Cold Air Intake - Is it worth it?

[Jog5000]

I have a 320i E30 (1986). I was wondering if I would get higher performance if I used a cold air intake, attached to my standard filter box? Standard filter, just the cold air feed to the box. Any ideas?

[schneider252]

it dosnt do shit... trust me, I've been there done that.

worry about other things like an M50 engine or sumthin cause a 40 dollor fillter dosnt do shit,at least not by it self.

if u upgrade anything, make it be the suspention to begine with... your car will feel 100% different pluss it will felll soo much faster, especial on those bends

u could think about:

suspention
strieght pipe exhaust
Chip
Cone filter

[BMW Lover]

yah he is right, straight pipe with a good suspension ull have more torque most likely around those turns and ull take them better

[joshh]

Anything thats less restrictive will help. But worth the money...??? 22-27hp is total bs. Maybe 3-4 if your lucky. But if you replace the stock box.

[BMW Lover]

its not like the same hp all the time, it varies with weather conditions...dump the box get a whole kit

[flipsgonetopless]

Well I invested on the whole K&N filter, its definatley a different feel and even a slight sound. I've had it for about 9 months and its a definate, its not like your gonna spend a lot of money on it... I only paid 35 bucks for mine on e-bay and I got top of the line.But I would still consider some other alternatives for power, the intake will only give your car more mpg's.

[bigred318]

yeah u didnt get power from just putting a filter on its all mental, sure the sound changes but added power defintaly not!

DAvid

[BMW Lover]

look what a COLD AIR INTAKE does, is it extends the filter farther away form the motor, so the air it takes in is cooler...and cleaner because most of the time the filters u get with the coldair intake such as k&n increases airflow and it filters it better which in turn produces a better sound and a lil more performance ^_^

[Fox]

Please if you dont know what your talking about, dont talk about it. (Slvr E30iS and schneider252)

First off, if your buying the cone and open adapter plate, it does do something. It increases throttle responce time. It lets the pretube vacuum fill faster making the difference in pressures on opposite sides of the AFM trap door greater. This means the vacuum pulls the trap door open easier and quicker.

Second, i noticed a small jump in torque. Whether this is just from added flow, or just greater air turbulence i dont know but there is a jump in power, though small.

I feel for $40 this is a must try.

As for that straight exhaust... it wont get you torque and its not good for turns. It does add a bump in the 4-5k rpm range but you loose EVERYTHING below 3500 rpms. Ask me how i know this? Because i was a moron and had one built for my car. Now if you were going to put in some high compression pistons or a aggressive cam then it might start doing something for you... but i get the feeling none of you have even thought about that.

Have a nice day.

[BMW Lover]

lol i honestly dont see where i dont know what i am talking about :-?

[Fox]

yah he is right, straight pipe with a good suspension ull have more torque most likely around those turns and ull take them better

[BMW Lover]

aww i thot ur talking bout the cold air shit, yeah i dont kno jack bout exhaust but i was goin on wat i heard, u wana help me out with some exhaust info? imma get one for my car and i ahve a ton of Q's

[saxit2me]

I was thinking of modifying my hood to give it some air intakes kind of like a Pontiac GTO. Only I would want to make them pretty low profile and towards the front edge of the hood. I would make a spring loaded trap door so i could disconnect the air tight tube running to the cone filterjust before popping the hood openI guess it would only be one scoop unless I wanted two to keep it symetrical. I have heard that Ram Air acctually does improve Miles per gallon and helps cars to maintain higher speeds at lower RPMs. Since you really don't get any extra umf until you are doing about 45-50 Mph. So I suppose it is just making beter use of the fuel due to a colder/denser air mixture in the combustion chamber.I was driving a grand am with ram air, and it would go 75-80 at just under 3000 rpm. good gas mileage. Has anyone tried this mod?
As far as water getting in there i think it could be solved with some type of weep hole. Not too big because that defeats the purpose of the air tight tube.

[BMW Lover]

i have seen something done, roughly around your idea, of the hoodscoope thingy...i honestly dont kno anything about mpg on it thoh and the speed ratings at low/high rpms. the way he had it lookd pretty sick! but keep it low profile dont make it look like the ram air pontiac, that will look way ugly...

[Old_School_Bimmer]

I have the panles in my hood i took them off my dads extra parts car for his 87 trans am. it looks really good in my opinion but as for a difference in performance nothin special