New to BMW's

New exhaust!

It's a little too loud, either need a resonator or baffles, not sure yet.

Uses a high flow cat, 2.5" pipe and a DTM racing muffler, all stuff i had laying around the shop lol...



















Video

^ yeh the ilde is pretty loud

Idle isn't the problem, load is haha. Either way, maybe I am getting old, but it's definitely too loud. sound =/= speed. I feel like I have a fart-can on my car right now

[quote=Ethrty;5302594]i dont think ive seen a US car with them. [QUOTE]



Now you have.

I'm a little late to this party, but have you ever checked underneath the plastic trim of the front and rear bumpers to inspect the mount bolts? It's naked German aluminum held on by uncoated steel bolts.

Mine rotted straight through from galvanic corrosion causing the rear bumper to depart from the vehicle while leaving work one day. If that in of itself wasn't embarrasing enough, one of my coworkers leaving work right behind me almost ran over the damn thing. As we both pulled over he got out of his car screaming, "WTF was that?! Is that your F*^$% bumper? Dude, WTF?!!"

those welds look terrible. on top of that, that exhaust sounds horrible.

What are you using to bend header tubes? You can't use that for 2.5" tubing?

Originally Posted by fcsteve

those welds look terrible. on top of that, that exhaust sounds horrible.

The note is fine, it's how loud it is that sucks. The drone in the car is horrid. I think I may change it to 2 1.75" pipes to the muffler and see how that sounds, but first am going to try a resonator.

Yeah, the welds aren't pretty, but who's sticking their head under my car? They are TIG welded so they won't leak, and it was done on my lunch break. Here's a couple welds I did...

Re-used 1/2" Cast flange to 16ga steel...



Fabricated a sump and welded it to a worn 1974 gas tank, parts were the condition I got them, just cleaned the welded area...



and flux-core MIG welding...



M50 swap y-pipe...



I like to try different things, and something I might not like isn't going to have the time put into it. I am currently working on a design for the BMW motors for 6-3-1 headers. I fabricate headers at my shop for the GM v6 engines and would like to do something for my car, those welds will look just fine...

Originally Posted by markseven

What are you using to bend header tubes? You can't use that for 2.5" tubing?

I used 180* u-bend scraps I had left over from headers for the bends after the axle, and instead of using the ball joint on the ends of the cat, I just welded the pipe to them at the angle I needed.

2.175 will probably be alot better. 2.5" evens seems a little big for my car. i have a very quiet idle but some drone while cruising which gets annoying if your trying to have a conversation with somebody, or arguing with the female half

Originally Posted by fcsteve

2.175 will probably be alot better. 2.5" evens seems a little big for my car. i have a very quiet idle but some drone while cruising which gets annoying if your trying to have a conversation with somebody, or arguing with the female half

Yeah the e30 used to be our "beater" car until I started daily driving it. Then of course, it's at the shop with me and whatever I'm driving at the time starts getting tinkered with lol. We have 4 kids, so the Excursion or Pt Cruiser is what we move around town in. She stopped driving the e30 some time ago even though I bought it for her as a gift to commute to work (we have only put about 15k miles on it since the thread started). She bought me the Firebird a couple years prior, but that's been sitting in neglect and even just sold the twin turbo manifolds/motor to fund some other stuff. I plan on getting it over to my shop after I finish up two major clients cars that were shipped to us for a major overhaul. Couple weeks ago, I had a widow of a close friend approach me and took possession of a 1984 El Camino for just a few pennies, and have no idea when that will ever get worked on, too many cars, anyways, enough of the life story, back OT...

I meant to say dual 1.75". Right now I have the ETA y-pipe going to 2.375"OD 14ga tubing (aprox 2.125" ID). The bends are 2.5" mandrels. I did that so the welds could be slip-fit for easy/fast welding. The duals would help with ground clearance since the car being so low, the cat hits on the top of steep inclines and speed bumps.

If the resonator doesn't do it for me, then I will switch to the dual 1.75", but then I will be splitting 1 into 2 then back to one since the header design I am working on is a 6 to 3 to 1. It will have specifically paired cylinders each going to a 2 to 1 merge, then the three pipes going to a 3 to 1 merge. The collectors will be true merge collectors, not stamped to eliminate any dead spots in the trailing edge of them. I have heard a Triumph TR6 2.1l inline six with this configuration in a race car, and they are like music compared to the 3-2-1 systems typically found on an inline motor. Not sure if you are familiar with flat-plane cranks, but that's how it sounds. I have a sound clip of the TR6, but since it's a race car, he doesn't want to go public with the information other than the basic design (which is common in the UK, he is in the US).

Well I ordered the emulator, chips, chip extender and a few other tuning thing needed for the GM cars I am currently working on. Also got the materials to build the headers Can't wait! Gonna be a while for the headers to get done since I have to work on them on my breaks/lunch etc, but nonetheless, the stuff will be here. I am using 304 16ga stainless 180 degree mandrel bends and am going to have my water-jet guy cut me some mild steel flanges that will get a black-oxide finish. With the tubing being stainless and the flange mild steel, the expansion rates will help prevent cracking at the joints of the flange/tubing (common on high-end headers).

Are you planning on making a continuous flange or a segmented flange? The reason I ask is because inline engines (6's and 8's) fluctuate in dimension quite a bit along the crank axis during operation. The aluminum head makes the situation even worse. A split or segmented manifold (like the stock one for example) prevents the head from stressing the flange.

Originally Posted by Radian

Are you planning on making a continuous flange or a segmented flange? The reason I ask is because inline engines (6's and 8's) fluctuate in dimension quite a bit along the crank axis during operation. The aluminum head makes the situation even worse. A split or segmented manifold (like the stock one for example) prevents the head from stressing the flange.

