Intake: Injen, aFe, or BMW preformance

[jbenington86]

Having a tough time picking. Any input would be great.

[Raine]

Eurobox, BMW Perf or the stock air box + k&n filter + charcoal filter delete

[AlwayzUnce]

injen.. its cheaper and its an intake... dont waste unnecessary loot

[Bimmer-Bob]

I was under the impression that both the aFe and the the Injen intakes suffered from heat soak and actually resulted in power losses over time.

I'm pretty skeptical that the charcoal filter delete results in any power gains. It's entire purpose it to prevent the passive backflow of gaseous hydrocarbons through the intake, as occurs when the engine is shut off, for emissions purposes. If you think about it, these gases are not under pressure when they attempt to escape through the intake, so there is no requirement for the charcoal filter to be especially restrictive. Secondly, the filter is carbon for a reason - because carbon will selectively bind to the substance that BMW's engineers wanted to trap, in this case the byproducts of combustion.

So, what seems most likely to me is that the charcoal filter acts more as a chemical barrier than a physical barrier. There is no real reason to believe that something meant to prevent the passive movement of specific gases at or near atmospheric pressure would be any impediment at all to the flow of normal air at high pressure.

[AlwayzUnce]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

I was under the impression that both the aFe and the the Injen intakes suffered from heat soak and actually resulted in power losses over time.

I'm pretty skeptical that the charcoal filter delete results in any power gains. It's entire purpose it to prevent the passive backflow of gaseous hydrocarbons through the intake, as occurs when the engine is shut off, for emissions purposes. If you think about it, these gases are not under pressure when they attempt to escape through the intake, so there is no requirement for the charcoal filter to be especially restrictive. Secondly, the filter is carbon for a reason - because carbon will selectively bind to the substance that BMW's engineers wanted to trap, in this case the byproducts of combustion.

So, what seems most likely to me is that the charcoal filter acts more as a chemical barrier than a physical barrier. There is no real reason to believe that something meant to prevent the passive movement of specific gases at or near atmospheric pressure would be any impediment at all to the flow of normal air at high pressure.

this answer seems very reasonable... however im going to still go with the injen, because my k&n on my 330 was the same setup, and no way did i lose any power. I will post a review next week.

[Garduna]

I've been using the Injen intake for 2 years now. One of the best mods I've ever bought for this car.

[jimmy1990]

cant go wrong with bmw performance, but $$$$...

[Greenkirby21]

Originally Posted by Garduna

I've been using the Injen intake for 2 years now. One of the best mods I've ever bought for this car.

Agreed. It comes with a heat shield. The only time I have had heat soak is during the hot summer days, so like 1/3 of the year, but it quickly goes away after driving. It is not that bad at all really.

[Satalite]

Originally Posted by jimmy1990

cant go wrong with bmw performance, but $$$$...

If you do the math Exhaust + Intake = 8 total HP @ 1700$ not installed If you have the money and prefer OEM go for it! Its all paid for with the warranty of the parts haha.

[AlwayzUnce]

Originally Posted by Satalite

If you do the math Exhaust + Intake = 8 total HP @ 1700$ not installed If you have the money and prefer OEM go for it! Its all paid for with the warranty of the parts haha.

bmw is usually pretty light with their numbers... maybe when they come down in price, if they were used parts id get them in a heartbeat. My dinan on my 330 was 899 from Dinancars.com.... got it for 450 used. Def worth the 450, NOWHERE near worth 900!!!

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by Satalite

If you do the math Exhaust + Intake = 8 total HP @ 1700$ not installed If you have the money and prefer OEM go for it! Its all paid for with the warranty of the parts haha.

No doubt the parts are expensive, but you can still save a heap of money if you DIY. The parts will still be warranted (2 years I believe) but the labor won't be.

[AlwayzUnce]

put the injen on this afternoon... the car sounds soooo much better! with the bms tune, the car has come to life.

Tomorrow morning i will have the magnaflow exhaust installed and hopefully take a video tomorrow afternoon!

[IDriveACamryNow]

I have a german 125 to 130 power tune and have the perf. intake. I have swapped the perf. one back to the stock intake and it makes very little difference in performance. The perf. intake has a sound generator but doesnt actually result in greater hp. My advice would be to divert that money to a good coil-over suspension.

[Momomkz]

I've had the injen intake for about a year now and it has been great. Nice sound and better gas milage

[Boxtyp3]

Looks and sound: Injen or AFE. Budget: BMS. Performance: BMW Performance.
Just my $0.02.

[ulrichd]

I decided on the BMW Perf Exhaust over the intakes. The online sound clips were not to my liking and some people have reported droning at certain rpm levels.

[AlwayzUnce]

Originally Posted by ulrichd

I decided on the BMW Perf Exhaust over the intakes. The online sound clips were not to my liking and some people have reported droning at certain rpm levels.

the injen droned a bit before i got the exhaust... doesnt drone at all

[Xyloft]

when I put a CAI on one of my previous cars, I got a significant MPG increase. Anyone have any experience with MPG for these intakes?

[Bimmer-Bob]

Slight increase for sure. Maybe a couple mpg. But I do almost no highway driving.

[ethermal]

Horrible droning with the injen. To the point I had to remove it after two months. Appeared to be some throttle response increase but that was about it. And in all honesty looked really ghetto on the car. If you are considering an injen I would recommend going to a local meet up and either driving and or getting a ride in a car with the injen installed. Not everyone can hear droning so you have to hear it for yourself. I would suggest sitting in the passenger seat and hold partial throttle at or around 4000 rpms and you will hear it at its worst. At wide open throttle there wasn't much problem it was all at partial throttle.

[Xyloft]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

Slight increase for sure. Maybe a couple mpg. But I do almost no highway driving.

Yeah i'd like to increase my daily driving. I just got 31.5 mpg on a pure highway drive (4.5 hours). but my typical mileage is 26ish.

kind of curious right now, but not seriously considering yet.

[Riley1524]

Originally Posted by ethermal

Horrible droning with the injen. To the point I had to remove it after two months. Appeared to be some throttle response increase but that was about it. And in all honesty looked really ghetto on the car. If you are considering an injen I would recommend going to a local meet up and either driving and or getting a ride in a car with the injen installed. Not everyone can hear droning so you have to hear it for yourself. I would suggest sitting in the passenger seat and hold partial throttle at or around 4000 rpms and you will hear it at its worst. At wide open throttle there wasn't much problem it was all at partial throttle.

I concur with you on this post. My friend bought the injen for his 2011 128 and the noise it made was horrible at certain rpm's, plus there didn't seem to be any gain at all or if there was, it wasn't noticeable. He took it off after a month and I can't say I don't blame. IMO, I would save the money for suspension/wheels and or cosmetics for the 128. There is no mod worth the money or time spent to get a noticeable gain unfortunately when it comes to performance.