I pulled the 5.6 out of my euro SEC yesterday, in preperation for dropping it in my Euro '85 SEL.

The 560 engine has the tri-y manifolds and downpipes that are in good shape, the rest of the system appears solid, but isnt pretty. Whereas my early 500 has a year old genuine MB system from the downpipes back.

I was hoping that my existing system off the 500 will bolt on from the downpipes back, but the pipes look different diameters.

I've sunk enough money into rebuilding the top end of the 5.0 engine for it to still use water, so I'm on a tight budget now, so I dont really want to buy another full exhaust system.

Here's my options;
1. Buy a new middle section for the SEC exhaust, so it will fit the SEL
2. Weld in some extra pipe to the SEC exhaust to stretch it to fit the SEL
3. Cut the front section off the SEC system and weld it to the front of the good SEL exhaust (I think the size would be stepping down)
4. Just use the Log manifolds from the 5.0 engine and leave the exhausts alone.
5. Your suggestions......

__________________
Ben

'85 500 SEL
'85 928S2
'88 560 SEC
'90 750i

Option 1 sounds the cleanest and simplest to me, if the parts will fit.

John Roncallo

Yeah thats what I was thinking. The only differences between the later SEC and SEL models exhaust was the central section.
The other think that concerns me about this was the changes to the subframe on the post 9/85 models. The angle of the pipes between the central and rear mufflers look slightly different in the diagrams i've looked at.

Early 500 exhaust


Later 560 Exhaust

__________________
Ben

'85 500 SEL
'85 928S2
'88 560 SEC
'90 750i