[noire07]

Installed my MMW Headers today... I apologize for not taking any pictures, but I'll give everyone a heads up on the issues I ran into with the install.

First, before I start let me tell you that I do have X-Drive (may or may not explain why I had the issues, I don't know). I began with taking out the usual stuff before getting to the headers, ie engine cover, cabin filter, etc. The car was raised on 4 jack stands and began cutting the pipes with a reciprocating saw. This probably would have been easy if the car was on a lift, but my buddy doesn't have one in his garage. First thing I noticed though, when I got under the vehicle was that the nuts and bolts on my exhaust were rusted to the point that I wouldn't have been able to get the headers off without cutting them. Once I got all the nuts off on the engine side, my first issue came up.

Bentley states to remove the 2nd header (cylinders 4-5-6) first then remove the 1st. Well this didn't work out too well for me. There was hardly any room in there and the cat on the 2nd header couldn't get past the cat on the 1st header. Couldn't remove the 1st header out first either cause of the bracket that held the (what I thing was the) vibration damper thing. And I didn't see it possible removing it from the bottom. So in the end I ended up just cutting off the bracket on the first header and it slid out first, with the assistance of the floor jack that pushed up the engine just a hair.

With the install, I figured it would be easier than taking out the stock ones since I didn't have to deal with the cats. The A/C hose under the first cylinder got in the way of the 1st header going on. So to make it easy I let out the refrigerant (I'm sure I broke a few EPA laws by doing this) and removed the hose. Headers went on easy after that.

Other notes, the sleeves I got from gavin to connect the headers to the rest of the exhaust pipe was a bit big for the stock pipe, but it wasn't anything some exhaust tape and a good clamp couldn't fix. The headers did rub the shield on top of the engine mount, but you could just bend it away a bit.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied. My butt dyno says the car improved a bit. I wasn't able to get a before dyno since I've been busy with work and the closest awd dyno is in Kansas City, about 2.5-3 hours away. The sound began a bit raspy on the first and second start, but most of it did go away. It's a bit louder than a muffler delete (which I had before the PE), but from the 30 miles I've driven so far, minimal drone. Only gets loud when I step on the gas a bit. I do have the 3 stage intake manifold and when it hits about 3000 RPMs... pretty nice.

I'll try to post more videos, but your going to have to deal with this teaser first. It's the second start after I checked for any leaks.

[Spensaur]

Mmmmm... juicy. Can't wait for more clips.

[flinchy]

Idle sounds like a diesel but more wet-farty lol

ED: and this is totally useless without dyno's

if you weren't interested in performance increase, why would you drop $1000 on headers? i mean.. you don't get headers for the noise, you get them for the hp -_-

[noire07]

Originally Posted by flinchy

Idle sounds like a diesel but more wet-farty lol

ED: and this is totally useless without dyno's

if you weren't interested in performance increase, why would you drop $1000 on headers? i mean.. you don't get headers for the noise, you get them for the hp -_-

It's not that I'm not interested in the performance increase, I'm just not able to get it dyno'ed before and after without having changes in temps and environment for the dynos to actually show accurate gains or losses. Temperatures last week were above 100 here and if I got it dynoed last weekend, I wouldn't of had time to install the headers for another 2 weeks, then wouldn't have time to get it dynoed again for another 2 weeks.
Still probably would have been better than nothing, but I decided to just go with the install.

[flinchy]

ahhh wel true, fair enough.

i know that videos aren't a real representation of sound, and that the BMWPE adds a deeper raspy-ish note to begin with, do these headers make it super raspy or any unpleasant sound?

as much as the reason i want them is performance, i won't like it if it sounds bad lol (though i guess another res or two would always help hah)

i just need to hear it with a res and muffler, no secondaries, to be sure haha

[Momomkz]

do you still have your secondary cats on?