cleung

Just to let everyone know, I haven't given up yet. I bolted the headers onto the car and left it disconnected from the midpipes and drove it to a shop. Hopefully they will be able to mod the midpipes to fit.

So as a headsup to everyone trying this. You definitely need to mod the midpipes (don't do what I did and have the headers cut) and this definitely is not a DIY. For the time it took to take the headers off and put the other ones on I would say just pay a shop to do everything.

I'm not sure what my shop will end up doing to make the pipes line up but what looked like might work would be to cut the midpipes on the straight section before it bends to meet the headers, install that braided flex piping in its place.

big525i

racing dynamics makes a header specific for the e60 m54 wit the O2 bonges in place

cleung

From what I could tell on there website it looks like the same headers for the e46 m54 as the e60 m54, but from what I'm experiencing this doesn't work without modifications.

bimmer530iguy

Let me know how it turn's out man! It's going to be sick once installed!! I still need to put these on and I guess I will just follow what you recommend... I'm definetly going to the shop to get these custom fit and for the 02 simulator and oxygens sensors wiring how did you go about it? Let me know man shoot me a pm.

-Ben

big525i

ive asked and they told me that there should be no modification needed but they could also be just saying that so i buy them

cleung

So the shop called today. My car is ready, I will go get it tomorrow. They managed to get everything hooked up with only modding the headers like I wanted, but did say that there were some odd angles to fit. Personally I still think that after all this I should have just modded the midpipes, it would have been much easier and cleaner. But now if I want to convert back to OE I don't have to mod the pipes again.

Hopefully I will be able to post some vids tomorrow (not sure how to do that, I've never done it before). I'm hoping that it won't be too loud as this is my daily and I also do a lot of highway travel. I would suck to ride in a very loud car for hours at a time.

As for the O2 sims, I still have to install those. I'm hoping that I will be able to it all from the top side, as the O2 sensors all connect at the top of the engine just under the plastic cover. Hopefully that goes smoother than the headers did.

All in all I saved a bunch of money by uninstalling the OE headers myself. But if you asked me if I would to it again, I would say "hell no". It took tons of time and the bolts on the manifold side are super hard to reach, my hands are all scrapped up from trying to reach all the bolts. And if you are going to have to get a shop to weld the midpipes anyway you might as well have them do it all. I ended up having to drive my car with the headers partially installed and disconnected from the midpipes to the shop and it was LOUD as F*CK, and rather embarrassing. At the end of the day my shop ended up charging me $350 for modding the headers to fit and installing them after. I think that this is very fair as I know how hard it is to get at the bolts on the manifold.

Not sure what to tell you man. Did you ask them if it was the same headers that they use for the e46? Because if it is then from my experience it won't just bolt on. Also the RDsport headers cost way more than the ebay headers, and I'm not sure that they are that much different. The headers that I got even the shop guy said that the welds were very high quality and the stainless stell was pretty thick when he cut it.

cleung

Alright guys, the moment we've all been waiting for. I got the car back from the shop, and its awesome. You can definitely tell that its more freed up now, especially at the higher rpms. The volume is not that loud, and infact my B&B exhaust used to have a bit of a drone to it inside the car at 2,000rpm and now that is gone. I think the sound is great and definitley not too loud. My wife noticed right away though that the exhaust stinks now, there is a definite smell. I am however getting some sort of a rattle at certain rpms and I haven't figured it out yet (I'm thinking it might be a rattling heat shield).

Does anyone find it odd that I drove it for about 10-15min from the shop to my house and the O2 sensors have not thrown a code. I don't have the O2 sims installed yet. I wonder how long it will take for a code to appear?

bimmer530iguy

Nice man! Glad the shop took care of you and helped finish the installation! I am intrigued by the fact the car didn't throw any check engine codes, did you install the oxygen sensors in the headers bungs? Keep me updated with this man, and please post any pictures for those of us who plan to install these metal snakes!

-Ben

cleung

Well I've been driving a few more days now with them and I love them, the exhaust note is addicting. I have been reaching a little on the "rasp" that I'm getting and it seems that this is somewhat common with bmw's and headers. I have been looking into this and it seems a lot of guys are installing a resonator called the AR25 to fix the rasp.

As for the O2 sensors, yes I do have them installed in the bungs on the headers (all 4 of them). I talked to the tech at my dealer (I have a great relationship with my dealer) and he suggested that because the bungs on the headers sit higher than the bungs on the OE headers that the sensors are out of the stream of exhaust and this is why I'm not throwing a code. I think I will continue to drive around without the simulators and see what happens.

I'll try and get pics up this weekend for everyone.

As a side note, if you don't want your car to be loud, this mod is not for you. That being said I also have the B&B exhaust which a lot of people complained about being too loud. So now with the B&B and the headers most would consider my car as very loud. My personal opinion is that it isn't too loud and at cruising its not really any different than before the headers. However it is definitely louder when you are accelerating in that 2k-3k rpm range.

cleung

alright, sorry for the delay guys. I still don't have any vids yet but I will load some of the pics.

One pic is of the exhaust manifold without the headers, very big pain in the ass to get at the nuts that hold the headers on. From the top side I had to remove the coolant tank and the air valve to get a little more room to work but the one silver line (AC line I think)is still very much in the way. Then you see I have a compare of the headers. The pic with the headers mounted but flanges cut off shows how far out they were, and then 2 photos of the welds.