Headers - E-Bay - Top Speed Auto, TX 2013-08
 

I purchased these stainless steel headers for my 2002 E55 from E-Bay August 23, 2013. The seller was: Top Speed Auto from Addison, TX (E-Bay seller: topspeed-pro1-performance) $449.99 with free shipping. They arrived via FedEx today August 28, 2013.

I thought that I would provide this write up for others to see the quality of this product, and to see what the actual performance gains that can be measured with this modification.

My Car is unmodified with 98,000 miles. Earlier this year, I did some maintenance which included new spark plugs and a new MAF. It still has the stock exhaust system.

I will be examining my car on a chassis dyno in it's stock, unmodified form before I remove the exhaust manifolds. After I install the headers, I will allow the ECU to adapt, and then re-examine my car on the same dyno and hopefully the same atmospheric conditions.

Driver's side
1

The tubes were stainless steel (must be 300 series because the magnet did not attach) and the flange and collector were steel. You can see the flange thickness. Here are pictures of the thinnest and thickest sections. Yes, I already suspect that the flange will need milling, or sanding to be level.

Driver's side
2

Min and max diameter between the 4 tubes.

Driver's side
3

Collector came with studs and nuts. The welds look nice.

Driver's side
4

As I suspected early on, the flange is not level. Probably due to the welding process. It is not that bad, but I will either mill them on a CNC machine, or sand them flat on a belt sander.

Gasket

Passenger's side
1

Passenger's side
2

It looks like the tubes are 0.040 thousands thickness.

Passenger's side
3

Passenger's side
4

I will try to find an available dyno tomorrow or Friday.
I made an appointment for one next Thursday, but I don't want to wait a week.

Nice start, cudaized! You're either an engineer or have engineering tendencies.

So are you going to machine the flanges?

Looking forward to the before and after dyno runs. In that AMS thread they mention it is difficult (or maybe impossible) to get a truly representative picture on the dyno due to the W210 E55 transmission.

Thanks for posting the details.

ddb

Great info!

Good stuff:y

From the pictures, I don't think you need to mill the flange. A nice belt sanding would do the job. The flanges between opening do not look too far off.
I'm afraid the milling might cut into the tubes attached to the flanges....just my two cents.

The welds look great and the insides look pretty clean.:)

Wow, awesome writeup so far! They seem like a pretty good deal for under $500. I'm curious to see the dyno results

Just leaving from the dyno place now. :zoom:
I will post my findings tonight. :naughty:

Can't Wait

Dyno results
 

I found a dyno at short notice this afternoon. $80 for two base runs. The guy did 6 runs, but only recorded 4 of them because he forgot about the kick down switch under the accelerator pedal. (At least that is what he said.)

ESP de-selected, manual gear selected in 4th. The picture below has the atmospheric conditions for today. The shops printer wasn't able to print the 4 runs, but I took a picture of the best hp results. I'll get these print outs on the next dyno session.

My car is a 2002 E55 that is completely stock with 98,671 miles. I gave it a tune-up in March 2013 which included new spark plugs and a new MAF and stock MANN air filters.

The owners manual states 355 hp/5500 RPM and 390 ft. lb/3150 RPM.That is measured at the flywheel and most likely without any accessories on the engine.

I measured on a chassis dynamometer and I know that there is a percentage lost through the drive train. The question is, how much loss? I have thought that 15-20% is a normal loss. I hoped for less.

On a hot Miami summer day, my best run was 296.85 hp/5700 RPM and 306.28 ft. lb/3600 RPM. I will confirm when I get the actual paper print out. I'm just guessing from the picture.

Net differences:
296.85/355 = 16.4% hp loss
306.28/390 = 21.5% ft. lb loss

Is it the car? Is it the atmospheric conditions? Is it the dyno? Is it the dyno operator? Or perhaps a combination of all?
Would you be satisfied with these results?

Dyno base
2

I'm thinking of going to a different shop and get a second opinion.
Then again, it is just a base line to compare the headers, then exhaust work. I guess I'll decide by Wednesday of next week before I'll install the headers.


*** note *** I will re-run the base dyno test with the ESP completely disabled by unplugging it. (Yeah, I know....)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ddb (Post 5763417)

Nice start, cudaized! You're either an engineer or have engineering tendencies.

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Thank you. Not an engineer, but a technical guy with years of experience.
I thought the guy was having trouble with the dyno runs. I guess there is some merit to the info in the AMS thread. :nix:

I thought about that too. I had a local machine shop belt sand them flat. I measured and they may, (may) have been 0.008 lower on the two inner pipes. I took my flat edge with me and the machine shop got them true. $20 for the pair. :y

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ML63 AMG (Post 5763683)

Wow, awesome writeup so far! Theyseem like a pretty good deal for under $500. I'm curious to see the dynoresults

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I think they are a great value. I actually think that they look very, very similar to the AMS ones. :nix:
Here are some pictures of what was labeled "AMS headers".

Original exhaust manifolds
 

Here are some reference pictures of the stock exhaust manifolds. I found these on the net.
I will post my findings after I remove my originals.

I believe you're supposed to disconnect the ESP stuff under the hood. Just hitting the button doesn't fully disable it. That could cause some problems.

Thank you Sir. I appreciate that info. I had forgotten about that.


I will have to research that. Do you have any furtherinfo? Perhaps a link?


**Edit** I found the info. ESPfull disabled - link

Silly me....and shame on the tech that ran the dyno. I am going to make him re-run the dyno pulls. He said he knew MB and had done E55 before.....:smash:

As far as the numbers go for the dyno, you're numbers aren't too far off from what I've seen. C43's put down 225-240hp

And as far as the the Dyno mode. 210's don't have it. Here you go boss
https://mbworld.org/forums/w210-amg/154818-how-put-e55-amg-w210-dynomode.html

Thank you