Thoughts on my dinan cai

[DustenA]

When I bought the car, it was already on the car. My car is missing what I think you guys call pork chops. Basically I can see the filter in the wheel well. Since taking ownership I've fought vacuum leaks and other causes of crappy idle. I've got the pretty sorted now. No codes, no real issues save for one. It tends to have a wandering idle when it rains. Is it possible this is due to the filter getting wet? I've debated going back to stock but wanted thoughts before I tear into the car.

[WBAD530i]

Everyone is going to tell you that your engine will hydro-lock from water going through intake.

I'd suggest get the hydro cover for the filter if you don't already have it, or install some kind of shield/porkchop thing there to protect it. Preferably both to prevent the above.

Or transfer back to stock, continue selling the car like I saw you were trying to do, and sell the CAI seperate for more cheese. Win-win

[DustenA]

Everyone is going to tell you that your engine will hydro-lock from water going through intake.

I'd suggest get the hydro cover for the filter if you don't already have it, or install some kind of shield/porkchop thing there to protect it. Preferably both to prevent the above.

Or transfer back to stock, continue selling the car like I saw you were trying to do, and sell the CAI seperate for more cheese. Win-win

The last statement is my thought. I dont want to buy parts for the car that aren't needed. I just want it reliable.

As for hydrolocking.... I doubt it. I drive this daily(I've put 6500 miles on it since I bought it at the end of March) and I live near Seattle. I get plenty of rain. It would've happened by now. I read all the threads on the intake already. A lot of fear mongering.

[geargrinder]

Ive had trouble w the waggoon sucking water after my amsoil overfilter lost its hydrophobic coating. Stumbles and stalls and all kinda weird symptoms. Would drive the adaptations through the roof in the rain. No hydrolock but not good.

Put the more tolerant K&N w splash guard back And all was well.






.

[DustenA]

That settles it. I'll go back to stock

[MIKYZZ4]

Simple fix.
Stock airbox is designed as a cold air intake by BMW.

[JimLev]

Get a pork chop and you'll be fine. Don't drive thru any 8" puddles.

[cnsorial]

I've got the dinan intake, throttle body, and MAF. I don't drive mine in the rain usually (weekend car) except for a couple times. The day I bought it and was driving it home and on a weekend road trip. Both cases it was like a monsoon outside and I didn't have any problems. I have the dinan water shield thing on top of the filter and intact porkchops. FWIW.

If you go back to a stock airbox, do you have to revert the other dinan accessories to stock as well? (Tune, throttle body, MAF, etc if applicable)


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[geargrinder]

I'm gonna go with what may look like contradictory advice here.. but it's more "balanced opinion".

Simple fix.
Stock airbox is designed as a cold air intake by BMW.

True. I would pretty much guarantee these CAI's aren't really doing much signficant for power. If it actually makes any power you can be pretty sure its not something anyone could ever notice in a blind test. But a lotta unbiased (aka not-by-the-maker) dynos on CAI's vs quality engineered OEM German airboxes show next to no benefit, sometimes even a negative result! Depending on the motor/kit in question of course. We had this stuff all the time when I was in Audiland BTW. Dynos showing that the "big dumb" OEM airbox which "looked" to a layman "super restrictive!" was actually seriously well flow-bench / wind-tunnel engineered and the "obviously common sense" big ass supposedly "free flowing" CAI was worse. All has to do w/ more complex analysis of pressure zones and whatnot I think. On the S54, it's been proven time and again that almost every one of the cool CAI setups are worse than the factory airbox which is far slicker a design than people realize, and that an aftermarket panel filter on those is better than all the crappy cone filter kits. The OEM boxes tend to tap their air from high pressure locations, and even though the inlets look small, they maximize that plus maximize velocity, while 'common sense' CAI's get lower velocities and create weird turbulences.

I will say the Dinan E39 setup has very mild bends and a direct route, so I imagine it's probably reasonably OK, but having seen how little use 'common sense' is on other cars, who knows.

Get a pork chop and you'll be fine. Don't drive thru any 8" puddles.

Also True. Plenty of guys w/ either the Dinan or Dinan knock-off having no troubles, so pretty much can attrib it to being the missing porkchop I think.

I would say I like the clean lines and additional room in the engine bay that the Dinan style setups provide, and I could see going to it / keeping it purely for that reason.

In my case my puddle hassles were with an Amsoil filter of very different design than the ones used here, and that turned out to be a particularly effective water sucker, as I say, once its 'overfilter' lost its magic water-repelling coating.

