BMW Performance Intake vs. K&N

[Sherifftruman]

People hydro-lock MINs al the time with stock intakes. Usually when the water is about a foot deep and another car comes the other way to create a wave. Now, it is silly to drive a MINI in 12 inches of water, but usually people think it is only a couple of inches and it gets deeper.


AS far as where the air comes from, on MINI's they pretty much found out that with the supercharger, the air heated up so much that the intake temp was not as important as they thought and if you could bget better flows it made a good trade. Now, a big a$$ intercooler helps in this area more than where the air comes from.

[ChrisK]

Originally Posted by M3_Dust

I prefer not to trade my efficient factory external cold air ram intake for one that gets it's air from inside the engine bay. I have seen them make some glory numbers on the dyno with the hood open and fans blowing on it, but in the real world/everyday driving, they suffer from heat soak and compromise engine performance.

SRI (Short Ram Intakes) are the worst for heat soak. I had one in my Civic Si and it was terrible. I agree with you. Unless I see something that blows my socks off I will stay stock.

[adc]

Originally Posted by chriskurn

SRI (Short Ram Intakes) are the worst for heat soak. I had one in my Civic Si and it was terrible. I agree with you. Unless I see something that blows my socks off I will stay stock.

That's a perfectly accurate conclusion for your Civic, perhaps. My ECIS had it's own airbox and was completely sealed against engine heat. :iono:

[kevintran]

I had my share of intakes on my civic si, i had an SRI, the heat soak sucked ass. Now i have a CAI intake and thats not to bad. I still prefer my stock air box. better for driving around the city.

I wouldnt imagine that 1 would need a cold air intake.

It really depends on where you live. I live in Vancouver were it rains all the time and my filter location driver side bumper) makes it foul really fast. and changing or cleaning that filter is a PITA. Stick with stock, or get a better flowing filter (K&N) if you feel like you need to mod something for that 1 extra pony.

[ronnyek]

I can not begin to stress how many dyno comparisons I've seen on stock turbo cars vs their aftermarket intake counterparts, and it seems to come to the following conclusion....

Increases the noise, but unless you have got supporting mods to the point where the intake is actually a restriction (Higly doubt that will be the case for a decent amount of horsepower) all you'll get is more noise, and *MAYBE* a few ms decrease in spool time. (the 135 is fully spooled at what 1500 rpms or something?)

Have the supporting mods, or some high HP goals, go for it, otherwise if you dont care about the noise it would seem like a better idea to spend money elsewhere.

(also been problems with maf's, tuning and other areas with aftermarket intakes etc)

[BIMMERMAN11100]

Having modded an mk 3 supra, 944 turbo and my beloved and now gone STI. I have had many experiences modding and tinkering with intakes....ONLY ONE gave me measured dyno HP. It was on my STI running 25lbs of boost on an fp red turbo and we used a PERRIN Maf (larger housing diameter on the af. meter) and then tuned it according to its flow while measuring on a wideband. This experience taught me that you can get hp from an intake but one must spend money on all supporting mods first.

" You can't swing the chucks with bruce lee until you have first twirled the bo staff with napoleon dynamite !"

Mr 2C

UR downpipes ; jb 2, cdv and dp fix are all in hand awaiting the car to arrive June 14th- Yeah ! let the modding and the quest for fire begin soon !

[BattleWagon]

Originally Posted by crzy4135i

I'm tired of K&N oil and will use oem paper filters. I think you would be surprised at how well many oem paper filters flow, assuming they're clean.

Paper elements flow fine when new. However, their restrictions levels go up exponentially as they load up with particles. And that happens pretty quickly too as they rely on tiny holes to catch the debris and those holes clog up fast.

That is why paper elements have so many pleats in order to have enough surface area available for air flow as it loads up with debris.

[Thud]

Isn't there something that can be done with the OEM intake to get a little more turbo sound? I'm not going to do heavy modding... but anything that's cheap or free to improve the sound (like the "golf tee mod") are fair game.

[boostin]

Originally Posted by M3_Dust

that's not true at all, BMW spends billions engineering every aspect of their cars and especially the engines, in many cases with their newer cars, there is no superior aftermarket intake and some will even lose you power, especially on the E46 M3. Your best bet is to improve the efficiency of the stock system, just do a less restrictive replacement panel filter.

this is completely false. a true cold-air intake will always provide gains. however, sometimes the car needs to be tuned after the intake is installed to see the gains. stock airboxes are muffled for no noise and the filters are crap compared to a cone-style filter. people who say intakes don't do anything are mistaken. it goes back to the days when people with factory turbo cars would put an intake on and nothing would happen, or they would start seeing lean conditions; this was because no one realized that turbo cars with aftermarket intakes require a TUNE to reap the benefits.

