E39 530d: Engine Tuning thoughts...

I've no intention of fiddling with the engine any time soon, but a work colleague has recently had his 320d chipped by Peco, a small firm in nearby Birkenhead, Wirral, who you probably know best for their exhausts and it's food for thought. The chip costs £300 and my colleague claims that the car feels much quicker, without having a noticeable effect on economy.

Hmm, sounds too good to be true really and it would be a shame to stifle the 5's superb fuel consumption, but if I do decide to up the power of the 184bhp diesel in future it seems that the chip is where to start so I'll be asking Peco soon about their 530d module.

If the mood takes me though I'd love to try out a couple more subtle mods to make sure power goes way past the 200bhp mark. A K&N panel air-filter for starters. I don't fancy a full on induction-kit, it's not a Scooby after all. Then for the main course installing a larger intercooler further forward in the bumper. The OEM i/c is very small, so it wouldn't take much to find one a bit larger, a Ford Transit i/c would be an ideal donor to fit into the front-bumper, then fab up custom extensions for the pipes. With the chip installed and mapped-in after this lot we should see a nice power gain.

Watch this space.