Headers on 535

[drum2430]

Hey guys,

My '90 535 has a polished and ported head on it but the exhaust manifold is stock. It has the auto tranny and I seem to remember seeing somewhere that headers are only available for cars equipped with the standard tranny.

Three Questions:

1. Are headers available for the auto tranny configuration?
2. Will the horsepower gain be worth the effort and $ (that is will I feel much more punch)?
3. What will it cost me?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Gordo.

[bahnstormer]

according to bmwe34.net the power gains can be upwards of 30, which is a lot.
if u'll feel it depends on how tuned your ass is =]
cost will be a lot, perhaps, 1500 ballpark.

[Martin in Bellevue]

I am waiting for literature from Paeco. Neither have dyno information on their headers.

[JonE]

I haven't heard/seen much documentation about headers on the e34 M30 engines. I think Winfred might have headers on his auto (could be on his E30,though) and may have some commments about this. The breathing restriction might then be at the AFM, some have suggested getting a MAF to try and remove the airflow restriction in order to take advantage of headers, larger injectors, etc. I have no personal experience on this, but have always wondered about it as well.

[winfred]

i have headers on the e30 which helped in power and mpg, but am looking for some older m30 headers on ebay to mod for the e34, when i do it ill post the results

[Sean H]

I jumpe don the RD buy a few years back and had their headers on my old E34 (have yet to transfer them to the new one).
I hadn't done any mods on the intake side, so keep that in mind. After the install, my butt dyno wasn't registering my in terms of more power, but the delivery was smoother. I guess you coudl say in my experience the headers added a level of refinement to the engine and power delivery.
Perhaps with something like an mass air conversion I'd have realized better gains, but for $250 I felt I got my money's worth :D

[Jose]

Had my M30 engine in my M3 E30 on the dyno a few weeks ago to remap the programming of the ECU. Although it has been ported/polished and has a 288 degree Schrick cam, it gave 232 bhp without the header and with the cats fitted, after removing the cats and replacing the oem header with the Sebring header it delivered 245 bhp at 5900 rpm. It's a big difference but remember, I also removed the cats and replaced them with mandrell bent 2.5 inch stainless tubes. If you intend on keeping your car for a few years longer, go ahead and make the investment, even if you don't make the bhp you expect, it will feel like a new engine with much more smoothness .

[drum2430]

Thanks Martin. I'll check them out.

[drum2430]

Looking forward to the results.