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Thread: What are the differences between 540 exhaust vs 530/528?

  1. #1
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    What are the differences between 540 exhaust vs 530/528?

    The 540 wagon we have came with no exhaust after the headers/primary cats. We looked in lots of yards and a ton of FB marketplace ads and haven't been able to source an exhaust. Does anyone know if the 6 cylinder pipe sizes and layout is identical to the V8? They're much easier to find a part out. I can get the flanges and first couple feet where the secondary cat is supposed to be on ebay on some parts there. I'm wondering if the section of the exhaust past where the secondary cats are is identical in diameter and shape. Just need to get this thing going.

  2. #2
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    Have you checked realOEM to cross reference part numbers?

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  3. #3
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    No.
    Pipe size on the 6 is smaller, and the 6 muffler has no baffle chamber.
    Now if you wanted to chop up an 8 cyl exhaust and modify a 6, you could up pipe size.
    Also, 6cyl exhaust is different between 528 and 525/530 at the y res

  4. #4
    JimLev's Avatar
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    Here's a 540 exhaust after I started to chop some of it up getting ready to install headers. The twin scuba tank muffler was replaced with an Eisenmann.

    DSCN0603.jpg

    DSCN0620.jpg

    DSCN1925.jpg

    Original muffler
    IMG_1586.jpg
    Last edited by JimLev; 03-20-2023 at 06:07 PM.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by wagons ho View Post
    No.
    Pipe size on the 6 is smaller, and the 6 muffler has no baffle chamber.
    Now if you wanted to chop up an 8 cyl exhaust and modify a 6, you could up pipe size.
    Also, 6cyl exhaust is different between 528 and 525/530 at the y res
    The flange connections between the catback and the manifolds are also opposite of each other between M52, and M54’s.
    Set the controls for the heart of the sun

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by jharmon718 View Post
    Have you checked realOEM to cross reference part numbers?

    Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
    The exhaust is all 1 piece so I know it's going to be a different p/n. My thought is I can use the ebay flanges and short first section and weld in pipes to the section after the secondary cats if it's all the same. My gut says if 1" per hp is the usual measure then the exhaust with no cats might flow OK through the 6 cylinder back section if it's at least 2.5". I may weld some vibrant resonators in where the original cats were and skip whatever muffler instead of the scuba tanks.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by JimLev View Post
    Here's a 540 exhaust after I started to chop some of it up getting ready to install headers. The twin scuba tank muffler was replaced with an Eisenmann.



    DSCN0620.jpg



    Original muffler
    Yeah basically I want to use the cut pipes and flanges on the right side of that pic that I can buy on ebay and merry them to a 6 cylinder exhaust that I can find in the local(ish 1 hour away) yards.

  7. #7
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    Don't forget, sedan muffler is different than wagon

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    You can get a sedan section up to the rear axle, then straight pipe out the back

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    The 540 pipes are quite a bit larger diameter than the 6’s. The U-Pull yards in south Florida have easy picking for 540 exhausts, but the cats are always hacked out before they hit the yards.
    -Donny

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    Quote Originally Posted by KeysCoupe View Post
    The 540 pipes are quite a bit larger diameter than the 6’s. The U-Pull yards in south Florida have easy picking for 540 exhausts, but the cats are always hacked out before they hit the yards.
    -Donny
    There is nothing in East Central FL and the hard part is you never know what is left in the yard so 3 hours to S FL to find it's all gone is tough. Don't need the cats and actually have a scuba tank here that someone gave me.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TyroneShoelaces View Post
    There is nothing in East Central FL and the hard part is you never know what is left in the yard so 3 hours to S FL to find it's all gone is tough. Don't need the cats and actually have a scuba tank here that someone gave me.
    Where is east central FL? There is a pretty good yard up on US1 at the north end of Port St Lucie, just below Vero. I think they’re called Uncle Tony’s now. About a month back when I was there, there were two 540s, and one still had the 420G 6 speed manual. They had started getting in a bunch of Ft Meyers flood cars, but that won’t hurt the exhaust much (less cats). The 6 speed car wasn’t a flood victim either.
    -Donny

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    FWIW
    I have the exhaust systems from two different early 528s just laying around. As these almost never wear out they've remained unsold for a very long time.
    If useable for you I'd be willing to cut into manageable (shippable pieces) sizes if you want to cover the freight and expense to package it somehow.

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  13. #13
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    I have the center Y shaped resonator and the rear scuba mufflers from my 540 just collecting dust. I sold the cats.
    98 540i 6, 525 whp, 120 mph 1/4, V3 Si S/C'er @16 psi, W/A I/C, Water/Meth, Supersprint Headers, HJS Cats, 3" Custom Exhaust, UUC Twin Disc, Wavetrac LSD, GC Coil Overs, Monoball TA, AEM FP, Aeromotive FPR, AEM Failsafe AFR/Boost, Style 65's w/275's, M5 Steering Box, Eibach Sways, M3 Shifter, Evans Coolant, 85 Deg Stat, PWM Fan, 10" Subs, B.A. speakers, Grom Aux/BT, Still Rolling as my DD!

  14. #14
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    'Lace,

    Check it out.
    I have these (sans the CATS) in my inventory.20230325_084626.jpg

    Shoot me a PM if interested.20230325_084643.jpg

  15. #15
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    I too have every part of 540 exhaust systems available (m62+m62tu) sedan and wagon.
    But shipping will kill the deal.
    There has to be some 540 exhaust parts local to you

  16. #16
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    I always wondered about the scuba tank resonator. Is it baffled branch resonator or just a branch resonator with a bunch of shielding?

