Exhaust Manifold/Headers

[Jared Petrie]

Does anyone here have any advice or suggestions on California street-legal headers for an E36 M3? I’m looking for an upgrade from the standard manifold that will improve performance across the RPM range, but for autox, the low end is more important I suppose. I’d prefer it to be smog-test passable, if possible. The only one I have on my list right now is the TMS shorty headers.

My goal is to have the car ready by the March 3rd control clinic.

Thanks in advance!

[Hal Dorton]

Someone else can ring in here but the stock manifold flows pretty well. I have not seen any dyno pulls from CARB approved exhaust manifolds that dramatically improved performance.

[Jared Petrie]

Well I probably should have done a pre-swap dyno, but oh well.

I ended up springing for the TMS headers. I put them on last weekend (Boy, what an experience). I still need to attach the midpipe, etc. to the headers, though. I figured I could use the existing studs/nuts, but the studs don’t hold onto anything and I can’t grip them with vicegrips well enough to get a good seal. I’d like to replace the studs with appropriate bolts. I’ll try to do that this week.

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