Ferrari Mailing List: Re: more 'what I did for Christmas"

[Dave Handa (dave]

So what's the status report Dr. Ken?  Car back yet?  How's she drive?

-----Original Message-----
From: ken rentiers [mailto:rentiers [at] mac.com] 
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 8:40 AM
To: dave [at] davehanda.com
Cc: 'The FerrariList'
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] more 'what I did for Christmas"


On Dec 6, 2007, at 9:28 AM, Doug and Terri Anderson wrote:

> Hmmmm, parked on a hill?  Drive thru a deep puddle?
> DOUG

Pictures here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kenzoferrari/BlackJesusTheResurrection

In mid-August Houston was visited by TS Erin. A few blocks  
surrounding my mid-city residential complex was inundated with 6 to 8  
inches of rain in 45 minutes. Houston is flat, the streets flooded to  
a depth of several inches. When I left the office in NW Houston it  
was raining hard but there was no street flooding, or I would never  
have exited the garage in my trusty BMW 540i/6 "Black Jesus"*.

Less than a mile from home the streets began flooding badly. Having  
lived here most of my life and not wanting to imitate U-boat I pulled  
into a strip center parking lot which was just high enough to remain  
dry. About 45 minutes later the water had receded and I gingerly made  
my way to the driveway to my complex. There is a dip there, with a  
recessed storm sewer, that was masked by groundwater and proved to be  
just deep enough...

The car took a dip, a bow wave came up and the CAI took a big gulp.  
Ka-blammo! Rod through the block. Just like that.

By the time the flatbed got there all the water was gone.

My next quandry was what to do. Dennis advocated totaling the car and  
getting an M5 at wholesale auction, but I didn't want a peaky M5 -  
keep in mind this is my only car and Houston has some poor streets.  
My car has the MTech Sports Suspension which is rough enough. Instead  
I wanted something more subtle and Alpina-like.

Fortunately in 2002/2003 BMW modified the 4.4l / 290 HP V8 using the  
Alpina recipe; boring and stroking it to 4.6l for a premium X5 model.  
340 HP! 350 lb/ft! Since this M62 variant is plug & play the solution  
was obvious! We are taking it further with some porting and  
polishing. All the valves are being hand-lapped. The heads are being  
milled for higher compression. I am installing an M5 instrument  
cluster because the 4.6l mill has an oil temp sensor fitting which  
the 4.4l does not.

"BMW considered using the M5's 394-hp S62 V-8 [on the X5 Sport] but  
didn't because of its peaky torque delivery and the fact that no  
stock slushboxes will handle the power. Hence, no M badge, either.  
Instead, a new 4.6-liter V-8 was engineered with some inspiration  
from Alpina, BMW's factory-anointed aftermarket tuner in Buchloe,  
Germany.
Like Alpina's own 4.6-liter B10, the factory's DOHC 32-valve variant  
is a riff on the current M62 V-8 found in the X5 4.4i and 540i. The  
crucial difference is that each pot now displaces 577cc instead of  
550cc, due to 1.0mm more of bore and 2.3mm more of stroke. A  
compression-ratio increase of 0.3 to 10.5:1, a looser exhaust trimmed  
with chrome hoods, and lumpier intake cams backed up by a more  
aggressive mapping of the engine's cam-phasing mechanism account for  
a rating of 340 horsepower, 50 more than in the 2002 X5 4.4i, which  
went to 290 from 282 horsepower last year. The crankshaft also turns  
another 26 pound-feet, for 350 total.

That's what we is up to!

ken

*so named because when I first treated my sainted sister Jane to a  
full throttle toll booth launch all she could say was "Jesus". And  
because the car is black/black.
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