEM blue coolant. Yes more expensive, but the preventative maintenance yields much better peace of mind on higher mileage trucks.
I hear ya on all counts. I can't say for certain how many pockets the S63 engine may have, but I'm sure with enough driving around taking turns that they'll work themselves out. I'm mostly trying to avoid the typical BMW plastics problems, which this should make moot.

Ironically I did have a failure in my E53 X5 (while my mom was borrowing it) since the bearings decided to fail in the water pump, otherwise it survived perfectly for two Bimmerfest trips from Seattle to Hollywood to Vegas and back to Seattle.
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      05-22-2017, 10:47 PM   #7
m5james
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan5034 View Post
Did you flush the coolant in the intercoolers? I've wondered what would be gained with a better technology coolant in the intercoolers. Or maybe just some Water Wetter or similar in there.
I removed the drivers fender liner and drained at the aux pump, intercooler and bottom of the radiator. I've checked it a couple times over the past weeks and even after a hot drive it doesn't his or anything when removing the cap so I'd say I did a good flush.
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'10 BMW X5///M - Alpine White on Sakhir Orange - JB4 w/ HCP Stage 2 BEF, NGK 97506 @ .20, SS tubing & BMC filters, gutted cats, AC Forged 312 22's, H&R 2"
'98 BMW 740iL - ///E39 M5 6spd swap, fully built engine (sleeved, P&P, cams), 3.46 LSD, H&R Stage 2/Bilstein HD, Magnaflow 14816's
'97 BMW 328ci - ///E36 M3 clutch & L/W flywheel, Z4///M 18's
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