Best Intake For 135i N54

[Freon]

Originally Posted by Suds

...in the end the boost controller will limit how much boost is created, so the car would create the same horsepower.

If I were to take your viewpoint, getting downpipes or an exhaust system wouldn't increase power either. But it seems empirically they do, even without being tuned, so something is wrong with this logic.

The less pressure ratio the turbo has to produce for the same end airflow or boost, the less exhaust energy and pressure required, and the less backpressure on the engine, and better the efficiency. It's exactly the same reason an exhaust increases power.

Airmass in the intake equals airmass out the exhaust... It's all one system, and efficiency equals power.

[sgrinavi]

Hey All - not to drag up old threads, but does changing to a DCI impact your warranty?

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by sgrinavi

Hey All - not to drag up old threads, but does changing to a DCI impact your warranty?

Some will dispute this with various federal warranty statutes, but IMO any modification can cause your dealership to deny a warranty claim. It all depends on the dealer and the nature of the work being done. For instance, I took my car in for some pretty simple (o2 sensor replacement, new oil, plugs, hvac filter) work about 2 months ago, at the time I had just uninstalled Cobb the day before and was running catless mids, axle-back, dci, and fmic. My SA is pretty cool, but for whatever reason they were not thrilled about the dci, and told me i'd have to remove it before they could do any work. I showed up with the stock airbox, and they let me do it right there, 20 minutes later all was well. Work was done under CPO no question, they didn't say a word about the FMIC or anything else. And it's not like they didn't see it, to get to the O2s you're in the downpipe area, so the midpipes+ 7" FMIC would be clear as day. Some dealers will deny warranty work due to a drop in filter, others will have no issue with FBO, it's a risk you have to hedge. Sorry for the inconclusive answer, but that's just how it goes. If I were you i'd just put the stock box back on for warranty work, it's not too big a hassle if you take the cowl/hvac off. Better safe than sorry.

[sgrinavi]

Originally Posted by 135Pats

...Sorry for the inconclusive answer, but that's just how it goes. If I were you i'd just put the stock box back on for warranty work, it's not too big a hassle if you take the cowl/hvac off. Better safe than sorry.

Thanks, I appreciate the thorough response. I'll probably just go with a drop-in and swap it out when I take in for "scheduled maintenance" / warranty work

[Triple M]

I wonder if anyone has experience with the Dinan intake which expands on the oem setup, with that accessory duct. A little different from all the other system (almost as crazy as the E92 M3 setup, without the hood duct). Just a thought

[1sooperfresh1]

im a huge fan of the dci

[The1]

Originally Posted by Triple M

I wonder if anyone has experience with the Dinan intake which expands on the oem setup, with that accessory duct. A little different from all the other system (almost as crazy as the E92 M3 setup, without the hood duct). Just a thought

I ditched the DCI setup for the dinan and never looked back. I couldn't stand the heat soak on the DCIs

Half the people here will argue till they are blue in the face that there isn't any heat soak on the DCI intakes, yet they haven't tried another setup to speak from experience. I would do any aftermarket true cold air over a short ram or just filters stuck on an inlet any day. Yes, I have experienced all and on multiple cars.

The dinan is an expensive route, but it looks good and it works. And weighs nothing...

[Freon]

Originally Posted by The1

I ditched the DCI setup for the dinan and never looked back. I couldn't stand the heat soak on the DCIs

Half the people here will argue till they are blue in the face that there isn't any heat soak on the DCI intakes, yet they haven't tried another setup to speak from experience. I would do any aftermarket true cold air over a short ram or just filters stuck on an inlet any day. Yes, I have experienced all and on multiple cars.

It's easy enough to log this stuff! Plenty of people have, and I don't think the intake temp difference is significant. These vauge references to "experience" could just as easily be your confirmation bias after spending hundreds on an intake that you'd like to be justified... Empiricism trumps yours vague references to "experience"

My worst intake temp after idling in the staging lanes at the drag strip on a hot day for several minutes was barely 100F.

It was much worse with the short ram intake on my Subaru. But their engine bay is not the same. The N54 has all the exhaust parts on the opposite side of the engine bay. Subaru short ram intakes put the intake right on top of the cylinder head and behind the radiator. So, yes, I understand why someone may at first think this is a big problem.

[The1]

Originally Posted by Freon

It's easy enough to log this stuff! Plenty of people have, and I don't think the intake temp difference is significant. These vauge references to "experience" could just as easily be your confirmation bias after spending hundreds on an intake that you'd like to be justified... Empiricism trumps yours vague references to "experience"

My worst intake temp after idling in the staging lanes at the drag strip on a hot day for several minutes was barely 100F.

