My 2 cents post headers install

[fatmatt0116]

Bought tintboy's ebay headers a few weeks back for bargain price of $75. $300 worth of labor later, these are my impressions:

A. Nasty rasp at all rpms, like a swarm of angry locusts (siccadas) if that makes any sense. The thing sounds ridiculous, keep in mind I have the Supersprint X-Pipe and Powerloop cans though which now emit a much deeper growl at idle.
B. Significant exhaust burble now present, though only when I come off the gas pedal.
C. There is somewhat of a drone around 2000 rpm, particularly in 4th gear, that has been present since installing the xpipe and powerloops with the stock headers. Now with the new headers it is not significantly louder, if at all.
D. Very noticeable increase in power.
E. Apparently my ESS software got overwritten by the dealership so the SES light came on about 100 miles or so post install. Consequently, I'm anticipating further power gains once I get around to shipping the DME back to Arizona. The only problem is, I've been enjoying the car so much post header install that I really cant bring my self to take the car out of commission for the 2-3 days required to get the software re-programmed.
F. The nuts fastening the headers to the manifold kept coming loose the first week and I had to have them tightened twice.
G. The graphite gasket/seal/ring-thingies between section 2 got damaged during the install and I had to buy new ones to be installed later on. Wish I had outright bought these from the beginning.
H. I bought heat wrap to minimize heat loss from the headers. Would have tried to have them powder coated instead looking back, though the wrap seems effective it just doesnt look as nice.
I. The headers were some permutation of the ebay headers, the O2 bungs had already been shortened to accommodate for their proximity to the transmission case. Nevertheless, despite the modification it is a tight fit although presumable the transmission and exhaust will move together preventing the transmission from knocking the O2 sensor out of the bung. If you want it to look nice with these header have the bung relocated to to 12 o'clock position. Other than this, no fitment issues.

If I had to start over from scratch this would have been the first investment I made in modifying the car in conjunction with the ess software, though difficult to comment on the software at this point since it has been overwritten. I am curious to know how the car would have sounded with headers and the exhaust otherwise stock. It sounds outright ridiculous now and the power is great. On my way back from Newport, RI last night I completely humiliated some guy in a new 650i from a stop light. It was great, and I highly reccommend it if you have the opportunity.

FM

[nickpapa]

sounds awesome! post a vid!

[kmrbmw]

What kind of headers are they ? Brand ? When the headers were posted I should have asked then . just Curious. Thanks

[mpower03]

they are ebay headers, bought from ebay that are $100 for an e46 m3. some are jvt which is the same as the other ones on ebay except they have a one year warranty and cost like hundred extra. when i bought mine i did not by the ones with the warranty because i figured for $100 i could just by another. i also reccomend getting these headers along with an ess tune. only thing is installing them myselves i see the flaws with them but they aren't anything to worry about. For example, i forget which one the front or rear but one slid right on perfectly, but the other one was about an inch away from the studs on the heads. there is multiple ways of doing this, one take a prybar and pry it on, but i didn't see how a prybar would help so i just took a 2x4 and pushed it on with them. by pushed i mean used a lot of force. if you can get past that then get them. but also, two sensors on the headers (post cat) are really close to the transmission which i didn't like, so i tied them off somewhere in the engine bay. This doesn't cause an issue because, the reading they would get if installed would be incorrect because of no cats. this is where the ess software comes in play to delete the readings from the post cat sensors, so the engine doesn't know they are there and the result is no ses light. the car will run fine without the tune, but the benefits of the tune are greater with headers and plus you get rid of the ses light.

Having a project car to work (66 mustang)i have something to compare these headers to. The headers i have are a reputable brand. These costed about 350. A lot cheaper than headers from a reputable brand for a bmw lets say. I have taken the headers out of the mustang about 4 times now, and i had no problems on fitment. but i believe the quality on the ebay headers for my m coupe is much better. For one they are made out of stainless steel instead of steel. but the welds on the ebay headers are pretty good. Having knowing how to weld i can see the person welding the ebay headers knows how to weld good. I don't see why some people say the welds are bad. They are structurally sound, and even all the way through. but anyway, the flow path of the ebay headers is pretty good, they aren't equal length but who cares they are a hundred dollars and better than stock.

IF anyone gets these don't use the gaskets that are provided, get new oem ones and don't reuse your old ones because you wan't the new headers to seal properly. I wwoould reccomend these and would reccomend you doing them yourselves as long as you at least have a floor jack and jack stands and basic hand tools. It is a fairly straight forward install just label to o2 sensors and your good to go. search m3forum.net for info and diy on how to before doing it incase you don't know.

