I have been reading the forums for about 2 years to try and improve the performance at a reasonable cost for my X5M E70. Mods to start, Sprint booster, Catless downpipes, XHP gear box tune and ESS stage 2 Tune.
Finally I decided to push the button on F10 downpipes and turbos. Following the guidelines on this thread.
For everyone's information. The F10 turbos do not fit into the engine compartment and they do require extensive skill to make them fit. The coolant lines, The air intakes etc do not line up. It is not plug and play.
Good news however is there is a workaround to make them plug and play. Simply use the inlet housing on the original turbos and have them precision machined to fit the inlet turbine.
Then they are plug and play. My car looks completely stock no engine bay change. Same inlets same coolant lines and now it has the F10 turbos and manifolds. Sadly ESS do not respond to any emails about this so I have gone with a local tuner who has given me a healthy bump up to 800 engine BHP. I can post pictures and will post actual sound and performance videos at a later stage. All in I am about USD 4,000 with all hardware and tuning.
Also on another note so much has been said about the difference between the turbos. Simply the F10 turbos are bigger. See picture the original housing on the F10 turbo which has been machined to fit. This is the real reason they are better!
