Air intakes ?

[Schmoops135i]

Anyone with experience that can attest to the 27 HP claim of this ?

http://www.bavarianx.com/aFe_Cold_Ai...w.54-11473.htm

[135Pats]

Those gains sound ambitious, I kinda doubt you'd see an additional 30ish whp from an intake, and the BMW OE unit is actually not half bad. There are gazillions of threads on CAIs, and equal numbers of opinions regarding their usefulness. Some think they are helpful, some just like the added sound, and some think they are actually detrimental to engine performance and heat soak. My friend had an AFE unit similar to that on his n54, and it didn't deliver any noticeable change in performance at various speeds and in various conditions.

[int2str]

Originally Posted by Schmoops135i

Anyone with experience that can attest to the 27 HP claim of this ?

http://www.bavarianx.com/aFe_Cold_Ai...w.54-11473.htm

[smw356]

Its actually kind of insulting that they think perspective buyers will believe that bullshit.

[MilehighM3]

Wow, this exact thing gets covered every 6-12 months. Search much? I had that intake (acquired it for free) I would say you loose 10-15hp along with throttle response and increased turbo lag.

[Cozy]

Other than making your bay look neat there's really no point. I'd be more inclined to chuck $100 at Cyba scoops & BMS cones. Not pretty but will do the job, if you don't agree with intakes though then consider a better drop-in filter or the Mr 5 mod.

[Schmoops135i]

THanks for the input. I tried searching intakes, lots of threads obviously but nothing that dealt with this one specifically. Greatly appreciate the input.

[T-Dubbs]

i did the Mr.5 intake, and love it

[IDriveACamryNow]

I have that intake and i am seriously considering removing it.

I went to the dragstrip last night and after one run, the cones were so hot that they could barely be touched. The metal tray that the cones sit on was also blisteringly hot and just seemed to radiate heat straight onto the cones.

Now, what I would want to know is if intake temperatures matter at the filter end or only at the throttle body end? Considering that the turbos will heat the air with their own extreme heat as well as the compression process, does it matter that the intakes are sucking in hot air? Wouldn’t the air entering the FMIC be hot regardless of what it is at the filters?

[Cozy]

Originally Posted by Drawn05

I have that intake and i am seriously considering removing it.

I went to the dragstrip last night and after one run, the cones were so hot that they could barely be touched. The metal tray that the cones sit on was also blisteringly hot and just seemed to radiate heat straight onto the cones.

Now, what I would want to know is if intake temperatures matter at the filter end or only at the throttle body end? Considering that the turbos will heat the air with their own extreme heat as well as the compression process, does it matter that the intakes are sucking in hot air? Wouldn’t the air entering the FMIC be hot regardless of what it is at the filters?

Scientifically speaking, the cooler the air is the desner it is = more oxygen molecules. Cooler air is more compressed meaning that you can fit a greater volume of oxygen into a given space, therefore this would suggest that if your intake air is very hot then your turbo can ingest less of it (than cooler air).

Now, does this mean a thing when it comes to a red-hot turbo sucking it in at 100,000+rpm? I don't know and I'm yet to see a test comparing intake temps (pre-FMIC) with the same filter set up but in two different places in an engine bay. The thing with a turbo is that although it's already damn hot anyway, it's not that which is generally super-heating the air, it's the compression of the air in the compressor housing.

Of course, everything changes at the FMIC but the theory suggests also that you'd be pushing more air after the FMIC than before it as it cooler. The objective of the FMIC is to cool the air pre-combustion chamber, cooler air (greatr volume of oxygen) leads to greater power generated from combustion in the chamber (fuelling will adjust to match this) and less chance of detonation also.

So, when we're talking about filter temps, what we're really talking about is the short route between filter and turbo, nothing more. IMO allowing a turbo to suck in more air/oxygen is never going to be a bad thing, you want more of it right? But like I say, on a motor engine I am yet to see a proper test to show any benefit of cooler pre-turbo air temps.

From experience I can say this. I had a open cone filter on a previous VAG car which was stupidly located right above the turbo. This thing got crazy hot and as a result I noticed that the car felt really boggy in the low rev range when compared to the stock airbox. I went to the trouble of re-routing the air filter via a couple of silicone hoses, I move the filter right into the fender and in direct path of the air feed. I tested old vs new setup back to back with a hard run, pull over in the same spot and feel the filter. The filter in its new location was stone cold and the boggy feeling low down had decreased significantly. I tested engine idle for a period of 15mins, trying to reconstruct traffic, and the filter in its new location was warm due to no forced air via the air feed but it was still noticably cooler than before. Based on this, I would imagine that anyone running an open cone filter on their N54 will have noticed some increased 'lag' low down in comparison to the stock air box and for this reason only I will want to keep with the stock air box + drop-in, do the Mr 5 or get creative and somehow relocated the open cones.

This said though, with the open cone even in its old location I felt that the car was happier to breath in the high rev range and the power drop up top was not as great as stock airbox where the car felt strangled. I managed to prove this by logging the MAF sensor on that car where the grams of air per second shift by the open cone was greater than the stock airbox. Maybe you cannot have the best of both...either a little more low down 'lag' and a freer breathing mid-top end or vice versa.