I am strongly considering keelman headers and the full exhaust replacement. SHould get about 30+ HP out of it and a great sound. I for one dislike the stock sound of the E55 exhaust. It is too quite for a car with so much power.
My question is this: Who else makes headers for the E55 except Kleeman and renntech??? Kleeman wants $2500 without installation....
I use to have an S8 Audi and took it to a local hot rod custom exhaust builder and he took my back two resonators off and replaced the factory muffler with a same size two chamber performance muffler and the car sounded like a sweet exotic V-8.
I am curious before you spend $2,500 plus install for new exhaust if you should first go talk to a custom hot rod exhaust builder and invest $500 to get the sound. Customizing your existing system will not give you 30hp but it may get you the sweet sound you are looking for.
Has any 210 e55 owners had their exhaust modified similar to what I did to my S8, and if so, did the modification result in a new sweet sound with no other problems?
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Never heard of more than having the resonator removed (which I'm considering), and a cat back. I had heard that no exhaust work is going to give you 30HP though. The Renntech headers were tested on an otherwise stock W210 by HPS and were found to loose HP everywhere below 3500 RPM!
E55_GT3wheels - 4/20/2005 9:12 PM
My question is this: Who else makes headers for the E55 except Kleeman and renntech??? Kleeman wants $2500 without installation....
Just get Kleemann and stop questioning the price! lol [:D][8D][}:)][:p]
I had a custom "cat-back" built at a local exhaust shop and it turned out great. They reused the 2 flanges conecting the stock cat-back to the front of the system and went straight back to a single dual-in/dual-out muffler back in the stock location. We were able to reuse the stock tips as well for a factory appearance.
While I'm sure it didn't gain any power (looking at the stock muffler and resonator, they are both straight-through) the sound is very nice and has a nice rumble to it. It still sounds like a european car though.
I've been thinking about headers too (* also makes a set for the w210) but unless I do a supercharger also, I just can't justify spending $2k+ for a few HP.
The renntech headers were shown to lose power below 3500?? Do you have some data to back that up. Renntech is a very reliable company and I can not imagine that would happen. The headers from renntech are larger and should definately not lose any power. Maybe it had something to do with a crappy install? I am really thinking about kleeman headers but if this is true, I def do not want them! I am very surprised though...
for the record, I did not say that exhaust alone will you give 30hp. Headers and full catback exhaust should net around there - more on a s/c car too as was pointed out above.
Equal length headers can lose power at lower rpm's. Tri-Y headers are best for increasing low to mid range hp in naturally aspirated cars by using exhaust scavaging. The equal length headers will do better in a supercharged car. It's all about keeping exhaust velocity as high as possible without causing back-pressure.
I didn't see the dyno, but that's what I was told. SEC is correct. Large primaries will hurt torque and HP at low rpm with possible increases at high rpm, which is what I was told happened. Those might work really well on my car however. 30 HP? who knows, but even a full 30 HP makes that some expensive power. I would likely try removing the resonator first (heard that on a '99 and it sounded pretty good IMO).
Thanks for the info. I was unaware of this. If that is true, I dont want the headers! I am going to talk to kleeman and tell them what I have read here and want to see their response.
Also, has anyone removed the resonator? I was going for a little more power but also want a better sound. The E55 is very hush for such a powerful car. I dont want it very loud, but a lil louder would be nice....
I can't say what the Kleemann headers would do for an otherwise stock car, but I believe James could confirm that they are not going to do a lot by themselves. I believe they are a different design than the Renntech units, so maybe they're better on the bottom end? I'm actually going to pull out the resonator on my car after hearing that on a '99 E55. Even if there's no power increase, I'll probably lose at least 30 lbs!
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