[Starscream]

Originally Posted by mpower03

they are ebay headers, bought from ebay that are $100 for an e46 m3. some are jvt which is the same as the other ones on ebay except they have a one year warranty and cost like hundred extra. when i bought mine i did not by the ones with the warranty because i figured for $100 i could just by another. i also reccomend getting these headers along with an ess tune. only thing is installing them myselves i see the flaws with them but they aren't anything to worry about. For example, i forget which one the front or rear but one slid right on perfectly, but the other one was about an inch away from the studs on the heads. there is multiple ways of doing this, one take a prybar and pry it on, but i didn't see how a prybar would help so i just took a 2x4 and pushed it on with them. by pushed i mean used a lot of force. if you can get past that then get them. but also, two sensors on the headers (post cat) are really close to the transmission which i didn't like, so i tied them off somewhere in the engine bay. This doesn't cause an issue because, the reading they would get if installed would be incorrect because of no cats. this is where the ess software comes in play to delete the readings from the post cat sensors, so the engine doesn't know they are there and the result is no ses light. the car will run fine without the tune, but the benefits of the tune are greater with headers and plus you get rid of the ses light.

Having a project car to work (66 mustang)i have something to compare these headers to. The headers i have are a reputable brand. These costed about 350. A lot cheaper than headers from a reputable brand for a bmw lets say. I have taken the headers out of the mustang about 4 times now, and i had no problems on fitment. but i believe the quality on the ebay headers for my m coupe is much better. For one they are made out of stainless steel instead of steel. but the welds on the ebay headers are pretty good. Having knowing how to weld i can see the person welding the ebay headers knows how to weld good. I don't see why some people say the welds are bad. They are structurally sound, and even all the way through. but anyway, the flow path of the ebay headers is pretty good, they aren't equal length but who cares they are a hundred dollars and better than stock.

IF anyone gets these don't use the gaskets that are provided, get new oem ones and don't reuse your old ones because you wan't the new headers to seal properly. I wwoould reccomend these and would reccomend you doing them yourselves as long as you at least have a floor jack and jack stands and basic hand tools. It is a fairly straight forward install just label to o2 sensors and your good to go. search m3forum.net for info and diy on how to before doing it incase you don't know.

do you have a link to the headers/vendor on ebay?
theres a ton on there and would like to get the right ones

[Z4MCJJ]

I installed SS non-stepped or version 2 headers about 6 weeks ago. My car is definitely louder. I don't have as much rasp as you describe. The header swap was fairly easy as the SS headers fit reasonably well. I bought catless straight pipes....now I'm cat-free...and doing so added a bit of low range rasp. Nothing horrible though. I want to get the RPI exhaust, but I am afraid it would be too loud!!

[mpower03]

Originally Posted by Starscream

do you have a link to the headers/vendor on ebay?
theres a ton on there and would like to get the right ones

i bought mine from racedesignimport

a popular one i believe was tradernas.

some headers have thicker flanges that bolt up to the cylinder head and some have thinner mine happened to have thicker. otherwise they are the same

also agency power and evosport headers are believed to be the same as the ebay headers. not 100 percent sure but they have the same design. the ebay headers are pretty much a replica of supersprint headers design. g

[onelove]

Great review, I noticed much of the same. Funny I keep getting a SES light post ESS software yet my car hasn't been back to the dealer.... Getting a EGT code and O2 plasibility.

[mpower03]

wierd you shouldn't get a egt code since the location of the bung really hasn't changed.

[Z4MCJJ]

I had ESS turn off the Post cat O2 sensors....not one CEL ever

[onelove]

Originally Posted by Z4MCJJ

I had ESS turn off the Post cat O2 sensors....not one CEL ever

So did I.....

[mpower03]

i got ess software and no light

[krnnerdboy]

hey thanks for the write up This site/cars need all the help it can get!

[fatmatt0116]

I believe these were the jvt variants I installed. No fitment issues as they had already been fitted by tintboy. I made sure to get all new gaskets as the ones supplied with the headers are POS.

.

[fatmatt0116]

As requested, sorry for the plumber's crack. The money shot here is at 45 seconds... I tried to get a shot of the headers in at the end but it was too dark inside the garage.

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Brief clip of the stock exhaust:

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