-Chris

[boostin]

Originally Posted by Balls

Only one I'd consider. It's "factory" and will improve air flow (and sound too). Too many aftermarket types run the risk of sucking water into the engine (such as the one in the pic that runs right down to the bottom of the engine bay). No thanks...

i've had cold air intakes on all three of my cars. they all extended down to about 7" off the ground. i currently have one in my S2000 and i modded the front bumper so the filter gets a ram-air type effect (not sure if it does anything) but the point is, the filter has been exposed to open air for the past 4 years (70k miles) through rain, snow, dirt and everything else. in my experience, as long as you're smart enough to avoid puddles, you're good to go.

-Chris

[boostin]

Originally Posted by Thud

Isn't there something that can be done with the OEM intake to get a little more turbo sound? I'm not going to do heavy modding... but anything that's cheap or free to improve the sound (like the "golf tee mod") are fair game.

i would add the bms filter kit. all it is is putting on a cone-style filter. wrx's have a free mod called the "snorkus delete" where you remove a silencer in the factory intake and you start to hear some spool from the turbo and the factory BPV gets a little louder. however, i'm not sure if this can be done on the 135i.

-Chris

[M3_Dust]

Originally Posted by boosted

this is completely false. a true cold-air intake will always provide gains. however, sometimes the car needs to be tuned after the intake is installed to see the gains. stock airboxes are muffled for no noise and the filters are crap compared to a cone-style filter. people who say intakes don't do anything are mistaken. it goes back to the days when people with factory turbo cars would put an intake on and nothing would happen, or they would start seeing lean conditions; this was because no one realized that turbo cars with aftermarket intakes require a TUNE to reap the benefits.

-Chris

naa, you are the one who is wrong. I take it you have an E46 M3 and have tested different intakes as well as reverse-engineered the stock airbox?

[mtla4]

The thing is that often people tend to drive a car like it was a tank. A modded car needs a different style of driving. How many times did I heard people say :the car is leased I dont care or Its under warranty. No wonder they hydrolock their engine driving thru a (lake). Like the guy said above gotta be smart.

[adc]

If BMW offers its own performance intake, then surely the stock airbox has some room for improvement?

[M3_Dust]

Originally Posted by adc

If BMW offers its own performance intake, then surely the stock airbox has some room for improvement?

maybe, the OEM CSL airbox is more efficient than the standard M3 airbox. maybe it's just BMW being smart with their new performance products and realizing they have a great opportunity to take even more money from their customers.

either way, I'll probably consider the BMW performance intake, if it doesn't lose power and makes the engine sound better.

[Ultimate Racing]

Originally Posted by mikeo

Maybe Ultimate Racing will do a CAI for the 135i similar to the 335i version below.

Coming soon...

Darryl
www.ultimate-racing.com

[KSAF]

There is no BMW Performance intake for the 135 or 335. It will only be available for the 125, 325, 330.

[JohnnyTT]

Originally Posted by KSA 135

There is no BMW Performance intake for the 135 or 335. It will only be available for the 125, 325, 330.

Not according to this.... LINK

[Hypnoz]

Unless you are getting aftermarket turbos, the intake is the last thing you should be looking at for power. The stock one is MORE than sufficient. They are a complete waste of money and can mess things up. I had an intake that rubbed against wires and made my ignition cut out. That plus the water factor, and they have been known to cause idle issues on some cars. Just in general they, at best, give you a few hp in real world conditions but the costower ratio is horrible. The risk factor just eliminates it from even being a legitimate option in my mind.

[curtdragon]

Originally Posted by JohnnyTT

Not according to this.... LINK

I wish they would show a picture of it

[boostin]

Originally Posted by Hypnoz

Unless you are getting aftermarket turbos, the intake is the last thing you should be looking at for power. The stock one is MORE than sufficient. They are a complete waste of money and can mess things up. I had an intake that rubbed against wires and made my ignition cut out. That plus the water factor, and they have been known to cause idle issues on some cars. Just in general they, at best, give you a few hp in real world conditions but the costower ratio is horrible. The risk factor just eliminates it from even being a legitimate option in my mind.

I disagree. As long as your intake is from a reputable company with known customers, there shouldn't be any fitment issues like you mentioned with wiring. The only intakes I have heard of that create stalling symptoms are the big-MAF based intakes for cars. The modification of the MAF causes the problem. However, our car isn't MAF-based so thats not a problem. Worst case scenario, you cause a lean condition and have to get it tuned, which you'll get power from anyway.

-Chris

[boostin]

Originally Posted by M3_Dust

naa, you are the one who is wrong. I take it you have an E46 M3 and have tested different intakes as well as reverse-engineered the stock airbox?

No, but it is generally accepted that a higher-flowing air filter (than stock) will add power as well as if you can locate it somewhere low in the front bumper or fender. You really believe that no one can come out with a better designed air intake than OEM?

-Chris