2010 335XI - Just bought the N54 Cobb AP, but did I waste money on the aFe intake?

[Highdefjunkies]

Would love to get some advice (non Sponsors). I just purchased the Cobb N54 AP and along with it, bought the aFe cold Air Intake system (Stage-2, Magnum FORCE PRO 5R 54-11472). There are so many opinions on intakes including people who say they actually lost HP/Torque. (Not sure if it was referring to the one I bought). I'm sure in the future I will go with Stage 2 by Cobb and I'm told I need the intake. The gains they claim seem pretty crazy, 27hp gain and 34 lbs of torque.

However, If if the gains are minimal but will definitely help my car run better, than I'm fine with that. I just don't want to install it if it's a complete waste of $$.

Btw, anyone have a 2010 335xi running stage 1+? Would love to hear your thoughts as well.


Thanks in advance, and have a great weekend!


Christian

[e66man]

The intake is good to have, as long as you didn't pay over $100 for it. :)

The only intake(filter) that is a complete waste of time and money are the drop in K&N filters. For 335's and many other cars as well.

[Highdefjunkies]

The intake is good to have, as long as you didn't pay over $100 for it. :)

The only intake(filter) that is a complete waste of time and money are the drop in K&N filters. For 335's and many other cars as well.


UGH! Oh I paid more than a hundred! Normally 360.00, but since I bundled it with the Cobb AP, I got 120.00 discount. How in the world can they get away with those HP/Torque claims?

So, it's won't do much other than make my car sound better. :(

[sdemetris]

I know the early AFe intakes for the n52 lost power. thats what you might have heard possibly. Otherwise you're probably good with your investment. Theres the usual debate between open vs closed box intake. Whichever you decide on you can do with yours i think. You have the 2 long intake tubes going to scoops right? then you can just take the cover off the box if youre convinced that open intake is better then you'll have pretty much the same setup as the bms dci

[Highdefjunkies]

I know the early AFe intakes for the n52 lost power. thats what you might have heard possibly. Otherwise you're probably good with your investment. Theres the usual debate between open vs closed box intake. Whichever you decide on you can do with yours i think. You have the 2 long intake tubes going to scoops right? then you can just take the cover off the box if youre convinced that open intake is better then you'll have pretty much the same setup as the bms dci

thanks for the response. I didn't purchase the 2 scoops, since the price was a lot higher and was told I can always purchase later.

[handyman13]

UGH! Oh I paid more than a hundred! Normally 360.00, but since I bundled it with the Cobb AP, I got 120.00 discount. How in the world can they get away with those HP/Torque claims?

So, it's won't do much other than make my car sound better. :(

The way that they can claim the HP/torque gains is because when they test it they test it when there is no heat under the hood and with a huge fan not letting any hot air into the intake. So with an intake your letting more air into your engine which means a bigger combustion which means more power. But its better to have a less amount of cold air vs a lot of hot air going into your engine power wise. Hope that made sense

[rbw411]

I have an 09 n54 xi, and stage 1 was amazing with the cobb. Then got the stage 2 with down pipes, already had intake, and it became insane. Highly recommended. I didn't go with the super pricey down pipes from ap. Went with the ones on ebay for like $150, brought them to a custom muffler shop to install (in case of fitment issues). A pain to install, but not because of fitment, they just had to take everything out of the way.

[Ian1973]

Im by no means an expert, but intakes are typically for sound, since you are not removing any more air through the exhaust, trying to stuff more in is futile. The power gains are all with the tune.

[NFerber]

The way that they can claim the HP/torque gains is because when they test it they test it when there is no heat under the hood and with a huge fan not letting any hot air into the intake.

I see your point, but they also do a baseline dyno pull to figure out gains. So the baseline dyno would also be tested under the same conditions. The fan is to simulate driving conditions as best as they can, while driving you are forcing air though the front of the car, resulting in heat transfer from the intercooler, radiator, in addition to air flowing over the engine and cooling that also. So even though you see dynos with the hood open and fans, it isn't cheating, it is to simulate actually driving at speed while stationary on the dyno.



So with an intake your letting more air into your engine which means a bigger combustion which means more power. But its better to have a less amount of cold air vs a lot of hot air going into your engine power wise. Hope that made sense

Intakes have nothing to do with letting more air into the combustion chamber. In a general sense, aftermarket intakes are less restrictive. Which results in less work to pull the air through the filter and into the combustion chamber. And yes, colder air denser then hot air, so you have a better combustion due to the dense air containing more oxygen molecules.

In general, the stock intake for the 335 is very good. On the stock tune, adding an intake does very little. But when you are upping the boost pressure, then an intake is recommended because you are pulling more air through then under stock conditions. Although most people are just running the BMS intake instead of a Cold Air Intake, and are not seeing much advantage of having a CAI

[bplant13]

The intake is good to have, as long as you didn't pay over $100 for it. :)

The only intake(filter) that is a complete waste of time and money are the drop in K&N filters. For 335's and many other cars as well.

Actually, the drop-ins are much better; DCI are a waste of money, and here's why:

First off with the 335i, even with increased boost using a tune, the boost tapers off as RPMs rise, meaning higher RPMs don't require more air as they typically would in a non-turbo car. The big restriction with the 335i is the FMIC. The intake and exhaust are quite amazing, and have been proven they can easily handle higher boost with outputs up to 400bhp.

A drop in, like a BMS or K&N will provide better air flow, which is scientifically proven, similar to the dual cone intake (DCI), or cold air intakes. So when running an aggressive tune, they can help (a very small amount), but not really required.

The downside to a cold-air/dual-cone, is that BMW, and most other performance car manufacturers specifically design their intakes with a purpose. In short, when an intake valve closes on a cylinder, the air bounces back in the opposite direction of flow. The intake is designed, and tuned in length so that this reverse air flow is not only minimized, but directionalized to bounce off another section of the intake chamber, and be timed so that this wave of air hits another intake valve at it's point of opening. This minimizes oscillations in the intake chamber and increases performance. Many aftermarket intake systems claim to be "tuned" but that usually means "built to fit in you engine bay" not tuned with the air flow characteristics of the OEM parts.

Next time you open up an intake box, take a look at the design; are there little pieces of plastic that create fins, channels, or chambers? It's all there for a reason and due to tens of thousands of R&D hours.