M50 / M52 / S50 manifold group buy?

[Jimbob]

Hi Ste

Thanks for the effort involved here as everyone (not just those in the group buy) can clearly see the time and effort you've put in.

I sent you an email on 2nd May explaining that I have to pull out and reasons provided, I was wondering if you received it - it's the email address you've just listed. Can you confirm you've received this, if not I'll resend

Cheers

[Jhonno]

any pics of Ian's manifold and how its been modded?

[ste]

Can you confirm you've received this, if not I'll resend

Resend please Jimbob - I didn't receive anything.

Jhonno - I'm seeing Ian tomorrow - will see if he can get a pic.

[jmc330i]

Jhonno - I'm seeing Ian tomorrow - will see if he can get a pic.

That would be great. Would like to see some pics of the manifold before making a decision

[Jhonno]

Jhonno - I'm seeing Ian tomorrow - will see if he can get a pic.

That would be great. Would like to see some pics of the manifold before making a decision

exactly

[old_skool]

Jhonno - I'm seeing Ian tomorrow - will see if he can get a pic.

That would be great. Would like to see some pics of the manifold before making a decision

exactly

Yep, me too. I'd like to know their lead time as well.

I can see what BTB are like for taking their time. It's one thing taking a beating and paying a grand for a manifold but it's another thing if we then have to wait a few months for it.

Ste, I admire you for sticking with this. Not an easy road to have gone down.

Many thanks

Dameon.

[Jhonno]

thats a good point, if we do bend over for them, how long is it gonna take exactly before we get them?

[Sooty]

Hi Ste

Firstly a great big thank you to you & Ian for all of your time and effort on this
The pair of you deserve a medal or something for taking it this far.

To say that I'm disappointed is an understatement of biblical proportions but I realise that it's not down to your good selves.

As I see it, I've got three options now :-

1. Wait & see if someone else follows it up and then bend over with an open credit card / wallet and say 'Help yourself'.
2. Bin the M50 and put an M20 back in
3. Bodge something together with the 2.8 manifolds I've already got.

One question though......how much modification would be needed to the S50 manifolds if the original steering rack was used, as opposed to the E36 rack?

Iain S

[ste]

Hi Sooty - replied to your email as I saw it before this post. Essentially yes - there would be less work involved if you didn't also have to fit around the E36 rack coupling....

As for timescales - Joe is away but gets back tomorrow - I will find schedules for delivery etc out tomorrow and post them here.

Thanks for your continued patience-
Ste

[Jhonno]

[old_skool]

Ok,

I Have spoken to Ste a few times this week and also with BTB - with a view to seeing this whole thing go forward. After discussion, Ste has kindly passed on the details to me so I can try to help organise it.

Basically, as it stands - BTB have to have an order for a minimum of 5xS50 Conversion manifolds before they will start work/agree to the group buy price. They have agreed a lead time of 8-10 weeks from the time of the order. I will ensure that this is kept to to the best of my ability.

The prices are as follows:

Modify S50 manifold - £980.00 inc. Vat

Optional:

X pipe - £305.50 inc. Vat
Exhaust system - £950.00 inc. Vat

Ste is anxious to make sure this all ends up with everyone either getting their manifolds or their money back. Anyone who is still in will also get their deposit back; BTB agree that the manifolds themselves offer suitable security should no one turn up for them when they are finished.

It is only right that Ste should deduct the cost of the donor manifolds he has supplied to the people concerned. If these people wish to pull out then maybe they can be sold to others wishing to participate. This is only fair, especially given the amount of time and cost to him that has gone into this, I hope you agree.


Please let me know what you want to do......

[Jhonno]

Did Ian manage to get any pics of his?

[ian332isport]

Did Ian manage to get any pics of his?

Not yet, but you can't see all that much without jacking it up and removing the sump guard. If I ever get a break in this damn decorating, I will be replacing my front subframe shortly, so will take some pictures when there's a bit more access.

