E46 headers advice

[Bazza]

After all this, I had a long conversation with Roddy from Powerflow and he said that E46 headers are the best quality you'll get for your 330, the E36 328 headers are good but will not make such a difference to the 330, afterall, they are smaller in interior diameter and were designed for the 328 at the end of the day. The difference with TNT and Viper braches is merely the fact that they don't contain CATS, however are inferior quality to your stock stuff. He also said that after about 100k KMS the CATs do start clogging up and you lose torque.

He said, the best thing to do (and funny enough also the cheapest by a mile), is to remove the headers and drop them off at him, he will cut the CATS out and re-weld everything up nicely. No resonators are necessary either, he says the sound will change for the better when added to a free flow system which is already breathing freely.

My car is booked in tomorrow to have the headers removed and dropped off at Powerflow for this. Plus I'm doing one or two other little mods while the car's in. :rollsmile:

Will give feedback on Friday.

 

[moranor@axis]

I think Roddy was just telling you that because it was the easiest for him to do :fencelook:

as far as i know the e36 328i are the same part as used on early e46... also TNT and Viper branches are a completely different design to the oem branches...

so hacking up your oem branches and welding in a pipe will make a better branch than something that was designed not to have to cat in the 1st place :roflol:

 

[Bazza]

I hear you, but he was very convincing. :=):

Please keep us updated on the development of that "bolt-on" system. Looking forward to seeing the results and tests.

 

[moranor@axis]

meeting this week to discuss specs :rollsmile:

 

[ChrisBrand]

Ive had many discussions with him regarding my backbox and other exhaust components. He definately knows a few things about bmw design branches and exhaust. He is not just out to make a quick buck. He still wouldnt change my back box because he believes the oem box is still superior to anything the custom guys can design. I am under the impression that my 328i e46 did not have cats in the branches but maybe i will go have a look later this week. I will take his advise

 

[Sankekur]

The e46 328i doesn't have cats in the manifold.

 

[Baron]

I'm also looking for E46 headers for my car.

What disturbs me about the whole process is that no one is talking about the pre-cat O2 sensors.

With aftermarket headers, these need to be relocated lower down, further from the engine. The pre-cat O2 sensors only have about 1cm of slack in the wires, meaning the wires need to be extended either by cutting them and attaching a length of extension wire or I've seen on the net you can buy an extension cord which has the O2 plug socket at each end.

I've never heard any exhaust place tell me about this, and these are not O2 sensors you can just remove or replace with cat-foolers, they are vital to the running of the car.

As far as I know the E46 only has the two O2 sensors and there should be no need to disconnect them or for any cat-foolers or error-code clearing needed.

 

[moranor@axis]

I'm also looking for E46 headers for my car.

What disturbs me about the whole process is that no one is talking about the pre-cat O2 sensors.

With aftermarket headers, these need to be relocated lower down, further from the engine. The pre-cat O2 sensors only have about 1cm of slack in the wires, meaning the wires need to be extended either by cutting them and attaching a length of extension wire or I've seen on the net you can buy an extension cord which has the O2 plug socket at each end.

I've never heard any exhaust place tell me about this, and these are not O2 sensors you can just remove or replace with cat-foolers, they are vital to the running of the car.

As far as I know the E46 only has the two O2 sensors and there should be no need to disconnect them or for any cat-foolers or error-code clearing needed.

you have to unclip the connectors from under the engine cover to give you more slack I did this and cable tied the cable so it does not move around. been perfect for over 2 years now...

 

[Sankekur]

I'm also looking for E46 headers for my car.

What disturbs me about the whole process is that no one is talking about the pre-cat O2 sensors.

With aftermarket headers, these need to be relocated lower down, further from the engine. The pre-cat O2 sensors only have about 1cm of slack in the wires, meaning the wires need to be extended either by cutting them and attaching a length of extension wire or I've seen on the net you can buy an extension cord which has the O2 plug socket at each end.

I've never heard any exhaust place tell me about this, and these are not O2 sensors you can just remove or replace with cat-foolers, they are vital to the running of the car.

As far as I know the E46 only has the two O2 sensors and there should be no need to disconnect them or for any cat-foolers or error-code clearing needed.

The SA M54 headers only have two post cat sensors in the manifold, no pre cat sensors. As moranor said the wires can be unclipped from underneath the engine cover for extra length.

 

[Baron]

Ah okay I see how that would work now.