Posted by ...tom on May 15, 2002 at 19:08:09 from 205.188.192.186
after discovering a river of oil under the 735i on friday (those h&r springs are a bit too low for the oil pan) and having two mufflers fall off on saturday (the rears on both 5-series), i threw up my hands and took the e12 into the shop to install a new e28 exhaust. in theory it is an easy install, the only tricky part is the rear hanger. i dropped off the double manifolds from the euro e12 i just sent to the crusher this afternoon so the shop could use them to replace the two-into-one manifold from the us-spec car. i used the us-spec manifolds last summer during the euro 3.5 l install. this afternoon i got a call from the shop, the exhaust didn't line up with the manifolds. how could that be? aren't all m30 manifolds the same? well, no, they're not. the euro manifolds have the manifold studs about 30 degrees twisted from the us-spec manifolds. i discovered this by taking a head from a 3.5 l us-spec e28 with the manifolds attached into the shop this afternoon. very different bolt arangements, it surprised the shop folks too. so by tomorrow i should get the car back with a bit more free-flowing exhaust (and wallet) and i now have a set of euro manifolds and down pipes that are available if anyone is interested. i'm going to stick with the us-spec system.
...tom
'81 528i with euro 3.5l l-jet heading for carlisle...