Raceland eBay headers??

[e30s52]

You mean you used a washer on the engine mount? Good idea!

How did you deal with the contol arm bushing clearance though?

e: Nevermind, you're taking about the U.S. SS reps, not the euro ones these are.

Yep I tryed some shims but still had the same problem. You can kinda see where I massaged the subframe.

[Jesse30]

dont buy those raceland headers... i've seen them first hand or at least one of the batches and it wasn't pretty.

[Mr Two]

Mine were pretty. Just had some fitment issues. Made good power coupled with the exhaust. It's only $150, you're going to expect SOME problems

[Skafrog]

For the price, they are nice. If you have metal working tools, you can get all the problems out of them.
Mr. Two, what are you driving? I didnt realize there was another e30 m50 in Franklin.

[Mr Two]

S52 ;)

Herb's car actually. You'll have to come to the BnC meets!

[Skafrog]

Ahhhh. Glad to see that car stayed local.
I think you will enjoy this pic, taken Nov 2005:

[Mr Two]

I'll need to take a picture of the headers in the bay once I give them a good clean (any reccomendations?)

They're turning a nice shade of gold and purple.

Calypso right? Same color. I'll be painting the car satin black in all likelyhood this summer though. Right now the fenders, hood, and trunk are stripped to bare metal and clearcoated, since one fender had to be replaced and the paint was shot anyway. Looks nice and ratty.

[z31maniac]

Hmmmm, all this talk of tons of work is making me rethink this.

Maybe the OBD-II headers are the way to go.

[surebimmer]

I've had the same issues with the raceland long tube headers. I had to grind all the flange holes larger so it would fit onto the studs on the head. Had to remove the heat shield on the pass side motor mount arm. Also had to bang the rear tube so it wouldn't hit the transmisson near the the control arm. It barely clears the front sub frame, had to grind the subframe a lil bit. I just picked up a new subframe from the junk yard and I plan to cut and then box it for more clearance.

But I came upon a new problem today when i was tring to install the front sway bar. The bar rubs on the front down tube after the subframe. I heated and hammered the the pipe but i still need about 1/8 to clear when the sway bar moves a little bit. Anyone got any idea's on how i could mount the sway bar mounting bracket to the subframe abut 1/4 lower?

[surebimmer]

More Pictures. There is no way the sway bar is going to fit. Going to have to space the sway bar bracket down about 1/2 inch on both sides and hammer the down tube to fit. I'm making up some sway bar mount spacers this week and will report back with more photos.

You can see very little clearance on the subframe. I had to hammer the pipe and grind the subframe a little bit. No rubbing now. I plane to cut the subframe for clearance and box it.

You can see in this picture how much i had to hammer the down tube for sway bar clearance. But it's still not going to fit. Need to space the mounting point of the sway bar bushings.

Had to bang the pipe to clear transmission as seen it picture.

21mm sway bar from a convertible rubs. This is why spacers for brackets are needed.

[z31maniac]

Thanks for posting that up.

Those of you with the SuperSpring replicas, have you had to do this much modification for them to fit? If so, I'm just going to stick with some OBD-II headers and call it a day.

[JeffRR]

I’ve got the SS replicas and had to do a fair bit of massaging to get them to fit. Clearance to the mounting arm was the most troublesome. Clearance to subframe took some work as well. All together it took me about 3~4 hours to get the fit where I was comfortable.

The trouble with the OBD manifolds is that you still have trouble with the subframe, unless you notch the subframe you’ll end up with a very tight bend coming off the front manifold.

[z31maniac]

Hmmm, good to know. The header setup is about the only thing I haven't finalized.

You don't happen to have any pics of where you notched the subframe do you?

[JeffRR]

I'll try and get some pics, I didn't notch the subframe since I went with the SS rep headers instead of the OBD manifolds.

[z31maniac]

I guess I'll go with SS reps, went by and looked at the motor at lunch, seems as though I only have the front header and the reps are cheap.

Just drop it off at the exhaust shop when it's done and tell them to make it work.