Ian.

[old_skool]

This is a quote from BTB:

"Please find attached pictures of Ian Haynes manifold, bear in mind that on his we salvaged another manifold to make the rearmost pipe from. In future we will have to make it up ourselves from very tight bends. You can see in the pictures the extent of the mods required to the collector ends and the amount of new pipes we needed to put in to the front manifold. The design of the exhaust manifold is crucial to the performance of this engine and as such it is not advisable to compromise on its design otherwise the benefits from the engine swap will be lost. "

Guys, I have no doubt that these manifolds represent a lot of work for BTB. Please let me know if you're in so I can get the ball rolling.


So, who's still in?

1 ) old_skool_2002 [+ full system]
2 ) E30_tracker

[jmc330i]

Dameon/Ste - nice one guys, looks like this is going to turn out ok

The manifold looks good, similar to how I modded mine but with much, much better welding

Is the X-pipe worth having? - If Im going to spend £1k on a manifold, I may as well spend a bit extra

Need to have a think about it, but will let you know if im still in by Monday

[Jhonno]

To be fair, its not easy work, but i still cant understand how they make a whole snake manifold which sells through a 3rd party for £675 but want 1k to mod ours..

I think i will be reluctantly in tho, due to the importance of getting these manifolds right to keep the engines making power.. Is there gonna be a deadline for when names have to be in the hat? 8-10 weeks is quite a wait once placed.

1 ) old_skool_2002 [+ full system]
2 ) E30_tracker
3) Jhonno (+ maybe X-pipe will have a think..)

Just a thought Dameon.. Dont you need 2 setups?

[jmc330i]

To be fair, its not easy work, but i still cant understand how they make a whole snake manifold which sells through a 3rd party for £675 but want 1k to mod ours..

I guess it because their costs are being paid for by the large number of M20 manifolds being sold (the M30 manifolds are still up at £850), but with only a small number of S50 manifolds needed, the cost will be higher.

Having said that, they are not making the S50 manifolds from scratch, so Im with Jhonno and cant see why these manifolds should cost so much more - it would be interesting to know how many hours BTB are putting into each manifold to arrive at the £1k figure.


As Jhonno said, I think Im reluctantly in.....

1) old_skool_2002 [+ full system]
2) E30_tracker
3) Jhonno (+ maybe X-pipe will have a think..)
4) jmc330i (+ maybe X-pipe will have a think..)

[old_skool]

Jhonno, James, I don't like it any more than anyone else. I can't understand it either, to be honest I've given up trying. I just want to pay the money now and get the damn things sorted - for the same reasons as you.

Yes, I need two. To be honest I'd rather not order two now because of the cost. If I can't get to the required five people then I will order two to make up the numbers

As soon as I can get in touch with the Jaistanley, Adil, and Simys, then we can get organised. Does anyone have a contact number for them? I haven't seen Jai on for a while? I really want to get this order placed on Tuesday if possible. Hopefully if Jai is in then we can get started.

So, still to confirm are:

jaistanley

Adil

Simys

[old_skool]

Just a thought, it would be a good idea to have a contact number for everyone involved. I already have a number for James (E30_tracker) but if everyone else could PM me a number that would be great.


Dameon.

[Jhonno]

PM Sent

[old_skool]

PM received, thanks Dan.

[old_skool]

I have spoken to Jai today. He is going to have a think on it; however he generally feels the same way as the rest of us. He is busy relocating at the moment so he hasn't had too much free time to get on the Zone.

Meanwhile, we now have four of us that have commited, so I'm going to make up the extra set as promised. I have already got a set of 3.2 manifolds at BTB and will send up my 3.0 set to have those done as well. If Jai wants in then I can get the 3.2 set remade for him and I can then go back down to one set (if that makes sense).

So the good news is that I shall be ordering them all on Tuesday morning. I shall keep everyone posted whenever there is an update and rest assured, I shall be on the case.