Not sure. I have done both and favor the individual flanges, even on small v6's. I have also made a solid flange, welded them while bolted to a head, then cut them apart, and those seem to be the ones that are holding up best. One of my first sets of headers (turbo v6 Corsica, ran 12's FWD, and trans spilled it's guts on the dyno at 350hp@4k rpm lol), I didn;t think at the time to bolt the head to the flange during welding, but then cut the flange apart after and sealed up (all crooked before bolting them haha), and surprisingly with quality metal gaskets, they never leaked.

More than likely, and since they will be water-jetted, they will be individual flanges to maximize material. I even have a 200-casting (eta) head to use as a jig when welding the flanges haha...

Swapped out the 2.93lsd for the 4.10lsd last night. Gearing is much better now around town, haven't been on the highway yet, but 2nd used to go to 70mph, now it's in the 40's lol.

The Ostrich 2.0 (emulator) chips, chip extender and a few other goodies I needed for the GM stuff I do came in the mail today!

Also a 57lb box from my mandrel bend supplier (not all for my car obviously lol). The headers will take some time, but will definitely get the Ostrich hooked up tomorrow, and give some updates

The box all this came in didn't fit in the e30, lol



Since I added my stuff to the order for the shop, had to separate the stainless from the mild steel with a magnet.



and what's going to be used on the m20, well not the large 18 degree bends, I was supposed to order 2.13" so the 2" merges would fit inside for a true step on the merge collectors, these are 2.25", so they will go on the shelf and have to order 3 more the correct size

Can you make something like this? Shorties for 24V swapped cars.

Originally Posted by markseven

Can you make something like this? Shorties for 24V swapped cars.

Don't want to be smug, but I could make something far better than that.

Here's some pics of my production headers (ceramic coated in house), the collectors are expensive, but they are the best swaged collectors money can buy, next step would be merge (what I am building for my m20). The collectors in that pic appear to be from Stahl, some of the cheapest collectors...







EGR setups I fabricate on them...

Well I took apart a spare 153 DME ECU and attached the emulator to it, took about 20 mins. There is currently a 173 in the car and wanted to start with the spare just in case any mistakes were made o.0

Started by taking the cover off and carefully pulling the top circuit board off...



pulled the stock chip out and replaced it with a chip extender so the ECU doesn't have to come apart if I want to pull the emulator out...



put the circuit board back in...



then connected the Ostrich 2.0 with the USB cable,installed the USB driver, plugged it in to the laptop and recognized the emulator immediatly. then loaded the stock .bin file from the 153 DME chip...



Now it's time to hook it all up to the car and enjoy the realm of eeprom tuning! This emulator will work for any BMW DME (or other manufaturer) that is prom driven

Once I am happy with the tune, I will burn a chip with the file created, pop it in the Motronic and it will act just like stock except have my custom tune on it...

More later

Originally Posted by ForcedFirebird

Don't want to be smug, but I could make something far better than that.

Okay then, a few questions:

1. Are you willing to build some (possible GB)?
2. How much, including ceramic coating?
3. What sort of fitment guarantee (I'm sure you are aware of the subframe issue with the long-tube headers on 24V swaps)?

Originally Posted by markseven

Okay then, a few questions:

1. Are you willing to build some (possible GB)?
2. How much, including ceramic coating?
3. What sort of fitment guarantee (I'm sure you are aware of the subframe issue with the long-tube headers on 24V swaps)?

1 Yes, if you do the legwork, I try to stay a wholesaler, not really a salesman.
2 I would imagine about $700 single sets, save $50/ea with a 5 GB, have to calc materials/labor.
3 Have a couple 24v locals (did one here at my shop) I am sure they would give me a few minutes for test fit, also have a shell we could bolt a 24v in just to make sure. So, guaranteed, 1yr warranty against cracks and workmanship just like we offer the production v6 headers. I would say 6-8 weeks for delivery from order. To check references, you can google Forced_Firebird, ForcedFirebird, or 60inclusive dot com. We sponsor forums, affiliated with 60degreev6 dot com, Fullthrottlev6 dot com etc etc.

To discuss further, please email john at 60inclusive dot com.

This stuff is so cool! I can't believe I was ever trying to burn chips for the Motronic ECU's.

I am using a definition from TunerPRO on the 153 DME, does anyone have another that may break the maps into dual axis? Maybe like inj vs TPS vs CTS etc? This is all 2d maps from this definition

Cple more pics. Seriously took no time to have the emulator up and running, data tracing is a click away. So awesome. Until I reach the limits of the Motronic, it's staying lol...

Originally Posted by ForcedFirebird

1 Yes, if you do the legwork, I try to stay a wholesaler, not really a salesman.
2 I would imagine about $700 single sets, save $50/ea with a 5 GB, have to calc materials/labor.
3 Have a couple 24v locals (did one here at my shop) I am sure they would give me a few minutes for test fit, also have a shell we could bolt a 24v in just to make sure. So, guaranteed, 1yr warranty against cracks and workmanship just like we offer the production v6 headers. I would say 6-8 weeks for delivery from order. To check references, you can google Forced_Firebird, ForcedFirebird, or 60inclusive dot com. We sponsor forums, affiliated with 60degreev6 dot com, Fullthrottlev6 dot com etc etc.

To discuss further, please email john at 60inclusive dot com.

I just sent you an email

Originally Posted by markseven

I just sent you an email

The email bounced. YGPM.

Mark

Not really related to the build, but a cool video my friend made one night when we had a BMW meet here at the shop. Our friend discovered his MtechII converted early model had really rusted floor boards, too bad cause the car was done so nicely So we stripped the interior, MKII etc so he could transfer to a new shell.

This was during my top end swap, you can see us pulling my car out at the beginning of the vid.


[video=youtube;Q18lvGR40Ls]