Shorty Headers for M50 - Quick question

[hooRAH]

I have a quick question for you guys about shorty headers. I searched a bunch through these forums and found that a few of you have tried the Jet-Hot shorty headers with little or no gain on M3s. I've also seen that the consensus is that the only way to go is with equal length headers.

I posted this in the e36 M3 group because it seems like you guys are the only ones detailing this experience. According to TMS, the shorties will also fit on the E34 M50 engine, so I was interested in getting them.

What I wanted to know is: When you say that you saw little to negative gains with these, what were you comparing them to stock? Basically, do you think that I will see any improvement compared to a set of stock E34 M50 manifolds compared to stock M3 manifolds, or are they the same?

Now fitment is a whole other issue I will work out if I get to that step. I've been checking ebay pretty regularly for M50 racing dynamics full length headers, but only see the M20 ones pop up from time to time.

Alright, thanks for your time guys. Sorry if I'm digging up an old crappy header thread, but I've wasted enough time at work searching :)

[SG_M3]

M50 exhaust manifolds are the same as the s50.

[m3mobbin]

I did shorty headers (ebay brand nearly equivalent to m52/s52 headers) on my 325is and I didn't notice any gain at all. When I installed those headers I didn't have an aftermarket center exhaust portion, all I had was a SS cat back and the headers. I was pretty dissappointed since the install was such a bitch (took me 4-5 hours working with a mechanic and a lift). All that changed when I got the TMS/AA track pipes, it seemed like I pulled a cork out of my exhaust system.

I believe that on OBDI cars shorty headers aren't gunna do crap for gains unless you do the full exhaust system. You can't just do header and cat back ,you got to get rid of the crappy center section. OBD II cars don't have that problem since they have a much more effecient center section without a crappy Y-pipe that creates a huge bottle neck.

On OBDII cars with tubular headers it really isn't worth it to change out the headers because they are just as good as any shorty headers. It's different on the OBD I cars that have the crap cast iron headers that have very small diameter piping, weigh a ton, and aren't as smooth in the inside. SO in conclusion unless you plan on doing the full exhaust system headers aren't worth the money..


I have a quick question for you guys about shorty headers. I searched a bunch through these forums and found that a few of you have tried the Jet-Hot shorty headers with little or no gain on M3s. I've also seen that the consensus is that the only way to go is with equal length headers.

I posted this in the e36 M3 group because it seems like you guys are the only ones detailing this experience. According to TMS, the shorties will also fit on the E34 M50 engine, so I was interested in getting them.

What I wanted to know is: When you say that you saw little to negative gains with these, what were you comparing them to stock? Basically, do you think that I will see any improvement compared to a set of stock E34 M50 manifolds compared to stock M3 manifolds, or are they the same?

Now fitment is a whole other issue I will work out if I get to that step. I've been checking ebay pretty regularly for M50 racing dynamics full length headers, but only see the M20 ones pop up from time to time.

Alright, thanks for your time guys. Sorry if I'm digging up an old crappy header thread, but I've wasted enough time at work searching :)

[hooRAH]

Yeah, thats about what I expected, but I assumed that M3s would have come stock with better headers than my 525, and if the cheap shorties were the same as stock M3s, that I would stand to gain something.
As far as the track pipe, that's all well and good, but unless someone in the marketing department at TMS is asleep and the E36 track pipes will fit my E34, I don't have any choice in that matter aside from getting someone to custom make me some pipes to put in place of the cat.
I know that anything but a full exhaust isn't really worth the money, but I've gotten the EAT chip and am about to do a fan delete, there's not much else to do while driving the car to work every day. Thanks for the help though!