Who made these headers?

[lloyd]

Is anyone familiar with the maker of the 6cyl headers pictured below?

I used them several years ago and they have been sitting in storage. I seem to recall they may come from a vendor in North Carolina. They are steel (not stainless) and the tubing diameter is 1.5". There are some odd barely legible markings: "800" and "4_ _"

Also, if you are familiar with the M10 stainless header, please chime in. There are no markings on these, although there may have been a small tag or plate which fell off long ago.

Many thanks.

 

[vraned]

Besides the gray paint, those look exactly like the Stahl headers I have for my car. Stahl makes several different diameters for the M30. Check out their website: www.stahlheaders.com. They could also be Stahl copies. Not sure about the M10 header.

 

[Honolulu]

look like the supposedly Stahl headers I have

look like the supposedly Stahl headers I have. I got mine unpainted, essentially NOS. There is no identification on them. I was told that Stahl welded a tag on with their name, but mine are the only coupe headers I've seen... what would I know.

The sound, with an otherwise stock system is only very slightly louder.

 

[Stan]

Headers - any upgrade?

OK Guys
What sort of results do you actually see, hear or feel after switching to headers?
Any "seat of the pants" improvement?

 

[nashvillecat]

Headers are a trade off: performance vs. maintenance vs. cost.

There is a reason race cars and higher performance cars use them - they can be more efficient at facilitating the expulsion of exhaust from the cylinders and can have a noticeable scavenging effect. Depending upon their design (tube lengths and sizes), headers can be tuned to alter torque and horsepower production curves. They also tend to be louder and are prone to cracking and even squeaking as opposed to most stock cast iron exhaust manifolds.

As a compromise, some manufacturers produce a cast iron header/s. It is argued by many that the pre-smogged cast iron exhaust manifolds found on most E9's fit that description. But stainless headers certainly have a cosmetic appeal and there are obviously a lot of fans out there.

I do not have headers on my coupe but have used them in the past and found little difference other than much more heat in the engine compartment. Maybe the headers were poorly designed or the outlet tubes were too large and were therefore inefficient except at high engine speed. I have used them on other cars with mixed results. Smaller engines that typically operate at higher rpm seemed to benefit more from headers. I had a 240Z that noticeably benefited from headers. I also had them on a 2002 with side drafts that performed slightly better with the headers. On the other hand, on the big block Corvette, with gobs of low end torque did not seem to improve other than by being much louder. A change in intake manifold DID make a difference, but that was not your question. :wink:

hth

 

[Bill Riblett]

These could also have been made by Headercraft, who I understand to have been a spin-off of ex-Stahl employees. I have one set by Headercraft and 2 by Stahl. To me, they are of equal quality.

As for performance gains, personally, I don't think they add much until the rest of the engine is pretty heavily modified. I felt there was a "seat-of-the-pants" increase when I put them on a basically stock engine, but that could have come from the distributor change I did at the same time.

Generally, I think BMW has very well flowing exhaust systems on most of their cars. Well, maybe with the exception of the E-12 5 series that had a single "log" manifold...