All the manifolds will be ready in the same week I'm told, so we will all get them at the same time.

I would appreciate a number for James (jmc330i) so I can call you if there's a problem.

1) old_skool_2002 [+ full system]
2) E30_tracker (manifold only so far)
3) Jhonno (+ maybe X-pipe will have a think..)
4) jmc330i (+ maybe X-pipe will have a think..)
5) Poss. Jaistanley or old_skool_2002

[Beemer Redeemer]

Sounds good to me Dameon

Im sure it will go ok and soon enough we'll have the manifolds back

James

[ste]

A big thanks to Dameon for taking this over.

The pic of the manifold shows just what an awesome bit of kit is should be.

As an aside, and this is partly speculation, reading between the lines after discussion with BTB, and shouldn't be taken as gospel - but I think the M20 manifolds are outsourced abroad for manufacture due to the quantities involved, hence the price tumbles down. Also the tolerances of that manifold do not need to be as tight, as there's literally double the space to post the manifold down the side of the block.

So, my outcome from this groupbuy is that I have a pile of approx 10 sets of S50 manifolds that I know own, and some deposits to return.

This evening (29th May) I'll get all balances in order. After today, please contact me to discuss settling up. Please bear in mind I'm in work anywhere from 7AM to 9PM some days, so may not answer my phone (07968 444 017) instantly, but will return all calls. In fact, to make it easier and to keep all details in one place, it's possibly easier to email on steATm50e30.co.uk

I assume I'll end up with some spare manifolds as some group-buyers drop out, so if anyone wants to buy one, also get in touch using the same contact info.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, hopefully some of you will have a working manifold by August.

[Jhonno]

Did anyone talk to Hayward and Scott? I just got off the phone to them and you're looking at £700 for a complete custom manifold and about the same again for a system inc x pipe.. They are also very local to me in Essex.. I dont know whether they would be able to offer anything for more than one car goin down to them. They did the work on Karan's M5 powered and appear to do good work with Porsches etc. So for around £1500 you could have a complete exhaust system inc manifold as opposed to BTB's offering of £2400 for the same..

[ste]

They did Ian Haynes' first manifold....




...he now has a BTB manifold on his car.



Make of that what you will.

[Jhonno]

they modified his original tho.. they were talking bout making a complete custom manifold this time..

[ian332isport]

they modified his original

BADLY.

If I get time, I'll take a picture of the shit job they did. I kept it as a trophy after BTB did it properly.

Their attitude sucked when I wanted them to put a few other things right as well.

Ian.

[Jhonno]

i remember you saying you werent happy with the work they did to modify the manifold now.. just wondered if a new one would be a different kettle of fish. Be interesting to see the pics

[ian332isport]

just wondered if a new one would be a different kettle of fish.

The big problem with making one from scratch, is the lack of space. Very few (if any) exhaust places have the equipment to make the tight radius bends to get it all to fit in the confines of an E30/S50 engine bay.

Modifying a standard S50 manifold should (in theory) be a lot easier than doing it from scratch.

Oh, and nice to see the pictures of my manifold. I had not seen those before, and did not see the manifold before it was fitted.

Ian.

[maxfield]

Looks like a thumbs down for them

[Jhonno]

So is there less room than in the S38 conversion? This being the work they did with Karan's.. But with not having seen it in person cant comment in the comparison..




Ian are you happy with the exhaust H&S did for you ignoring the badly modded manifold?

[jmc330i]

Dameon - you have PM

[Jhonno]

??

[jaistanley]

Hey guys.

sorry if i dissapeared off the face of the earth... VERY long story involving a newly ex girlfriend. Lame.

I'd like in (reluctantly) after seing the pics etc.. The manifold looks fantastic! I just cant afford it at all until the 26th.. does money need to change hands before then??

MASSIVE thanks to al involved thus far by the way!!!

Jai