It was much worse with the short ram intake on my Subaru. But their engine bay is not the same. The N54 has all the exhaust parts on the opposite side of the engine bay. Subaru short ram intakes put the intake right on top of the cylinder head and behind the radiator. So, yes, I understand why someone may at first think this is a big problem.

A few hundred dollar difference isn't enough for me to try and convince other people that its best because its most expensive, that is an asinine comment and I'm not sure why, but that comment is you making something simple into a personal attack.

The short rams on the subarus was the least of their problems with having an intercollegiate sitting on top of the engine. No car will ever heat sink as much as a wax/sti unless you put a front mount on it, then the short ram would be the main problem, and a big one at that, but again an irrelevant point as we aren't talking about subarus.

My personal experience (which the previous poster was asking about) was my experience. I rand 2 different N54 engines with DCI setups on each, and I experienced heat soak. Often. I got tired of it, and got the Dinan. I don't know if I gained or lost power with the setup, and I didn't care, I wanted the same power always, and that is what I got, consistency.

Again, this was my opinion from my experiences. Sorry they stubbed your toes . they were never meant to be taken as anything more then that.

And sorry, I can't data log it, I sold it. And would I data log it if I had it? No, I'd rather be just driving and not farting about trying to prove someone wrong, I have better things to do with my life, like taking a girl out for her birthday dinner and a sleep over

[Tee-Dub]

Originally Posted by The1

A few hundred dollar difference isn't enough for me to try and convince other people that its best because its most expensive, that is an asinine comment and I'm not sure why, but that comment is you making something simple into a personal attack.

A few hundred dollars? I looked these up today, damn things are $1300 bucks! That is a heck of a lot of money for an intake!

[Triple M]

I think eveyone made a good point. I've definitely made a lot of mistakes on my modding journey (paid a grand for beautiful ar design HFC, only to get the code I didn't want, now going catless & selling. Great deal on light weight sparco seat that didn't fit). I live in Las Vegas (110-120 degree isn't uncommon, and LOTTA HEAT is definitely an issue in this neck of US of A when tracking). I definitely noticed inconsistencies at MFEST VI (Both dragstrip & road course) with the afe DCI I installed hoping to make some progress in performance (went back to the drop-in after sweating the heat, dealing with bugs etc). Cheaper isn't always better, and more expensive isn't always necessarily better either. Guess the best we can do is keep researching, that's why after 3 years I'm still looking for ways to do better than my drop-in afe (before my nickel & diming adds up again) especially after going almost full bolt on

[Gunzaro]

The flash tuners (that do NOT market / actively sell intake systems) I have asked all recommend a drop-in for their standard tunes. Unless you are going for big power than the stock intake is fine. I have tried DCI out and it felt worse to me in hotter weather back to back with the stock intake+drop-in. Was hoping otherwise as I spent money and time on the DCI but now run the stock intake+drop-in with my flash tune.

[The1]

Originally Posted by Tee-Dub

A few hundred dollars? I looked these up today, damn things are $1300 bucks! That is a heck of a lot of money for an intake!

Didn't realize they were that much now. Wonder if they've been marked up? I paid closer to 1k for mine (yes still expensive)

And I said a few hundred because I was using someone else's words, I didn't want to correct them and give them more useless ammunition.

The Dinan setup comes with a drop in filter and a cone filter, it optimizes both setups. (Or try's too)

There isn't a lot of people running the system because they thought 1000 for an intake was too much, and I can understand why. That's a lot of money that can go towards bigger power adders. Even if it did make 2hp more then the next best setup (and that wasn't me saying it does) it might not be worth it in many people's eyes for just 2hp.

I was only looking for consistency, and I got what I wanted.

Maybe some cars take to the DCI setup better then other cars, but from my experience on 2 different 135s it wasn't the setup for me as I ran it on both, then gave up.

[The1]

Originally Posted by Triple M

I think eveyone made a good point. I've definitely made a lot of mistakes on my modding journey (paid a grand for beautiful ar design HFC, only to get the code I didn't want, now going catless & selling. Great deal on light weight sparco seat that didn't fit). I live in Las Vegas (110-120 degree isn't uncommon, and LOTTA HEAT is definitely an issue in this neck of US of A when tracking). I definitely noticed inconsistencies at MFEST VI (Both dragstrip & road course) with the afe DCI I installed hoping to make some progress in performance (went back to the drop-in after sweating the heat, dealing with bugs etc). Cheaper isn't always better, and more expensive isn't always necessarily better either. Guess the best we can do is keep researching, that's why after 3 years I'm still looking for ways to do better than my drop-in afe (before my nickel & diming adds up again) especially after going almost full bolt on

Best way to go, can't learn anything by not trying other things. One guy I met had run (if I remember correctly) 4 different intake systems on his car before he was happy, and was still swapping back and forth between 2 because he couldn't decide.

