First Time Modding X1 35i

[dishums]

Hello, first time using the forum.

72k mile 2013 BMW X1 35i (stock until recent, now with VRSF chargepipe and K&N filter)

The car was stock and the chargepipe blew, and the process of fixing it myself with a VRSF chargepipe I stumbled down the rabbit hole of BMW modifications. I did a K&N air filter before I read much about mods.

I read this article and now I want to go full bolt on mods first with a potential for turbo upgrades in the future:
https://bmwtuning.co/build-400whp-n55/

I would appreciate if some knowledgable people could help me out with recommendations.

I do not see a lot of activity in this forum, so maybe someone could direct me to a more active area (f30 N55 engine, exhaust forum?).

Goals
1) Maintain reliability as this is my daily commuter
2) Add as much power as I can without compromising reliability
3) Not have to be dependent on special fuels (e85 is a 25 min drive away, don't really know about getting methanol)
4) I'd like to get at least 70 hp, but ya know more wouldn't suck

What I'm thinking right now (would love recs):
Upgrade downpipe, Alpina transmission, and do JB4 tune


-Downpipe (Leaning hiflow catted over catless VRSF, no emissions testing area, low note catted sound appealing)
-Tune (no idea which I should get, seems JB4 most common, no experience)
-Intake, is K&N enough or get BMS/AFE

-Not sure when new FMIC is required or what size
-Not sure when colder spark plugs, emission coils are needed
-How does pure stage 1 or 2 affect reliability

I have the budget to go big and do stage 1 or stage 2 turbo, but idk if its worth it when I think I'll mostly run pump gas and the car has 72k miles.

What do you guys think is best in life?

Is there another forum/section I should post these questions to?

Thank you

[sudermatt]

There is so much information in the forum. You just have to spend some time digging. These cars are 7 years old so just about everything has been done. Just go thru the forums, Mark the ones you find useful.

It's actually pretty interesting. I recently upgraded to the 35 and have spent the last 3 weeks looking for useful information.

These guys did all there is to do
https://diyautogalaxy.com/the-bmw-e84-x1-35i-and-why-you-should-buy-one/


You won't be sorry. The 35 X1 could be the last great BMW.

Good luck and welcome to the club.

[wheela]

Welcome! For tuning research, some things to keep in mind with the f30 n55 guys is that their chassis is bigger, they have different intake and downpipe routing, and I believe they all (maybe a few exceptions?) have electronic wastegates (EWG) vs. pneumatic wategates (PWG), which is what we have.

I've done pretty extensive cross referencing on realoem, and I can say that under the hood we're practically identical to e90 n55 cars. Also super close to 1 series - most of our parts cross reference to both e90/e91/e92 and e82 (1-series), but some i've found only cross reference to the e90 series.

That said, here's some good tuning forums:

e90 post n55 section:
https://www.e90post.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=375

1addicts n54/n55 section:
https://www.1addicts.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=229

Also, s p o o l s t r e e t is great, but there's a bigger n54 presence there than n55.

[wheela]

Also note when looking for parts - not all vendors are aware that e90 parts generally fit e84 (some list e84 with e90, others don't). On my car, I have vrsf chargpipe, catless downpipe, and Wagner EVO 1 intercooler -all fit e90, and also fit my car perectly. Obviously this depends on the particular part, and there is risk going ouside of parts with known fitment, but most likely you'll be good.

[wheela]

Personally i'm not a fan of piggy-backs when there is flash tuning available for a platform. Also Alpina flash is good, but people started doing that before xhp came out with flashing specifically for our cars. I encourage you to search, search, search, and read, read, read to decide for yourself what path to go down. For me, I've devided to go with MHD for engine and xhp for transmission.

[NMX1]

I am in the process of trying to get a good tune on my E84 N55 (2014 X1 35i M sport) and recently added xHP, MHD stage 1 (I have all original parts on the car so am not supposed to go beyond that) and a Burger Motorsports pedal tuner, which all add up to noticeably better driving experience overall but did nothing to address off the line speed, which has always sucked and still sucks.
I am mot looking for as much in the way of an all-out upgrade as you are (M sport stock setup is great for my needs/desires at the moment), but still dissatisfied with off the line lag and may have to drop another $500+ on a custom tune, which can now be done in the convenience of your own home under remote consultation with a tuner. Unfortunately that doesn’t come cheap - would add another $500 or so after having already spent somewhere close to $1K on electronic tweaks to the vehicle.
I’d be surprised if you manage to get what you want out of the car without a custom tune, though. None of the standard plug and play programs seem to address the startup acceleration lag at all, and adding horsepower/torque that kicks in at 2,000+ RPM (and a bigger turbo!) would only serve to accentuate the maddeningly slow initial acceleration of the car.
Keep us posted on your mods, though, and what if anything you do to soecifically address the off-the-line acceleration issue.

[dishums]

Thank you for the info.

I think for now I will keep doing some research, but it's looking like initial round will be VRSF catless downpipe and rather than JB4/Alpina I will go MHD and xHD.

That is disappointing to hear the mods did not really address off-the-line acceleration, as that is really the main aspect of driving I most want to improve.

I may go down the line of some aesthetic mods like the black kidney grills and eyebrows.

My main goal is keep myself from getting a new car for as long as possible lol

[NMX1]

I’ve contacted a few custom tuners and consensus seems to be there isn’t much to be done tune-wise about off-the-line acceleration. FWIW I am getting used to the acceleration issue and loving the car with xHP and MHD. As per the advice of both companies, when I want to take off quickly from a stop I do the left foot brake/ right foot gas thing (“brake boosting”) and get the car up to near 2,000 rpm before letting off the brake and that makes for crazy fast off-the-line acceleration. Mostly though if I don’t floor it acceleration lag doesn’t bother me much in daily driving and I don’t feel a need to brake boost often.