[MrTandel]

I am looking at my options for cold air intake and needed some help.

If you guys could give me tips on which cold air intake is the best and why.

I was looking at AFE stage 2 dual intake which adds 27hp....

I have an 07 bmw 335i N54 motor.

Also interested in a performance tuner. I was leaning towards either JB4 or Cobbs flash. Which do you guys recommend?

Are any of the tuning harmful to motor? turbos? etc....?

[skatenc123]

no intake is gonna add 27hp just to put that out there first. theres no need for a cold air as far as i can tell. some people run just drop in filters with no problems. as far as tunes go search theres hundreds of threads.

[135Pats]

Its like every over-asked question rolled in one, search around in the engine section and youll find alot of information to help you out. But no intake will get you that type of gain, so dont be fooled by afes marketing.

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

The AFE numbers are extremely exagerated. That being said there is a plethora of information to go by on here if you search around.

However, that does get old and tiring and lot of information is based on opinions more then facts.

IF you want a true cold air intake the only few that feed cold air in are Dinan, Stett, or AFE Stage 2 elite si or AFE Cold air intake.

Jb4, cobb and Procede are still the top 3 tunes in the world and you will likely get a plethora of opinions about those.

PM me for more information.

[Randomaccess335]

Most power for least $$$$$$
BMS duel cone intake and JB 4.
The other 2 are great also, but a bit more money.
R

[eric@helix]

It's been said many times, but I'll add that with the hood open, and plenty of cold air supplied by a 4000cfm fan, an N54 will gain 8whp when you remove the air filter alltogether on our Mustang MD250 dyno. It's repeatable: filter out, +8whp; filter back in -8whp. This doesn't tell us everything, but it lets you know the kind of upper limits of gain an intake can produce.

[Greatdane84]

Originally Posted by eric@helix

It's been said many times, but I'll add that with the hood open, and plenty of cold air supplied by a 4000cfm fan, an N54 will gain 8whp when you remove the air filter alltogether on our Mustang MD250 dyno. It's repeatable: filter out, +8whp; filter back in -8whp. This doesn't tell us everything, but it lets you know the kind of upper limits of gain an intake can produce.

+1

[hemi to e90]

Originally Posted by eric@helix

It's been said many times, but I'll add that with the hood open, and plenty of cold air supplied by a 4000cfm fan, an N54 will gain 8whp when you remove the air filter alltogether on our Mustang MD250 dyno. It's repeatable: filter out, +8whp; filter back in -8whp. This doesn't tell us everything, but it lets you know the kind of upper limits of gain an intake can produce.

boom goes the truth dynamite

[MrTandel]

I've been reading but theres so much information that conflicts so I dont know what to go with.

Some say cold air intake is pointless because it has to many bends and that restricts flow and by the time air reaches turbos its hot....

Also some say the filters mounted by motor uses hot air and causes horsepower loss.....

Then some companies say there CAI can add up to 27hp.....????

[3-Serious]

Originally Posted by MrTandel

I've been reading but theres so much information that conflicts so I dont know what to go with.

Some say cold air intake is pointless because it has to many bends and that restricts flow and by the time air reaches turbos its hot....

Also some say the filters mounted by motor uses hot air and causes horsepower loss.....

Then some companies say there CAI can add up to 27hp.....????

PM Jeff he will help you decide what is right for you. Great guy and he knows his stuff!

[BQTuning]

Originally Posted by skatenc123

no intake is gonna add 27hp just to put that out there first. theres no need for a cold air as far as i can tell. some people run just drop in filters with no problems. as far as tunes go search theres hundreds of threads.

Originally Posted by Jeff@TopGearSolutions

The AFE numbers are extremely exagerated. That being said there is a plethora of information to go by on here if you search around.

However, that does get old and tiring and lot of information is based on opinions more then facts.

Both of you have grossly misunderstood those numbers. Those numbers are crank numbers. Their claim was 14+ hp and 27+ lbs ft trq these are crank numbers not whp or wtq numbers

On a "mustang dyno" I compared both the stock intake with drop in K&N intake vs the aFe Stage 2 Elite. The aFe Stage 2 SI Elite produced 13 whp and 17 wtq in 93° F/ 93% H over the Stock with K&N Drop in Filter which was dynoed in 86° F/ 82% H. I even got detailed video of the dyno. Cant get more factual than that......

Proof



aFe claims on this product was fairly accurate taking in consideration the temps. The rule of thumb there is a 16%-18% power loss in the drive train when doing dynos. If this was done on a dyno jet the numbers would be higher

Originally Posted by MrTandel

I've been reading but theres so much information that conflicts so I dont know what to go with.....

One thing to know when learning anything from these forums. Some of it are people's own "prejudice" to justify the cheap route they took and those who will agree that the picture is black when it is white so sales will continue.

Furthermore, aFe did not claim 27 hp on the Stage 2 elite SI that you made mention of. Their claim was 14 hp and 27 lbs ft torque. This is crank power, wheel hP and wheel torque is about 16%-18% less than the crank output.

The purpose of a cold air intake, is for "more dense air" to hit the turbos. Thus the turbos can work more efficiently to produce boost vs your DCI that suck less dense air the turbos have to work "harder" to product the target boost.

So ask you self, do you want more efficiency of less efficiency for your turbos ? If your car is a LEASE then pass off what I have said as a grain of salt and get DCI's.

If you want the best of both worlds during cooler weather you can remove the cover to get max air volume and still be able to run the turbos more efficiently over the DCI's

If you do decide to go with the aFe stage 2 Elite get with Jeff, he has better pricing on it

[MrTandel]

Thank you for the response. Really helped!

I think I'm leaning towards the AFE stage 2, because 14hp to crank isnt bad.....