V10 M5 bad idea?

prizrak

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Apr 2, 2007
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No, sleep, till, BROOKLYN
Car(s)
11 Xterra Pro-4x, 12 'stang GT
Recently E60? (07-10) V10 M5s have dropped into mid 20s, keeping with my general want to increase number of cylinders in my car I am somewhat considering swapping the stang for it. Aside from the wife going Niet! I am afraid of the maintenance costs and possibly huge repair bills.
 
Looked up all the typical things to go bad, and kind of answered my own question... Looks like at minimum you'd want to have crank bearings replaced (roughly 4K) and make sure VANOS pump is good (possibly replace for another roughly 2K) and that's just the engine.
 
Weren't you saying that you didn't like V10s because they're too high pitched? The connecting rod bearings are supposed to be pretty fragile, and since it's basically a low-tolerance racing engine it won't be anything as straightforward to maintain as the Stang.
 
It might have been just the car I drove, I drove an LP550-4 Gallardo and it was way too high pitched for my taste but I've heard the M5 V10s and they don't sound unpleasant at all. Yeah the conrod bearings scared me off relatively quickly, I could deal with more stringent engine maintenance if it were stuff that I could realistically do myself but rebuilding bottom ends is really not on my agenda. My other concern is all the electronics that they put in those cars, can't imagine it would last very long.
 
VBH has a feature on the first episode of the new Fifth Gear series that includes it
 
As much as I absolutely adore that particular V10, the thought of maintaining it scares the crap out of me. A photographer in the UK has one and recently posted about how it's both the best and the worst car he's ever owned. Basically, when it works, it's phenomenal; when it doesn't, it's hugely expensive.
 
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