Ebay M20 Headers

[Liam]

From what I can tell (and I have had a set of the real deal Alpina m20 headers and these side by side) is the only difference is that the Alpinas were top quality carbon steel and these are non magnetic rice alloy.

I still wouldn't buy or sell them because I'm stubborn and don't want my kids to have learn to speak Chines.

[Tree18is]

take a shit in a chinese carry out plate and give it to them, and say thanks for the nice job...
I cant belive "your gonna stay away" from them..

make them fix it!!!!!!!!

[der affe]

did you still retain the exhaust bracket that comes off of your tranny with these?

[kamotors]

did you still retain the exhaust bracket that comes off of your tranny with these?

good question, I haven't checked.

[BigSam]

I have these exact headers on my car. I will give my review, having lived with them for the past 8 or so months. I removed the cat at the same time, the rest is running through a Super Sprint catback.

Initial Quality: Somewhat cheap, but light. Even with the full tube length and X pipe, still significantly lighter than stock cast manifolds. The headers were welded inside and out, all of them looked pretty good.

Fitment: Big pain in the ass. The oil cooler line hit the front primary, but bending it out of the way was not an issue. Getting to the bolts was the most difficult part. I found myself making tools to snug these things up. Someone mentioned dimpling the tubes, this is a GREAT idea, I really can't stress that enough. The end of the X pipe ended up about 2 inches into the cat on my stock exhaust, so I took that thing right out. About a week later I found out that OBD1 and older cars no longer hit the dyno for emissions testing, which worked out great. From that point on, I built the exhaust until it reached my cat-back setup, where I welded the custom piece to that part.

Longevity: As I said, it has been nearly 8 months since I put these in my car, and so far, so good. They have not loosened on me yet, and are still very quiet in the engine bay with no leaking anywhere in the system. The collectors seem fine, and the x pipe is tight. The shine faded pretty quickly and rests at a dull brown now, but I wrapped mine so they still look good. I would recommend wrapping these for a few reasons. First, since the metal is pretty thinly walled, the heat transfer will be pretty significant. The color change is another reason.

Performance: Since I pulled my cat at the same time, it is tough to gauge what performance came from which, but there is a noticeable difference. It definitely pulls at lower RPM's better than before, with the real sweet spot starting around 3K. It was around 3.75K before this, so it helped there. I would call it around 10 f/lbs of torque and 7 or so HP.

Sound: These things sound awesome. Much throatier than the stockers, but clean. My exhaust is not stock by any means, but the sound it gave me was very impressive. It almost sounds like a whooshing sound coming out of the motor, you can tell that these things flow way better than the cast stock manifolds.

My Worthless Opinion: Worth it. These are definitely worth the money, but don't expect to go out and tinker for 4 hours with a bottle jack and tools out of the trunk kit and have it all come together. This install took me 3 nights in the garage with a lift from about 5-6 at night until I saw the sun rise. I also had full access to almost every tool I could imagine, but still found myself looking for something else to get the job done. Plan to have the car out of commission for a few days, take your time, and don't just mock them up and complain about the fitment. These take a little tweaking, but not an unreasonable amount.

[xLibelle]

VERY good review!

[kamotors]

UPDATE, went to a different midas to fix the exhaust leak and rubbing muffler, and they redid the entire exhaust for free:), only now it has a new problem, the 5th pipe from the the front on the headers is warped according to them, when cold it leaks(makes a ticking sound) but when its hot it seals up fine. I'm going to try to snug it up when I get a chance. it was ticking when I left but when I got home it was sealed up and quiet.

[Liam]

UPDATE, went to a different midas to fix the exhaust leak and rubbing muffler, and they redid the entire exhaust for free:), only now it has a new problem, the 5th pipe from the the front on the headers is warped according to them, when cold it leaks(makes a ticking sound) but when its hot it seals up fine. I'm going to try to snug it up when I get a chance. it was ticking when I left but when I got home it was sealed up and quiet.

I have installed many headers and this is typical, after they start to settle in you have to re-torque (don't go nuts though the last thing you want is to shear a stud).

You did use new gaskets and nuts right?

Also the set of these I installed are (to my honest surprise) holding up after 4000 miles of extreme punishment, no cracks, burn through and no leaks.

[TexasTerp]

this sounds great. I'm definitely gonna be getting a set for the summer! Thanks for all the great reviews!

[CorvallisBMW]

Good info in here. I'm looking for more power out of the m20 in the cabby and I may pick up a set of these.

[kamotors]

okay, got the leak a lot quieter, I'll re toque them one more time after I get them nice and hot, they are now purple and blue by the head.

[Jonathan M3]

By looking at your installed pics it looks like you reused your old exhaust gaskets.

[bimmerking1357]

thats awesome let me know how the install goes because ive been looking at getting a set of those headers.

[xLibelle]

thats awesome let me know how the install goes because ive been looking at getting a set of those headers.

WTF Did you even READ the thread?

[SpecM]

WTF Did you even READ the thread?

No, he didn't, he's post-whoreing

kamotors: cool info, I have to get those soon