BMW Motorsport Inconel S54 Headers

[cornerbalanced]

Saw these headers listed on FB marketplace, was wondering if anyone could shed some more light on them. The seller claims they’re an OE BMW Motorsports product—mostly wondering what application these would have been used on from factory?

I’ve never seen these headers before. Inconel is incredibly cool, really well designed collector + V-Band flanges. Very tempted to purchase these for when I eventually build an S54.

[Anri]

Hi,

I sow these for sale as well.

These headers are for all out S54
if you plan of doing the std combo
288/280 and the rest is stock or very
close to stock these will not be the
perfect match for you.

Regards,
Anri

[cornerbalanced]

Hi,

I sow these for sale as well.

These headers are for all out S54
if you plan of doing the std combo
288/280 and the rest is stock or very
close to stock these will not be the
perfect match for you.

Regards,
Anri

Thanks Anri,

Very good to know. I intend on lighter weight pistons/rods, bump up the compression, 288 cams + upgraded valves, stems, springs. Ideally I’d like to retain VANOS, but not opposed to running a bigger cam and deleting it. Not sure if that would be enough to warrant these headers, I’m just a sucker for OE Motorsports parts—an OE Die Wethje airbox is also on my short list.

Really nothing set in stone yet. I’m at 165k miles and plan to do the new motor at 200k.

[Anri]

Thanks Anri,

Very good to know. I intend on lighter weight pistons/rods, bump up the compression, 288 cams + upgraded valves, stems, springs. Ideally I’d like to retain VANOS, but not opposed to running a bigger cam and deleting it. Not sure if that would be enough to warrant these headers, I’m just a sucker for OE Motorsports parts—an OE Die Wethje airbox is also on my short list.

Really nothing set in stone yet. I’m at 165k miles and plan to do the new motor at 200k.

Hi,

Sound good but few of your parts
are pointless..which will not bring you
food on the table for not all out S54

I have measured personally the cams
288 Schrick, CatCams and have some very
valuable data...and concept.

Common mistake is people load the engine
with tons of performance and not necessary parts
for hot rodded street engine.

Please get rid of the Internet-Myth of deleting the Vanos
using larger cams!!! It's a myth again and again!!!!!

The Vanos is deleted for absolutely other
reasons!

When I spent tons of time and money to flow
parts I certainly operate with different concept
ones I got the data in my hands.

Regards,
Anri

[Cronenberged]

Lose a lot of low end torque with these as well so like anri said if you don't have an all out S54 these don't have much benefit.

[cornerbalanced]

Hi,

Sound good but few of your parts
are pointless..which will not bring you
food on the table for not all out S54

I have measured personally the cams
288 Schrick, CatCams and have some very
valuable data...and concept.

Common mistake is people load the engine
with tons of performance and not necessary parts
for hot rodded street engine.

Please get rid of the Internet-Myth of deleting the Vanos
using larger cams!!! It's a myth again and again!!!!!

The Vanos is deleted for absolutely other
reasons!

When I spent tons of time and money to flow
parts I certainly operate with different concept
ones I got the data in my hands.

Regards,
Anri

When it comes time for me to build the engine I’ll have to hire you as a consultant to help setup a list. I’ve known a lot of people who have just thrown parts at S54s (also in the Porsche world) and the end product wasn’t all that great. Hoping to do it once, and never again.

[Anri]

I’ve known a lot of people who have just thrown parts at S54s

If one understand the Engineering behind its very clear.

Tuning NA engine is difficult, suggestion I always give
to those who reach out to me is "power under the curve"
far important vs Instagram post on how much my engine
made at peak.

A small example..on the market out there is a single 3.5"exhaust which
suppose to be bad ass...people buy them all the time if one understand
how the exhaust system works one will never go to single 3.5' on
NA engine. FI is different story.

Regards,
Anri

[digger]

These are not the headers you are looking for

[cornerbalanced]

These are not the headers you are looking for

Curious as to why that’s the case.

Next to zero information is available out there about these headers. P54 headers seem to look a bit different, unless these are just a different iteration.

[Slideways]

11k new, so not terrible lol

Part numbers are for the P54.

[bimmerfan08]

Hi,

I sow these for sale as well.

These headers are for all out S54
if you plan of doing the std combo
288/280 and the rest is stock or very
close to stock these will not be the
perfect match for you.

Regards,
Anri

Hi, Anri. Can you (and others) provide some context as to what attributes (collectors, diameter, length, etc.) about these headers make them only optimal for a full NA build?

[digger]

Hi, Anri. Can you (and others) provide some context as to what attributes (collectors, diameter, length, etc.) about these headers make them only optimal for a full NA build?

They are going to be for an all out build because that's why they were designed. The primaries off the head are pretty big and for anything on the street stepped is going to be the best bet for the broadest powerband and responsiveness. Primaries appear slightly shorter which tunes in at higher rpm. The secondaries are super crtical and without the rest of the exhaust you may not even realise the benefits that led to this design but you will almost certainly be sub optimal.

[bigjae46]

Please get rid of the Internet-Myth of deleting the Vanos
using larger cams!!! It's a myth again and again!!!!!

The Vanos is deleted for absolutely other
reasons!

VAC markets a VANOS delete for race engines. For those that assume VAC doesn't have their head shoved up their ass...this leads people to believe there's a benefit.

Maybe, just maybe it would make sense for an S54 built with a ridiculously high redline.

At that point I'd rather just go all in and get a Judd V8

[Nate047]

LOL I drove a car with a high compression B series with VTEC killer cams once. Thing fucking ripped shit but it's definitely not the kind of power delivery you want if your car sees street use. I imagine an S54 with VANOS deleted is a similar type of experience. I would for sure not do that.

These headers are cool but I think that also falls into the same category of nice flex, but not really useful for anything but a pure racing engine.

[discoelk]

They are going to be for an all out build because that's why they were designed. The primaries off the head are pretty big and for anything on the street stepped is going to be the best bet for the broadest powerband and responsiveness. Primaries appear slightly shorter which tunes in at higher rpm. The secondaries are super crtical and without the rest of the exhaust you may not even realise the benefits that led to this design but you will almost certainly be sub optimal.

Do you have any real test data or calculations to prove this though? TONS of statements on this site saying "X makes more power than Y" or "X part looses midrange" but even in the dyno thread there isn't much a/b comparison or info and calculations about ideal exhaust design for these engines. It's almost entirely anecdotal.

These are obviously designed for a race engine but the primaries are no shorter than euro headers and we don't even know the diameters. They don't even look that short to me. Tubing looks large but no numbers to prove/disprove anything.