S54 Swap Header Feeler

[89AlpineM3]

Cant wait

[TinyT]

Summer has come and gone and I still don't have anything together. But I am about done with an ls swap, and then onto the e30 s54 header. You guys will have something to do this winter, I guarantee that.

[TinyT]

I apologize for not having anything to show you guys yet. I will let you know as soon as I have things in the works.

[TinyT]

Thank you all for the support!

Im in the home stretch of an LS E30 build and will be getting my mockup S54 clip in the shop soon. Ill post some design and progress pics in the next few weeks.

[sharky]

TinyT stand you ground on the money. I work with Eric (formerly off 666 fab) and although his prices may seem high, the quality, warranty and care that goes into the work is worth it. Best of luck to you

[Wishno87]

My parts will be available through Horsepower Freaks soon :)

Great to hear you guys worked something out!

[genocide98]

my $0.02:

If you have an interest in e30's, and specifically want to do a S54 swap, I'd go for it. Design your headers for the swap, buy the competition's product, put it on the dyno. That way you've got a working example you can take to meets, shows, saturate the internet with information, whatever if you choose to turn it into a profit-making endeavor.

The amount of work you have to put into a set of headers, especially in a situation like this, is huge. Lucky enough, the market for S54 swaps isn't very large right now as its still mostly $$ restricted. Thus, the volume wont be super high.

I think that if your headers could outperform cheaper competition and you could provide them at a reasonable cost (considering its not high volume, it may be possible) you could find yourself a nice niche.

[E30SPDFRK]

The price is extremely reasonable, if you have ever built a set of headers before you know the amount of work that goes into something like this.

[carlb]

Do it.

[Loupoz]

Why diden i start my S54 swap later! Love my oilpan and subframe combo allready, and my stupid VAC headers doesent fit without a shithload of modifying.

If i started later this would have caught my attention big time.

[TinyT]

The people looking to s54 swap their e30 aren't exactly the "penny pinching" part of the e30 community. If they're going to swap it, it's probably going to be going in a pretty clean e30($4-5k). and they know they're probably looking at $10k for the swap itself.
I think the price is a tad high, but only because you don't have a huge brand name following.

The price is not set in stone whatsoever. But seeing what some other shops charge, and seeing that some of their's lack quality in their construction, I think I will be able to offer a great option. I'm not out to bash any shop, but iv seen people pay a whole lot of money for work that is pretty shotty and i just want to offer quality parts that do what they are intended to do, and last.

My parts will be available through Horsepower Freaks soon :)

[TinyT]

I should have elaborated more, I was mainly referring to their quality being nothing special compared to what's available these days when it was stated that the build quality of these should be on par with their product due to my price.

Their performance goes without saying, which is why I didn't say anything about it ;)

This was simply a feeler thread to see if it was worth my time to go down this avenue. It clearly is, so the design will start soon.

[walktheboard]

The people looking to s54 swap their e30 aren't exactly the "penny pinching" part of the e30 community. If they're going to swap it, it's probably going to be going in a pretty clean e30($4-5k). and they know they're probably looking at $10k for the swap itself.
I think the price is a tad high, but only because you don't have a huge brand name following.

[e30polak]

I appreciate the input. Although, Supersprint headers are a considerable amount more than what I will be charging. And there is nothing special about them besides the r&d they put into them. The welds are pretty industry standard and could be accomplished by a slightly above novice tig welder. For the price they are charging I would expect the weld quality of shops like Agtronic Motorsport, Toxic Fab, or Unobtanium.

There has been enough interest in them for me to go ahead with getting this rolling. Quantity of sales is not a concern. I make enough other parts and this is all just supplemental income anyways.

The price is not set in stone whatsoever. I will determine how much I have to charge once I see what I have into materials and time.

I will keep you all posted!

Ya, I guess the thousands of dollars worth of R&D put into them, and the fact that the V2 significantly out perform any off-the-shelf header for the s54 have no bearing... :roll:

Aesthetic welds are not nearly as significant as the actual performance and sound that a set of headers has to offer. Pretty headers that don't perform well are a waste of money and meant for show cars. :p

I do agree that they charge too much for a set of headers that look pretty standard, but they do so because they can. A fabricator like yourself will take note of the average welds on the actual headers, while a high dollar customer will be more concerned with the sound and performance that the headers have to offer.

Not trying to bash your thread, your work, or your products, simply stating my opinion. The $1,200-1,500 price is fair for a custom set of headers you're developing specifically for the swap. However, you may want to show some merit in your header designing/building experience. I'm not just talking about pretty welds, but I want to know about flow numbers and performance results.

It's one thing to make a pretty set of headers that "should" perform well in "theory," it's another thing to actually compare different variations on a flow bench, and engine dyno, and in real world street/race cars.

Best of luck in your project, I'll be interested to see how these turn out, and some real world dyno results.

[nando]

I have one of your modified subframes and pans, so I can fully appreciate what you can do. But for $1200 - 1500, how is that any different than the high end after market headers out there. You have the cheap $100 ebay ones and the fancier $1500 supersprints. Why would someone pay 1200 for yours?? Guys with an E30 that likely cost $1500-5000 would be spending nearly all of most of the value of the CAR for a header. I don't see your market being too large.

Take an ebay header for $100, modify it yourself or the exhaust shop to fit ~$75-100, ceramic coat it $150. Way cheaper and the option I would see most people going.

Just giving an honest opinion.

the ebay headers are going to need more than $100 worth of work to fit correctly. the flange alignment is even worse than the early M20 ebay headers. and in the end, you'll still have cheap, thin, chinese tubes that are more likely to crack and rust.

I'll sell my set for $75 shipped if somebody wants them - BNIB. But they need a lot of work that I don't think is worth doing.