[Timothi2]

I've recently finished up a full 6mt n54 swap into an e91 touring, and I absolutely love the way the car drove, but it wasn't quite enough for me. Knowing the tuning potential of the n54, I set out to get some bolt-ons to be able to increase the power levels. I knew I was definitely going to get catless downpipes, as well as an intercooler, intakes, and charge pipe+bov. After a bit of research, I decided to go with ALL VRSF products to make it easier to order as everything is from one place, and I've heard really good things about them. I installed all the bolt-ons a month or so ago and flashed the MHD Stage 2+ tune right after. The car is now MUCH more fun to drive, and makes some great noises as a bonus

Products purchased:
-3.5" VRSF N54 Cat-back Exhaust
-3" VRSF N54 Catless Downpipes
-VRSF 5" Performance HD Intercooler
-VRSF N54 Chargepipe with Turbosmart RacePort BOV
-VRSF Dual Cone Intakes

SHIPPING
Everything came very well packaged, well protected and put together. I got the shipment all at once, and all the packages looked good from the outside. Unfortunately, the box with the cat-back exhaust was a bit damaged, but that's probably because it's just such a large and somewhat heavy item. This did lead to one of the midpipe ends being slightly bent inwards, so it wasn't a perfect circle, but that didn't affect the installation or performance so I'm ok with it. Once I unpackaged everything, it all looked great! Welds looked solid, everything felt quite nice so I was happy. Good job VRSF!

INSTALLATION
DCI's have got to be one of the easiest installs you can do on an n54, I did it in a few minutes and man does my engine bay look so much better!

The intercooler was a very straightforward install as well, it fit without any issues and all the piping matched up perfectly to where it needed to go. One complaint that I have is the screws(screw studs?) provided were difficult to get into the radiator support as there was nothing to twist them with and they were slightly larger diameter than the stock screws that hold the stock intercooler. Other than that, it bolted right up and looks great!

The chargepipe and bov were super easy to install as well, and the adapter fitting for the bov line worked perfectly with the line I already had going to the stock diverter valves. Now I don't have to worry about plastic shattering when pushing 20+ psi

Downpipes as usual are a pain on the 335i, but it wasn't my first time doing them so it wasn't too much of a hassle. The shape and positioning of the downpipes is spot on, and they fit perfectly.

Now, the exhaust... This is probably the piece that I was the most excited for. I crawled under the car to bolt the first section up to the downpipes, and realized how tight of a fit it was going to be since it's quite a bit thicker diameter tubing than the stock exhaust lol. After using some extensions, I was able to tighten first part of the catback to the downpipes. While it was tricky, it's to be expected with and exhaust that's this much bigger than stock. The second piece slid into the first with no problem, and I loosely tightened the clamp provided. Now onto the third piece... The third section of the exhaust is the one that has a mounting bracket connected to the diff, and this one proved to be quite a pain to install. The provided mounting bracket was much too short, shorter than the stock bracket by about 1-2 cm if I remember correctly, and I couldn't push the pipe up enough to get the bracket on the diff bolt. It was pressing into the frame and not letting me go any further. I ended up using the stock hanger, and even then it wasn't easy to get it onto the stock bolt location. The last and final piece, the muffler, fit no problem and I tightened everything down. Unfortunately, even after shoving the pieces as far into each other as possible, my exhaust tips for some reason stick out 3-4 inches past the bumper on both sides of the car. The muffler is also not perfectly centered, and you can see one hanger is being pushed towards the back of the car, so my left exhaust tip will stick out about an inch further than the right. I was pretty disappointed that it turned out this way, but I had spent so much time installing it that I just left it on the car. Currently, I'm just running tipless, and it's fine for me. I'll end up getting some much shorter tips eventually, and just trying to get them to sit flush with the bumper. Overall, the exhaust looked great, but it was quite a pain for me to install so it was really unfortunate.

PERFORMANCE
It's absolutely amazing... I don't regret leaving the exhaust on one bit, even if it doesn't fit perfectly. The car is nice and quiet at idle, and has a great tone when you get on it due to the single 3.5" center piping. There is a little bit more drone than I expected, right around the 1.5k range when there is a little bit of load applied. I think this is the way it's supposed to be but I haven't really had any other exhaust so I'm not sure. I LOVE IT! The BOV puts a smile on my face every single time I left off the throttle, and turns quite a few heads too as most people are pretty unsuspecting of my wagon . The intercooler I believe works really well too, I did pull after pull and the car was really consistent in power delivery. I still need to buy the MHD monitor module to get actual numbers on IAT's and to watch the rest of my data lol. You can also hear the turbo's whistle quite nicely through the DCI's so that's a huge plus as well.

IN CONCLUSION
While I did have some fitment and installation issues with the cat-back, everything else bolted on perfectly and couldn't make me any happier. The parts provide great performance and the way the exhaust sounds makes me forget about any issues that I had installing it hahaha. Now, the exhaust does hang a bit lower than the stock one as it's a good amount thicker and I have scraped it already a few times, but it was on a really steep driveway entrance where it went up and then down sharply. Overall, great products and I would definitely recommend them to anyone trying to get some bolt-ons! I've tossed a few pictures down below just so you guys can get some visuals.

