So I bought an E30.

[CaptainHenreh]

Is it pinched that bad? I wouldn't think you could pinch those things without cracking them somewhere.

The pinch is the way they're cast. It's uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugly.

If you're looking at full headers, make sure someone has used them on a swapped car before - they're gonna be close to the control arm bushing bracket.

Well, I don't have any downpipes, so I'm looking at either fabbing up new ones to get to the rest of the exhaust, or buy a set of pretty Stainless Steel headers with downpipes already there.

Anyway, here are the two headers I'm looking at:
I'd prefer these if they'll fit -- Nice long primaries, mandrel bent and TIG welded. $250 shipped.



Or these, which look pretty close to stock size, just nice tube primaries, with no goofy pinches or weird shapes.



They're 200 shipped, and obviously I'll pay the extra 50 bucks for those pretty long tube headers above...if they'll fit. I will, of course, ask the fine folks on R3V if they've tried either, but I guess I don't mind persuading the pipes a little if I have to, but of course, I'd rather not.

I have an ICV that I replaced with new, hoping it would do something. I promised another guy he could have it if he doesn't have one...once I hear back from him (he just has to look through his pile of parts), I'll let you know.

Thanks BJ, I really appreciate it. I guess I didn't realize that BMW would still be using a damned valve to control the idle instead of, like, I dunno, something that didn't fail so much. I wonder if I can ghetto rig it somehow?

There's an awful lot I don't know about these swaps, but that TB looks nothing like mine.

I'm 99% sure it's a traction control throttle body, and the first throttle butterfly closes when the ABS detects you've lost traction. Toyota had a similar system, and it sucked nads too. I may just take it off, and slip a connector over the other throttle body.

Is that a plastic thermostat housing?

Yeah, stock plastic water pump, too. But I have new metal replacements for both.