[sflgator]

FYI - this is what Rixst3r said about an intake on a stock car...

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpo...8&postcount=19

So, again, if accurate, then a tuned 335i (running higher boost) with a DCI should gain more power than a stock 335i with a DCI or at the very least, not have a loss of power.

[aab3218]

Originally Posted by sflgator

FYI - this is what Rixst3r said about an intake on a stock car...

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpo...8&postcount=19

So, again, if accurate, then a tuned 335i (running higher boost) with a DCI should gain more power than a stock 335i with a DCI or at the very least, not have a loss of power.

Is there a prize for most posts about this intake? I lost count but you are over 30 posts about it?

[sflgator]

Originally Posted by aab3218

Is there a prize for most posts about this intake? I lost count but you are over 30 posts about it?

Aren't you going to insult my wife again or something? Who are you, the Forum "Post Counting Nazi?" STFU.

[mJ335]

Originally Posted by aab3218

Is there a prize for most posts about this intake? I lost count but you are over 30 posts about it?

Uh oh.. the troll is back

[exidisjon]

Just installed the dual cone today after reading all the bad reviews about it. Had no choice and installed it.BUT NO REGRETS.
I had a drive for about 70miles and 70 miles back. The first 70 miles on the highway the car didnt feel any differnt than stock or maybe felt a bit lose in power. Or somewhat flow wasnt all smooth.
The 70 mile back was a different story. The car feels alot more responsive and sound is just WORTH $400 IMO. The power you can really feel as well at high RPM's and low RPM. Im running just the dual cone from AFE and SSTT. The car lacked a bit of high rpm power before the intake but now i feel the car feels a lot more responsive at cruising speed and at low speed.
IMO i think the car defitnitley needed the 50+ miles to adapt to the car.
Overall i love my new dual intake.
Thanks **********.~

[vasillalov]

Being a VW/AUDI gearhead for over 7 years, having first hand experience with 4 different intake systems on VAG cars and having seen tons and tons of dyno results with various intake systems I can safely say the following:

* AFE intake systems and AFE drop-in filter replacements are junk!

Way back when they first started selling intake products, they were selling foam filters which turned out to be massively restricting. A mechanical engineer in the VW/AUDI community tested over 13 different filters on a flow bench. The afe filters were always the most restrictive ones. Afe filtering efficiency is really low. People keep talking about surface area of the filter but in actuality, it is the actual flow capability per square inch, that gives you the true performance.

Air velocity is another very important factor when taken into the context of filtration. Most filters DO NOT perform linearly with different speed of the air. Paper filters for example give you best results for slow and mid range air speeds. At higher rpms and speeds where the air velocity in the intake is higher, paper filters will not perform as good because they become too restrictive. On the other hand, most aftermarket drop in filters will perform slightly worse at low rpm compared to paper filters. Their gains are mostly seen at higher air velocities.

K&N filters on the other hand achieve higher performance than paper filters because they are less restrictive. The price however is that more particles are able to pass through the K&N filter and thus enter the engine. Also, K&N filters clog up really fast (about 1 year) and can never be restored to original state EVEN with the recharge kits.

So basically, the trick is to find the best intake system, simply boils down to finding the best filter. By BEST I mean a filter that will give you adequate filtration and at the same time offer performance over the widest powerband.

After years of experiments and dyno testing, it has been determined that the best performing intake system OVER THE LARGEST POWERBAND is a stock airbox, gutted, and smoothed down and sanded down and a quality OEM filter.

That's just my $0.02

[rummy]

Stunning. I'm glad I found this thread.

Now, how about those scoops that bring in outside air a little more? Are they more effective?

[cstavaru]

Originally Posted by Driver72

I got 3-4 rwhp peak gain from just the drop in, and as much as 10 rwhp gain in other areas of the curve.
Others have shown no gain with drop in. But overall, I think 2-4 rwhp peak gain from drop in is normal.

+1. I have a Helene filter and I got a 4whp gain on a car with BMW Power Kit installed (293 vs. 297).

Unless the intake is a Mr. 5-style intake or Dinan intake, don't bother.

[klipseracer]

People, realize what you're saying. You're trying to say that, "Oh, the AFE would perform better with proper airflow".... But are you saying the Stock airbox with the 'ram air' effect wouldn't also perform better? Because the AFE is not using the ram air as a contained, sealed system, then it loses efficiency when you compare that to the stock airbox... With high speed airflow or not, the stock airbox will perform better with no airflow(obviously as seen on dynos and common sense tells us hot air is bad) as well as in motion, because the same airflow you are counting on helping the AFE perform better is also more efficiently adding performance to the stock airbox. DCI's Suck. Quit adding them to your car just because you call it a mod and its cheap. Go with the stock airbox with a drop in, or go the Mr. 5 route or go like me and sniz and get a CAI. These vendors are just selling you this sh*t. $400 for two cones? Puhleease.