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    ? Never cut one open. The scuba tanks (muffler and resonator) weigh 50 Lbs.

  18. #18
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    Interesting. I have an Eisenmann muffler here for my 528i. I'm tempted to ditch the rest of the factory exhaust to use a larger resonator to shut the rasp up. The only problems are, 1) no idea how much louder it would get and 2) drone may become an issue.

    Pretty sure that there is no power left on the table with a stock exhaust (past the secondary merge I added) on a 260hp 6-cyl as it is...

    I'm making the thread about me now. Sorry about that.

  19. #19
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    The Eisenmann is a great muffler. I had one but when I got the M5 rear bumper the tips wouldn’t come close to aligning with the cutout so I sold it and bought a stainless Vibrant muffler, only 13 lbs.

  20. #20
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    The dead end muffler barrel has no sound deadening, just a pulse baffle chamber.
    The other muffler body is heavily packed with fiberglass or some German engineered metal wool product to absorb sound.
    There is no backpressure thru it as it's open all the way thru. You can shove a hose through it.

  21. #21
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    If you really can't find a 540 exhaust, consider this a good opportunity to upgrade and get an exhaust built...

    If it were me, I'd look for an E60 545i partout, and try to snag that exhaust cheap and if you are handy with a welder it'd be minimal work to make it fit. Or use it as a starting point for an exhaust shop to build out for you. I see exhausts for those going for $100 all day. And the cats are on the headers on those cars, so you'd be able to get an intact exhaust too, without anything being hacked out of it.

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  22. #22
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    OK update, we ended up buying the flanged pipes from ebay for $40 that were cut just before the secondary cats, and found a 540 sedan exhasust in a yard an hour away that was cut about a little ways in front of the y shaped resonator. We used bits and pieces of a 328 exhaust I had to cobble it all together. It's ugly af, and the welds are terrible because my son just tacked it in a bunch of spots while it was under the car. It leaks like crazy at every joint, and smokes out of the joints too because it's burning oil. It's quite the spectacle. But he's 18, in a V8 540 manual wagon with a welded diff, lowered on coils, with a rough body with a mismatched dented hood where he took out a sign learning to slide the car. It's rude, loud, and now that it's finally running after all the flywheel nonsense he's happy. His school parking lot is full of brand new camry's, new mercedes, a kid with an F80 M4, and a new 911 as student cars so he's happy to stand out. The car was his senior project to stretch his abilities and it defenitely did. Other kids made coloring books. Or created a 3 minute video about some topic. Or trained for a marathon (actually kinda impressive)

    I do appreciate all the offers for exhausts, shipping would be a killer. This is a budget car paid for by his Domino's pizza making money, and a few bucks by dad. Actually I'm into this thing for more than I'd like to be but it's better than paying for travel baseball or some other thing that most suburban dads support. Just not my thing, or his. I'm happy this thing is finally on the road and I can get back to my sh%#box wagon. N54 motors are needy and it's quickly going to be too hot here to do any track days.

    The exhaust we got at the yard has the scuba tip pointing down which is pretty weird, and we have a spare wagon scuba muffler here. After he pulls the exhaust to fully weld it more I think he should do something with one of the mufflers to make it sound good. Gut it or something. I know on later E9X cars the BMW performance exhaust could be recreated by cutting open the factory muffler and removing some baffling and saving about $1500.
    Last edited by TyroneShoelaces; 04-13-2023 at 10:37 AM.

  23. #23
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    ^love this. Skills for life that are lost from most of todays kids. Sounds like me when I was 18.
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  24. #24
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    I can relate to the dad thing ... lol ..
    I bought my son's first car , E39 528i , that had been sitting for at least a decade ... lol .
    Plus , not having a lot of money or time is hard , unfortunately .

    Looking for an E39 belly pan , passenger front inner fender liner …

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by philly98540 View Post
    ^love this. Skills for life that are lost from most of todays kids. Sounds like me when I was 18.
    We built his wrecked Copart GTI and it's a great car. This was more his project with me helping with some cash and knowledge injections making sure it didn't stall along the way. A road block to him would be ordering parts because it meant spending his money. Even though it's only $40 for something, it would stall him. When I was his age I was into air cooled volkswagens and got in over my head on a project that was a failure. He could at least focus on making it run first, look pretty later. I did get annoyed at him last night as he was pulling the rear wheels off to lower the car more (it was already low) and he has one working headlight.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jason5driver View Post
    I can relate to the dad thing ... lol ..
    I bought my son's first car , E39 528i , that had been sitting for at least a decade ... lol .
    Plus , not having a lot of money or time is hard , unfortunately .
    Cool that a teen is in an old bmw other than a clapped out E46. Yeah we bought this as someone's failed project and it absolutely was a challenge for both of us. Hard to get motivated as a teen to spend time on it when it seems like it's never going to run and throwing what little money they have at it.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by KeysCoupe View Post
    Where is east central FL? There is a pretty good yard up on US1 at the north end of Port St Lucie, just below Vero. I think they’re called Uncle Tony’s now. About a month back when I was there, there were two 540s, and one still had the 420G 6 speed manual. They had started getting in a bunch of Ft Meyers flood cars, but that won’t hurt the exhaust much (less cats). The 6 speed car wasn’t a flood victim either.
    -Donny
    God I hadn't noticed your post till now. I wonder if the trans is still there?

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