Exhaust and Short Throw Shifter Question

C

Clemson15

New member
 Anderson, South Carolina
I'm in the USA first of all, if that matters...just figured I'd throw that out there. Oh and it's for an '03 3.0i Z4.

Short throw shifter....I'm looking into them but don't really know what all is involved in swapping one out and what all the benefits of one are. And who makes a good one? Where's the best place to order performance parts for these cars from? This is my first manual vehicle btw.

Exhaust...been reading about a lot of people cutting out the muffler and doing a straight pipe. One thread was debating the performance benefits (or lack of) but the guy who had done it said he couldn't tell a difference. I've always owned trucks (mostly diesels at that) and removing the muffler and cat is the best thing you can do for a diesel, but for a gas truck I've always heard that straight piping severely cuts down power for lack of back pressure. If this is true, what is a good performance exhaust kit? Or if new pipes and everything aren't necessary then what's a good muffler? Again, what is a good and reliable online performance retailer?

Thanks.
 
try a new gear knob before you do the short shifter. I had a short shifter in my old car, but on the Z4 i just replaced the gear knob with the ZHP gear knob, its shorter and weighted, and makes the shift feel great, no need for a short shifter in this car...

I will be removing my exhaust and changing it to a quad exhaust with sports mufflers. But eisenmann and Remus makes a good kit, Just a bit expensive for me. Getting a custom made system will be the cheapest option, but there is plenty of youtube vids, so you can hear what the established brand exhausts sound like.
 
Thanks for the info guys, pretty much everything I've searched for on YouTube sounds pretty good on the 3.0s. Even the straight pipes...but is that a bad idea? And can you go to just any muffler shop and tell them you want something good for performance? I mean are pipes really necessary or can you just go with a different muffler? And what about cat removal? Can it be done without CEL issues?
 
I dont think you'll lose power with straight pipes. You'll certainly gain lots of noise though. Lots of drone too.... There are no sensors anywhere near the mufflers so it wouldnt throw a CEL.

Telling an exhaust shop to prepare something for you with performance in mind wouldnt amount to anything either. Somehow i dont think they'll put in the necessary research and development into it... :D I dont think it'll cost you power but you're not going to gain anything either. The benefit of a custom system though is that if the shop is good you can have it tailor made to your tastes, as loud as you want and with the exact look that you want and it should still cost less than an Eisenmann for example.

Keep us informed will you? :thumbsup:
 
Back pressure is good? I dunno. Hotrodders have been running straight pipes for decades. Maybe you're thinking of 2 strokes, they need a resonant exhaust expansion chamber to run well.

Removing cats is illegal in many states, if you go that route, be sure to hang on to them, you may need them later. There will be CEL issues with cat removal as there is a pair of O2 sensors specifically to ensure the cats are operating properly. It's conceivable to come up with a gizmo to fool the ECU, but I don't think anyone has actually done it.
 
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