Best fitting header for swap.

[TurboFox93]

Looking for recommendations. I've read and searched and have gotten conflicting reports on ebay headers. If you have a link to one that fits with out having to resort to the BFH I would appreciate.

Also, have looked a TMS shorty headers but at ~900 they are bit out of my price range.

Thanks for any ideas.

[rThor432]

The Ebay ones fit alright depending on your definition of "alright". I had to take a tiny bit of meat out of the motor mount for the front 3-1 section to clear there and when I was running open pipes one of them would buzz against the control arm bushing (stock size). Putting an exhaust on it brought that pipe in to the other one and got rid of the buzzing. So the fitment was fine for me, but just realize that 90% of the time (or 90% of reviews say..) you will have to do a little bit of massaging to get them in properly.

A set of OBD-2 exhaust manifolds will fit nicely and give you a good start on your exhaust with down-pipes that can be unbolted, but to use them you have to weld the air-injection ports that arent needed, unless you are running OBD-2. You can also use the early OBD-1 manifolds, but they are nasty cast iron and weigh a ton.

So in my opinion the Ebay headers are the way to go, if you arent into spending the $900 for the TMS shorty's. They offer a nice performance gain over stock and getting them to fit isnt so bad. Took me about ~5-10 minutes with the engine arm and exhaust issue combined.

[MattM]

i bought these ones

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370172157774&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

fits perfectly, looks good, and the only mod needed is to remove the heat sheild off the right side engine mount arm.

[markseven]

i bought these ones

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370172157774&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

fits perfectly, looks good, and the only mod needed is to remove the heat sheild off the right side engine mount arm.

You got the V6 headers???

j/k

[MattM]

yeah, i got the 1 and only bmw v6

[WADE30]

i bought these ones

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370172157774&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

fits perfectly, looks good, and the only mod needed is to remove the heat sheild off the right side engine mount arm.

Man those were only $72 when I bought them off ebay!

I had to modify these to work with my burns stainless collector. You just need to make a y-pipe to make these work the way they are though.

[SamE30e]

Man those were only $72 when I bought them off ebay!

I had to modify these to work with my burns stainless collector. You just need to make a y-pipe to make these work the way they are though.

SAME! 100$ shipped to my door.

[TurboFox93]

With the OBDII what do you all use for the y / downpipe section? Is it best to take it to an exhaust shop and get it custom done?

Those ebay one for 100 seem reasonable...so long as I am not carving chunks out of motor mounts or adding shims.

Any other suggestions?

BTW hows the sound on those ebay headers in the link? I ve read a lot of them tend to sound raspy

[MattM]

loud by themselves.. louder then the stock E34 cast iron shorties...

My car is going in to get the rest of the exhaust system done tomorrow.

[omar85]

i bought these ones

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370172157774&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

fits perfectly, looks good, and the only mod needed is to remove the heat sheild off the right side engine mount arm.

exactly what he said.

[xLegendOZWest]

mine looked exactly like that from a company called time reaction. they hang kinda low under the car but fit in the bay and on the motor perfectly 115$ shipped tho so no complaints.

[e30s50dan]

ebay headers here!! I am in the middle of swap...M50 in and running:D:D:D

Iam using ebay headers and flowmaster Y-pipe (jegs/Summit)..the Y-pipe fits perfect with a small ext to one of the header pipes