Surprise during coolant change!

[Serg_ZA]

This evening I managed to put aside some time to change out my old coolant for some fresh new stuff. I ran some Evron Radiator Flush through the system followed by three rinses with fresh water. After that was all done I followed the usual procedures and got the new coolant in there.

Here's the surprise...
I noticed that my exhaust manifolds are in fact M52B28 manifolds even though my motor is an M54B30. Reason I recognised them is because it was a mod I was looking into doing to get rid of the restrictive M54B30 in-header cats. Seems like I can stop thinking about that mod!!

My E46 330ci was produced in July 2000 thus it must be one of the earliest models. Question is, was there perhaps a period where the M54 did in fact come out with the M52 headers?

Either way this is pleasing as I will be treating myself to a secondary cat delete to compliment soon!



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[Charlie Brown]

I doubt that it was done in the factory. The previous owner must have had it done. That would be my guess at least. The fact that you can't see that it's not modified in any way is very is puzzling.

 

[Serg_ZA]

It really does look like they're factory fitted. I'd need to get under the car properly to make the final call but from what I could see it looked factory, hence my suprise haha!

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[444YYY]

Actually the E46 had a factory cat delete option, if I remember correctly. So maybe those headers are factory fitted!!!

 

[Zound]

My car came specc'd from the factory as "No catalytic converter", which translates to my car not having any oxygen sensors. The headers however, did indeed have some form of catalytic converter in them (Which I had cut out last year) and I also had the secondary catalytic converters (Which I also had cut out). The headers are definitely M54 specific and I don't believe any car came with M52B28 headers from the factory. The M52B28 headers are a popular mod as a decat solution though so I wouldn't be surprised if the previous owner performed the mod.

 

[Serg_ZA]

I'll get under the car again sometime and take a proper look at where the exhaust joins up to the manifold to see if there's been any chopping and welding. Very strange exhaust though as after the two mid section cats mine joins into a single pipe and through the OE BMW muffler which also only has one a single inflowing pipe on it.

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[96328i]

Interesting info...if any 330 owners have an E36 M3 manifold lying around, i would gladly swap with my M52B28 manifold..:tiptoe::tiptoe::tiptoe:

 

[Fordkoppie]

The only M54 I know for a fact that came with M52b28 headers is the 3.0i Z3.

There was a no cat option like Zound said, and then it didnt have any oxygen sensors. But the manifolds still resembles the catted ones.

The exhaust that goes into a single pipe in the middle is the same as an e46 328i, so maybe they swapped everything from a 328 into your car

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...because every 330i I have ever seen has a duel system right through