If you go back to a stock airbox, do you have to revert the other dinan accessories to stock as well? (Tune, throttle body, MAF, etc if applicable)

Nawww I wouldn't imagine so... The tune is more hard-linked to the TB & MAF. Although why you'd run the big TB/MAF w/out the big pipe to feed them I dunno. If you believe any of that stuff does anything then you'd want to stay committed to the whole setup.

If there's water sucking issues then I'd try to resolve first w/ keeping water out of the fender well compartment, and second to shield the filter itself a bit.

I dunno what the Dinan water shield looks like but my VF K&N filter indeed has a 'water box' over it which is back on the car now and its very effective, even though my fender compartment has been opened up to suck air directly from the bumper and therefore see a lotta water.

[MIKYZZ4]

My blunt response to the OP could have used a little more finesse.
GearGrinder comes through with an excellent explanation behind my opinion.

[cnsorial]

I'm gonna go with what may look like contradictory advice here.. but it's more "balanced opinion".



True. I would pretty much guarantee these CAI's aren't really doing much signficant for power. If it actually makes any power you can be pretty sure its not something anyone could ever notice in a blind test. But a lotta unbiased (aka not-by-the-maker) dynos on CAI's vs quality engineered OEM German airboxes show next to no benefit, sometimes even a negative result! Depending on the motor/kit in question of course. We had this stuff all the time when I was in Audiland BTW. Dynos showing that the "big dumb" OEM airbox which "looked" to a layman "super restrictive!" was actually seriously well flow-bench / wind-tunnel engineered and the "obviously common sense" big ass supposedly "free flowing" CAI was worse. All has to do w/ more complex analysis of pressure zones and whatnot I think. On the S54, it's been proven time and again that almost every one of the cool CAI setups are worse than the factory airbox which is far slicker a design than people realize, and that an aftermarket panel filter on those is better than all the crappy cone filter kits. The OEM boxes tend to tap their air from high pressure locations, and even though the inlets look small, they maximize that plus maximize velocity, while 'common sense' CAI's get lower velocities and create weird turbulences.

I will say the Dinan E39 setup has very mild bends and a direct route, so I imagine it's probably reasonably OK, but having seen how little use 'common sense' is on other cars, who knows.



Also True. Plenty of guys w/ either the Dinan or Dinan knock-off having no troubles, so pretty much can attrib it to being the missing porkchop I think.

I would say I like the clean lines and additional room in the engine bay that the Dinan style setups provide, and I could see going to it / keeping it purely for that reason.

In my case my puddle hassles were with an Amsoil filter of very different design than the ones used here, and that turned out to be a particularly effective water sucker, as I say, once its 'overfilter' lost its magic water-repelling coating.



Nawww I wouldn't imagine so... The tune is more hard-linked to the TB & MAF. Although why you'd run the big TB/MAF w/out the big pipe to feed them I dunno. If you believe any of that stuff does anything then you'd want to stay committed to the whole setup.

If there's water sucking issues then I'd try to resolve first w/ keeping water out of the fender well compartment, and second to shield the filter itself a bit.

I dunno what the Dinan water shield looks like but my VF K&N filter indeed has a 'water box' over it which is back on the car now and its very effective, even though my fender compartment has been opened up to suck air directly from the bumper and therefore see a lotta water.

Good info right there GG. I'm not that convinced that they do much despite Dinan's big claims (20 hp for a CAI? Idk about that). However, my car had all the Dinan stuff (aforementioned breathing bits and strut tower bars) since new and it runs great, so I never really had the desire to invest the time and money reverting it back to stock once I got over the fear of hydrolocking.

[DustenA]

Simple fix.
Stock airbox is designed as a cold air intake by BMW.

I have read that. And I didn't put this intake on. I bought it with it.

I've got the dinan intake, throttle body, and MAF. I don't drive mine in the rain usually (weekend car) except for a couple times. The day I bought it and was driving it home and on a weekend road trip. Both cases it was like a monsoon outside and I didn't have any problems. I have the dinan water shield thing on top of the filter and intact porkchops. FWIW.

If you go back to a stock airbox, do you have to revert the other dinan accessories to stock as well? (Tune, throttle body, MAF, etc if applicable)


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I don't have anything else but a dinan muffler. The rest of the car is stock.

My blunt response to the OP could have used a little more finesse.
GearGrinder comes through with an excellent explanation behind my opinion.

You're answer was fine.