[techlogik]

Haha...that is about right.

Everyone on the M3Forum would tell you that the E46 M3 stock air filter and box was the best performing...doesn't surprise me one bit.

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

Originally Posted by klipseracer

People, realize what you're saying. You're trying to say that, "Oh, the AFE would perform better with proper airflow".... But are you saying the Stock airbox with the 'ram air' effect wouldn't also perform better? Because the AFE is not using the ram air as a contained, sealed system, then it loses efficiency when you compare that to the stock airbox... With high speed airflow or not, the stock airbox will perform better with no airflow(obviously as seen on dynos and common sense tells us hot air is bad) as well as in motion, because the same airflow you are counting on helping the AFE perform better is also more efficiently adding performance to the stock airbox. DCI's Suck. Quit adding them to your car just because you call it a mod and its cheap. Go with the stock airbox with a drop in, or go the Mr. 5 route or go like me and sniz and get a CAI. These vendors are just selling you this sh*t. $400 for two cones? Puhleease.

I agree, the stock air filter, matched with atleast a K &N should perform very well, especially using Mr. 5's addition.

The question is... with the addition of methanol, does it really matter?

Meaning, does the DCI move more air though, I think the answer is yes, in which Methanol as we know will cancel out the heat soak, and the DCI I believe should bring in more air then a stock intake is capable of, so it would yield beneficial in that regards?

Thats my logic right now.....

If a stock intake with a K&N can flow better then 2 DCI, im all ears.

[M3 Eater]

instead of a dyno....which can be subjective, can we just do 1/4mile run comparison. 20-90mph pulls, 40-90mph pulls etc.

Take several cars, some with downpipes (catless), some tuned, some with scoops and do (5) 1/4s. then add the aFe intake and do 5 more.... average the times and presto.... we have real world applications, with air flowing into the car the way it would on the road. The # of trials would cancel out any tire spin or traction loss in certain runs and as long as each run was as close to WOT as humanly possible could we not determine if the aFe intake improves performance? This could easily be done with any intake and if you wanted to, use a G box or a Dynolicous program on i-phone to show that this intake improves this set up by this much, that set up by that much, has no effect on this set up etc. It would be easy, it would be fun and it would give us all some hard data that meant more than just #s on computer screen. I would like to see on car with a tune and and intake out pull a car with just a tune...that to me is real world quantifiable results.

[howiedds]

Originally Posted by M3 Eater

instead of a dyno....which can be subjective, can we just do 1/4mile run comparison. 20-90mph pulls, 40-90mph pulls etc.

Take several cars, some with downpipes (catless), some tuned, some with scoops and do (5) 1/4s. then add the aFe intake and do 5 more.... average the times and presto.... we have real world applications, with air flowing into the car the way it would on the road. The # of trials would cancel out any tire spin or traction loss in certain runs and as long as each run was as close to WOT as humanly possible could we not determine if the aFe intake improves performance? This could easily be done with any intake and if you wanted to, use a G box or a Dynolicous program on i-phone to show that this intake improves this set up by this much, that set up by that much, has no effect on this set up etc. It would be easy, it would be fun and it would give us all some hard data that meant more than just #s on computer screen. I would like to see on car with a tune and and intake out pull a car with just a tune...that to me is real world quantifiable results.

This needs to be done on 1 car only. Too many variables from different cars. Same car, same conditions, same adaptation time, same cool down time, hood down. Thats the only way to truly see if there is a gain or loss.

[RoundelM3]

So is AFE's claim flywheel horsepower or wheel horsepower? Big diff...but still dubious. I like mine and I don't think it's losing any power, but I don't care enough to go to the trouble of putting it on a dyno...plus, there's many variables involved. I had an AFE on a 330iZHP and it worked far better than the stock intake. I've always used the oiled cotton filters, though, as they flow nearly twice the air of the dry filters.

[pturbos]

I noticed a slight drop after installing the afe dual cone intake pro 5R. Did a dyno of before and after and noticed that with the RPI scoops installed I gained 9 rwhp. The Stock intake box really does flow air into the engine, and when adding the afe kit it basically looses a lot of that air. After installing the scoops I have noticed my engine is running a lot cooler as well as gained some power. Get some RPI scoops, way better than the afe scoops imo.

[vase330]

It might cost your left fore arm, but just do what I did, get the Dinan CAI, you'll love it, and it honestly blows away everything else in the market. Its the one and only true CAI worth having IMO. And yes I am not a fanboy, the proof is I have bought major mods from Vishnu, AR and even HPA.