I got mine bolted to the head, but I'm still vband flanging my new cats to the end of my headers. If I can't figure out a good way to get from the cats to the stock x pipe, I might have to cut that out as well and put in a borla.

I figured out something interesting...no E53 exhaust manifold gasket has 12 holes per gasket in it. That means if you want to put OEM gaskets on headers for the sleeper look, you would have to drill press the gaskets carefully. Also, the gaskets that come with ebay headers look suspect, so you can use E36 328i gaskets, which are MLS gaskets with all 24 holes. No heat shields though. If you wanted to (I thought about this but did not have the patience) you could chop down the OEM E53 gaskets and mount them outside the headers.

Getting the nuts on with the heat shields on is terrible, though, if anyone is wondering.

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2001 E53 3.0 5pd