Eta-to-M50: Build thread

[Jand3rson]

New shift knuckle got here today, the early offset style won't worth with the DSSR.

Just waiting for new new Speedi-Sleeve to get here, than I can finish my rear main and put the oil pan back on.

Headers will be going in probably next week, and should be ordering my Borla at the same time.

[Jand3rson]

Come on Matt, that is the single dumbest question I have ever seen an E30 enthusiast ask another E30 enthusiast.

Ask yourself how much you've spent on your car versus how much you paid for it, and get back to me. Is it worth spending a few hundred dollars to refinish a set of wheels that were $100? Was it worth paying for your car twice?

I'm not interested in whether or not it's "worth" doing it. Worth it to who? If you're asking if it's worth it to me, then yes. They have a horrible paint job on them, made worse by me, and the ceramic coating will be pretty much impervious, improve the looks as well as the function of them.

[MR 325]

Do you really feel it's worth spending $160 to coat $100 headers?

[AndrewBird]

Basically it is best to keep as much heat in the exhaust as possible. By coating the inside as well as the outside, you get twice the heat resistance and the coating on the inside gives a smoother surface, speeding up exhaust gas flow (less friction). Carbon tends to have more trouble sticking as well, so over time, you don't get blockage due to build-up.

[87e30]

So I took my headers in to my local powdercoat/ceramic shop, and got a quote.

Their coating is about 1-1.5mm thick, and while they can do the insides, he told me that if he can't get the carbon blasted off from the insides of them to make it stick, they might not be able to do it. But the pipes were on the car for hardly any time at all, so I can't imagine any significant build up in there.

They quoted me $14 per ft. of pipe, and I just measured the whole thing out, each individual pipe, and it comes to right at about $160, give or take an inch or so. That's blasted/coated/baked. Pretty damn good deal, I'd say!

What is the benefit of coating the inside? Heat? Is it proven(in internet speak) or conjecture?

(serious question)

[Jand3rson]

So I took my headers in to my local powdercoat/ceramic shop, and got a quote.

Their coating is about 1-1.5mm thick, and while they can do the insides, he told me that if he can't get the carbon blasted off from the insides of them to make it stick, they might not be able to do it. But the pipes were on the car for hardly any time at all, so I can't imagine any significant build up in there.

They quoted me $14 per ft. of pipe, and I just measured the whole thing out, each individual pipe, and it comes to right at about $160, give or take an inch or so. That's blasted/coated/baked. Pretty damn good deal, I'd say!

[TimKninja]

Wish I knew about that repair sleeve. My car leaks oil like its its job. I replaced it while it was out and now it leaks sooooo bad.

This thread makes me sad. Have to get rid of my 24v car to get one thats less rusty. Soo much fun. :(

[Jand3rson]

Whats going to suck is that you welded that Y pipe on with out the engine being in the car. You going to send them off for coating and when you go to install them that y pipe is gonna be all out of wack.
Im calling it now. But I hope it doesnt end up like that. :/

We accounted for that, trust me. We didn't just cut the end of the headers off and stick the Y where we thought it looked right.

We mounted the engine on the stand, and took measurements to be sure that the angle and position of the engine was correct in relation to the ground, and made sure that the headers and the position of the Y would be in the proper place when the engine gets installed. And the Y was welded to the headers while they were bolted to the head.

The only thing that's going to be "out of whack" is the single pipe on the Y will be too long, but we already anticipated that, it will have to be cut down to put on the sweep in toward the middle of the car that goes to the first muffler.

[White325is]

Whats going to suck is that you welded that Y pipe on with out the engine being in the car. You going to send them off for coating and when you go to install them that y pipe is gonna be all out of wack.
Im calling it now. But I hope it doesnt end up like that. :/

[tg318is]

I plan to supercharge.

Awwyeeaah! Very quickly becoming one of my favourite e30s.

[red_e30]

ok cool

[Jand3rson]

nice what headers are those

Just the ebay special Supersprint reps. They were painted (badly) when I got them, and then I painted over that, and it all went to shit. Having them ceramic coated will give them a gorgeous new finish, and cut down on the rasp due to the thin metal used to make them.

[red_e30]

nice what headers are those

[Jand3rson]

Got the headers welded up today! Here's a little rundown of what we did:

Pulled the headers off, and hacked them off to just after where they swoop under the car, this should help to eliminate the problem of one of the pipes hanging too low:


Sanded all the old paint off the ends, and cleaned up the insides:


With the headers bolted up to the head, we test-fitted the Flowmaster Y to the header downpipes. The spacing was quite literally nearly dead on. The inlets of the Y slipped right over the header pipes, had to pull the innermost pipe over just a hair, and they both slipped right in:


Andrew then welded the Flowmaster Y to the headers:




And voila! One-piece headers.




Now to take them in for ceramic coating!

[Jand3rson]

cool nice build BTW

Thanks! It's getting better, too! We're improving a few things here and there that didn't get done the way I wanted them before, we were in such a rush to get it done for the picnic, and ended up not even being able to take it.