[matamua]

Originally Posted by Timothi2

I've recently finished up a full 6mt n54 swap into an e91 touring, and I absolutely love the way the car drove, but it wasn't quite enough for me. Knowing the tuning potential of the n54, I set out to get some bolt-ons to be able to increase the power levels. I knew I was definitely going to get catless downpipes, as well as an intercooler, intakes, and charge pipe+bov. After a bit of research, I decided to go with ALL VRSF products to make it easier to order as everything is from one place, and I've heard really good things about them. I installed all the bolt-ons a month or so ago and flashed the MHD Stage 2+ tune right after. The car is now MUCH more fun to drive, and makes some great noises as a bonus

Products purchased:
-3.5" VRSF N54 Cat-back Exhaust
-3" VRSF N54 Catless Downpipes
-VRSF 5" Performance HD Intercooler
-VRSF N54 Chargepipe with Turbosmart RacePort BOV
-VRSF Dual Cone Intakes

SHIPPING
Everything came very well packaged, well protected and put together. I got the shipment all at once, and all the packages looked good from the outside. Unfortunately, the box with the cat-back exhaust was a bit damaged, but that's probably because it's just such a large and somewhat heavy item. This did lead to one of the midpipe ends being slightly bent inwards, so it wasn't a perfect circle, but that didn't affect the installation or performance so I'm ok with it. Once I unpackaged everything, it all looked great! Welds looked solid, everything felt quite nice so I was happy. Good job VRSF!

INSTALLATION
DCI's have got to be one of the easiest installs you can do on an n54, I did it in a few minutes and man does my engine bay look so much better!

The intercooler was a very straightforward install as well, it fit without any issues and all the piping matched up perfectly to where it needed to go. One complaint that I have is the screws(screw studs?) provided were difficult to get into the radiator support as there was nothing to twist them with and they were slightly larger diameter than the stock screws that hold the stock intercooler. Other than that, it bolted right up and looks great!

The chargepipe and bov were super easy to install as well, and the adapter fitting for the bov line worked perfectly with the line I already had going to the stock diverter valves. Now I don't have to worry about plastic shattering when pushing 20+ psi

Downpipes as usual are a pain on the 335i, but it wasn't my first time doing them so it wasn't too much of a hassle. The shape and positioning of the downpipes is spot on, and they fit perfectly.

Now, the exhaust... This is probably the piece that I was the most excited for. I crawled under the car to bolt the first section up to the downpipes, and realized how tight of a fit it was going to be since it's quite a bit thicker diameter tubing than the stock exhaust lol. After using some extensions, I was able to tighten first part of the catback to the downpipes. While it was tricky, it's to be expected with and exhaust that's this much bigger than stock. The second piece slid into the first with no problem, and I loosely tightened the clamp provided. Now onto the third piece... The third section of the exhaust is the one that has a mounting bracket connected to the diff, and this one proved to be quite a pain to install. The provided mounting bracket was much too short, shorter than the stock bracket by about 1-2 cm if I remember correctly, and I couldn't push the pipe up enough to get the bracket on the diff bolt. It was pressing into the frame and not letting me go any further. I ended up using the stock hanger, and even then it wasn't easy to get it onto the stock bolt location. The last and final piece, the muffler, fit no problem and I tightened everything down. Unfortunately, even after shoving the pieces as far into each other as possible, my exhaust tips for some reason stick out 3-4 inches past the bumper on both sides of the car. The muffler is also not perfectly centered, and you can see one hanger is being pushed towards the back of the car, so my left exhaust tip will stick out about an inch further than the right. I was pretty disappointed that it turned out this way, but I had spent so much time installing it that I just left it on the car. Currently, I'm just running tipless, and it's fine for me. I'll end up getting some much shorter tips eventually, and just trying to get them to sit flush with the bumper. Overall, the exhaust looked great, but it was quite a pain for me to install so it was really unfortunate.

PERFORMANCE
It's absolutely amazing... I don't regret leaving the exhaust on one bit, even if it doesn't fit perfectly. The car is nice and quiet at idle, and has a great tone when you get on it due to the single 3.5" center piping. There is a little bit more drone than I expected, right around the 1.5k range when there is a little bit of load applied. I think this is the way it's supposed to be but I haven't really had any other exhaust so I'm not sure. I LOVE IT! The BOV puts a smile on my face every single time I left off the throttle, and turns quite a few heads too as most people are pretty unsuspecting of my wagon . The intercooler I believe works really well too, I did pull after pull and the car was really consistent in power delivery. I still need to buy the MHD monitor module to get actual numbers on IAT's and to watch the rest of my data lol. You can also hear the turbo's whistle quite nicely through the DCI's so that's a huge plus as well.

IN CONCLUSION
While I did have some fitment and installation issues with the cat-back, everything else bolted on perfectly and couldn't make me any happier. The parts provide great performance and the way the exhaust sounds makes me forget about any issues that I had installing it hahaha. Now, the exhaust does hang a bit lower than the stock one as it's a good amount thicker and I have scraped it already a few times, but it was on a really steep driveway entrance where it went up and then down sharply. Overall, great products and I would definitely recommend them to anyone trying to get some bolt-ons! I've tossed a few pictures down below just so you guys can get some visuals.

Nice write up.

How long did it take you to do the intercooler and charge pipe?

Can you post some pictures of the exhaust?

[Timothi2]

Originally Posted by matamua

Nice write up.

How long did it take you to do the intercooler and charge pipe?

Can you post some pictures of the exhaust?

Intercooler probably took about 2 hours, getting the stock lower intercooler hose off is a bit difficult, and postitioning all the new silicone hoses and tightening takes a little bit because there isn't much space available to work with. I'll try posting some pics of the exhaust, it won't let me upload the ones I took because they're too large by pixel count. Chargepipe probably took about 15 minutes to install at the most, it was super easy