There seems to be a lot of people running the exact same supporting mods on these cars, and when everyone does that, no progress gets made with them as there isn't trial and error.

These cars should be so much further ahead with mods then they are now in my opinion. I feel like people are afraid to take risks with them. Yes, there are a few out there that have tested limits, but very very few.

There's this whole mentality of "this person tested this and this against each other 1 time on different days" the results speak for themselves, there's no alternative and if anyone strays away, they are wrong". And now we have a site full of 135s all running 90% the same setup. Which would be great if we were running NASCAR or Indy. But we are individuals, and our cars should be too.

[RnmEvo9]

I have never tried a DCI setup on my car, but I would say my car does pretty well on the stock box. I always trapped 116-117mph on pump gas with downpipes and fmic, while I regularly do 118-119mph now on the race maps without meth.

[GIACrsa]

Howsit guys, sorry to dig up the past here but i just signed up.
GIAC dealer in SA.
1M with sw, car ran lovely with just a bit of hesitation on the top end (from 5th gear). I assumed it was time to add in some hardware so opted for the aFe dciTook the car for a drive and immediately noticed the diff, with a smile on my face I quickly parked the car in the garage to get back to work that pays.
Couple days later eager to test against other cars that i raced before i noticed that there is a bit of hesitation (surging), thought maybe its getting more air and requires some better fuel. Threw in some race fuel but still surging. Decided to do a test, from cold, i started the car and went for a hardcore drive, was brilliant. On the 2nd run, terrible surging, worse than ever.
Removed the aFe dci, threw the std airbox in and wala, the car is 1000 times more consistant. In conclusion, i think, from experience that the aFe dci is a bad design and thats probably why dey came out with the stage 2 closed box unit.

[The1]

Originally Posted by GIACrsa

Howsit guys, sorry to dig up the past here but i just signed up.
GIAC dealer in SA.
1M with sw, car ran lovely with just a bit of hesitation on the top end (from 5th gear). I assumed it was time to add in some hardware so opted for the aFe dciTook the car for a drive and immediately noticed the diff, with a smile on my face I quickly parked the car in the garage to get back to work that pays.
Couple days later eager to test against other cars that i raced before i noticed that there is a bit of hesitation (surging), thought maybe its getting more air and requires some better fuel. Threw in some race fuel but still surging. Decided to do a test, from cold, i started the car and went for a hardcore drive, was brilliant. On the 2nd run, terrible surging, worse than ever.
Removed the aFe dci, threw the std airbox in and wala, the car is 1000 times more consistant. In conclusion, i think, from experience that the aFe dci is a bad design and thats probably why dey came out with the stage 2 closed box unit.

Consider running a fuel system cleaner. I used to get surging on my 1 series, and put fuel system cleaner in, cleared the problem right up. The cars get terrible buildup.

And I'm one of few people who will agree with you that the DCI is a horrible design, but people here will argue it till they are blue in the face. It's fun.

Enjoy the car, and good luck on the search for a "real" intake if you decide to go that route again

[P7X]

Every time this comes up I look for ppl who have tested and their results show no difference in performance from stock box to DCI. Additionally no higher IATs with a DCI. So contrary to what would seem like a bad setup/location for an intake, real world logs show minimal to no differences. I never got a chance to log my IATs before the DCI but for $80 I can't complain and the noise makes it worth it.

If you're experience heat soak its more of a OEM FMIC issue than a DCI issue. But ultimately do whatever you feel better about

[The1]

Originally Posted by P7X

Every time this comes up I look for ppl who have tested and their results show no difference in performance from stock box to DCI. Additionally no higher IATs with a DCI. So contrary to what would seem like a bad setup/location for an intake, real world logs show minimal to no differences. I never got a chance to log my IATs before the DCI but for $80 I can't complain and the noise makes it worth it.

If you're experience heat soak its more of a OEM FMIC issue than a DCI issue. But ultimately do whatever you feel better about

I was running same front mount intercooler on both intake setups, so this isn't the reason (in my case anyhow, can't speak for others) regarding heat soak. (and in both cases it was an aftermarket intercooler, but again, I can't speak for others)

[gdub]

dci makes car sound like racing car.

[MuNkY6913]

Love the look and sound of the injen DCI. The chrome and blue filters really go with the car. Going to make a fiberglass box to fit around the filters and seal to the hood. Pretty lazy though so that's gonna be a while. Go injen. No regrets.

[Stan.mac]

1-stett
2-afe ver2

that's all for function.