eBay Headers
Background-
I am fairly mechanically skilled, I am methodical resulting in slower but thorough installations. I also had the help on one other person periodically during the process. As far as homework goes, I checked multiple online postings to fully understand what I was purchasing. Downloaded and saved many DIY installation guides. Used the BMW service manual for further help. Pretty much, I looked at everything possible to make sure I was not about to spend $100 on shiny boat anchors.
On to the review-
I purchased them from a seller with over 20 sells on the exact set I bought all with positive feedback and no warnings of poor fitment. The headers look great, very race oriented appeal and sounds great with the OEM exhaust. The welds look like they should hold up, just not quite the same level you would see from company's such as SS or AA. In fact, all the people who say they are copies of AA of SS, well they are terribly wrong. The quality and engineering is simply just not there. The bungs for the front O2 sensors are in awful positions making it near impossible to access them without using a crow's foot wrench. The post cat bungs ARE useless. They are positioned in such an angle that nothing can be placed in the hole except the plug provided to prevent leaking. In fact, a wrench can not even be placed on the plug to tighten if one came loose. It's left me with two options for fixing this issue 1.) take to an exhaust shop where new bungs can be welded on 2.) buy software to correct the sensor fault codes. The final ordeal was the uneven alignment of the matting surface of header to exhaust flange. The exhaust pipe flanges are flush, while the header flanges are offset. After an hour of reconfiguring, I used grade 8 bolts and extra gaskets to draw one exhaust pipe closer in, thus fixing the staggered alignment.
Header Flange to Head
Plugged O2 Sensor Bungs
Headers to Exhaust Flange
If I had to do it again I would probably save for a quality brand set up. This project took well over 12 hours due to having to contend with fabricating them to fit properly. I believe with good quality parts it could be accomplished in 8 hours. I would recommend these to any one who wants to spend a little amount of money and a massive amount of time making these fit and being okay with stressing the exhaust flange joints.
To sum it up-
Pros-
Cheap
Deep low growl amplified while no highway drone
Eye candy under the hood
Good header flange to head fitment.
Cons-
O2 sensor bung locations prevent installing rear sensors
Poor fitment for mounting to exhaust pipe flanges
Different hole size for stud to fasten to exhaust pipes
Here are a few pictures of the factory headers to see just how restrictive they are-
Hopefully this has helped anyone on the fence about getting these. Pictures will follow.
Last edited by 05ZIPPYZHP; 06-18-2011 at 01:24 PM.
STEVEN ~ 05 ZHP Coupe Sparkling Graphite Metallic - AFE Filter/ CDV Delete/ eBay Headers
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by kayger12
