[Rik-330]

I made a few modifications to my air intake this weekend. I needed a new air filter and had a bit of time on my hands so got tinkering. I wasn't doing it for power gains.
It does now have a nicer intake growl and I could say that the throttle response feels snappier, but that could just be me putting my foot down harder to hear the noise. Anyway, I'm happy and that's all that matters

New Pipercross filter -


A ram air tube into the airbox -


The ram air tube goes down beside the front fog light -


Inlet for ram air tube -




Air scoops -


Some holes cut in the airbox to let some sound out (2 vertical rows of holes beside the ram air tube) -

[Dylanize]

Nice man! What parts did you use to do the intake piping stuff?

[ZhengHai]

Nice! Do you notice a difference in sound?

[BRGmatthew]

DIY or didnt happen

[thefull9yards]

Two questions here:
What does the ram air tube do, and how hard was it to put in place?
and
Doesn't drilling the holes in the side defeat the purpose of a sealed cold air intake?

[thefull9yards]

Also, want to grace us with a video of the sound?

[JDane07]

Originally Posted by thefull9yards

Two questions here:
What does the ram air tube do, and how hard was it to put in place?
and
Doesn't drilling the holes in the side defeat the purpose of a sealed cold air intake?

Another inlet to let air into the intake.

Looks awesome OP. Do mine next. lol

[e92ninja]

what kind of box is that

[1QuikWS6]

Originally Posted by e92ninja

what kind of box is that

Euro Airbox - cheaper than the BMW PI, and changing/cleaning the filter with the Euro is much easier as you simply need to remove the top cover - with the BMW PI you still need to remove the entire intake and take the halves apart to change/clean the filter + the PI retains the secondary charcoal filter (unless you dremel it out) while the Euro does not...

[1QuikWS6]

I like the secondary air inlet - similar to the Dinan intake mod

I agree the holes drilled in the housing defeat the purpose of a sealed intake and more than likely will allow hot underhood air to enter - that will probably be overcome by the increased volume of fresh air from the 2nd inlet, but you are still losing pressurized intake system by allowing air to bleed out thru those holes...

Interested as to what type snorkel you used behind the black grill in the bumper where the hose attaches - or did you mod the original in some way?

Did you use 3" dia flex hose, or bigger?

[Rik-330]

Answers to a few of the questions -

What parts did you use to do the intake piping stuff?

It is a 3" diameter, 1 meter long, flexible hose bought off eBay. I also got the trumpet snorkel which the hose fits into that you can see beside the fog light. I added some mesh to stop bugs, etc, entering the tube.

Do you notice a difference in sound?

Yes there is a difference in sound. That was the reason behind drilling the holes - to let a bit a induction sound out. As the new filter went in, the ram air tube got fitted, the air scoops got fitted, the holes got drilled, all at the same time I can't say which specific change contributed most to the sound, but I would imagine most of it is due to the drilled holes.

What does the ram air tube do, and how hard was it to put in place?

As was mentioned, the ram air tube provides a secondary inlet for the air intake.
It was a bumper off job to fit it as I wanted the trumpet snorkel to sit behind the grill in the bumper as it looks much neater. It was then bit of a squeeze behind the headlight to get it to enter the airbox.

Doesn't drilling the holes in the side defeat the purpose of a sealed cold air intake?

I drilled the holes on the side of the airbox away from the engine to try to minimise as much heat going in as possible. I'm not naive enough to say no heat is going in but I reckon the extra cold air now entering the airbox more than compensates. The holes are there to let some noise out which was my intention. If I have now lost 0.5hp I'm not overly concerned.

what kind of box is that

Yup, as mentioned it is a Euro airbox. My car luckily comes fitted with that as standard.

I agree the holes drilled in the housing defeat the purpose of a sealed intake and more than likely will allow hot underhood air to enter - that will probably be overcome by the increased volume of fresh air from the 2nd inlet, but you are still losing pressurized intake system by allowing air to bleed out thru those holes...

This started off as just needing a new filter, which started me thinking about getting an aftermarket induction system, which lack of funds then made me think about experimenting on a budget. I wanted a bit of sound rather than seeking performance gains and if i got a bit of snappier throttle response then great result. Now I don't want to give the impression I now have something that sounds like a $300 induction system as that is far from the case, but for the small outlay and an enjoyable Saturday morning getting the spanners out in my garage whilst blasting out a few metal tunes I'm happy, plus I think it all looks pretty good.

Interested as to what type snorkel you used behind the black grill in the bumper where the hose attaches - or did you mod the original in some way?

The snorkel was got off ebay. Was hard to find one small enough to fit in the space in the bumper and took a bit of modification to get it to fit. I used a hole saw to create the hole for it and it gets held in place nice and tight between the grill and the fog light surround.


And thanks for any positive comments.

[ska///235i]

There might be an issue here, you need to close out the snorkel inlet or else this is useless cuz alot of air is escaping out from the other end.

This will be nice for engine bay cooling but not intake setup, you want the air to go to the manifold

[Rik-330]

There might be an issue here, you need to close out the snorkel inlet or else this is useless cuz alot of air is escaping out from the other end.

This will be nice for engine bay cooling but not intake setup, you want the air to go to the manifold

I've read and re-read this and I'm still not following what you mean .
Can you elaborate please.
Thanks

[andrey_gta]

Very clean mods. I like

[ska///235i]

Yea, didnt make sense lol disregard it

[98RACE]

Originally Posted by Rik-330

Yes there is a difference in sound. That was the reason behind drilling the holes - to let a bit a induction sound out.

Nice mod.

If you want more sound could you not remove the silencer?

[Rik-330]

If you are saying I should do something like a muffler delete in removing the silencer, then no, I'm not interested in that level of noise.

[98RACE]

No just the silencer on the intake tube. I remember seeing a DIY on here.

[benzo23]

Hows the pipercross holding up? Any changes after a few miles on it? Just curious too with it being foam would the chances of it getting damp with moisture increase? That version of the pipercross is dry and non oiled correct? Sorry for all the questions lol

[ZhengHai]

Very nice! I may consider it later in the future.

[Rik-330]

Pipercross is holding up well and i'm still enjoying the sound I'm getting. Yes it is a dry foam filter. I have only opened the airbox lid once after fitting it and there was certainly no moisture in it then. I haven't put a huge amount of miles on it as I've been in Chicago with work for the last few weeks (I live in Northern Ireland).

Going back to a previous post, what is the silencer on the intake tube?

[Mavus]

Originally Posted by Rik-330

Pipercross is holding up well and i'm still enjoying the sound I'm getting. Yes it is a dry foam filter. I have only opened the airbox lid once after fitting it and there was certainly no moisture in it then. I haven't put a huge amount of miles on it as I've been in Chicago with work for the last few weeks (I live in Northern Ireland).

Going back to a previous post, what is the silencer on the intake tube?

Seems like a clean set-up similar to Dinan. Did you use automotive grade tube?

The only negative that I can see is that brake cooling inlet is used but that shouldn't be an issue if you are not tracking. It would be nice if there is a way to utilize the center lower section of the bumper to scoop up additional air to keep the brake cooling intact. Let us know how that filter is holding up after a few K km.