[rusty_sojah]

so i'm pretty new to the n54 and having an active read out of my air temp as I've only been operating this 2011 335is with 31k miles for a few months.

on my cobb i just have it displaying the default gauges and I've noticed that the intake & charge pipe air temps (which are almost always identical on mine) can get really high.

all i have so far is a FMIC and cobb v3 on Stage 1 w/ FMIC 91 or sport or whatever it is. the car however is pretty low at about 3" off the ground so i know this will cause a little bit of additional heat from a lack of air flow under the car and the asphalt being so hot.

1st question is are there specific temp gauges i should be looking at, as I believe it is customizable on the cobb v3 but i could be wrong.

2nd question is, i live and drive in a very densely trafficked area in downtown Honolulu. Temps are very consistent at around 86-88 F in the PM commute every day... I have noticed that after a short highway drive (so after achieving normal operating temps) and about 2 or 3 brief 0-40 MPH pulls and sitting in stop and go traffic my charge pipe and intake temp gauge gets up to around 130 average every afternoon commute and yesterday hit 150 F for the first time while idling for 10 minutes at the end of my commute while sitting parked in the sun (white car, top up).

I've noticed that the car doesn't pull as hard in air temps over 130 here maybe also due to the 70 ish % humidity, not sure really...

should i be concerned with 135 ish temps on the cobb display? the oil temp on the car's factory gauge never goes over 250 but seems to get close to it at times maybe 240 ish, when the car is hot.

i have ordered the BMS Cowl Filters and the ECS closed CAI so i'm hoping this will help to cool down the car some, but it may just lead to harder pulls when i get the opportunity

[RSL]

Normal and they'll get worse with the ECS box, which looks nice, but isn't remotely sealed. You'll be starting off with much higher air temps ingested from under the hood. The cowl delete will help keep the bay somewhat cooler, but will never be remotely close to temps pulled in from outside the car. When it comes to intake, it's either completely sealed off from the engine bay or it's not. If it's not, it will be no better than running open DCI under the hood.

FMIC is an air-to-air heat exchanger. When you're not moving, you're not moving cooler ambient air across it and it will equalize to the surrounding temperatures it's exposed to. Similarly, with the cowl delete, it will really only evacuate air when you're moving.

When IATs increase over about 120F, things start getting limited by the DME as a matter of course. As a matter of physics, the hotter IATs are, the less dense the air is, the harder the turbos have to work to make boost (which further increases heat), less power it will make and the more likely it is to knock/pull timing for a given fuel. Hot air going into the intake, turbos and eventually into the motor is power-robbing on a lot of levels. When you're reading it on IATs, it's already been intercooled and is as cool as it's going to get.

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

~238F is normal operating temp for this car on the oil side.

If you want to reduce IAT temperatures you can consider upgrading your intercooler. Keep in mind lack of air flow and traffic driving will heat soak even the best intercooler. Intercoolers need air flow to work.

Your IAT are read pre throttle body, after the intercooler. A closed box intake will help get cooler air to your turbos but the ultimate control of your IAT will come down to your intercooler.

[rusty_sojah]

i believe the CAI i chose is closed;

what say you?

https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-3...l-cone-intake/

and thank you for these explanations, it all makes heap good sense and guess there isn't much else i can do besides the closed CAI and the cowl delete for increasing cooler outside air into the engine when not moving... BTW not moving is so uncool

[RSL]

Originally Posted by rusty_sojah

i believe the CAI i chose is closed;

what say you?

https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-3...l-cone-intake/

and thank you for these explanations, it all makes heap good sense and guess there isn't much else i can do besides the closed CAI and the cowl delete for increasing cooler outside air into the engine when not moving... BTW not moving is so uncool

I say I have one in my car right now and it's not remotely sealed You could drive a car through the gaps around where the inlet tubes enter the box. Stop/go/parked idling IATs are +20-30F higher compared to the actually sealed AFE SI that I previously had and 10F warmer at speed (all on a Wagner Evo 2 Perf). I had planned to make the ECS box air tight myself, but just going to swap back to an AFE at this point and be done with it.

[rusty_sojah]

Originally Posted by RSL

I say I have one in my car right now and it's not remotely sealed You could drive a car through the gaps around where the inlet tubes enter the box. Stop/go/parked idling IATs are +20-30F higher compared to the actually sealed AFE SI that I previously had and 10F warmer at speed (all on a Wagner Evo 2 Perf). I had planned to make the ECS box air tight myself, but just going to swap back to an AFE at this point and be done with it.

damn, well i obviously knew it wasn't going to be 100% sealed but at least didn't think it would be that bad. i wonder if there is a recommended DIY for adding some tape or something around the fittings to try and minimize the air gappage.

so is this CF CAI just all for show then? is it even worth it? i used to have an AFE intake on my last bmw (z4 in pic below) and loved the sound but thought the CF CAI would be better, meh...

[RSL]

Any place in the box that the filters can pull in air from the engine bay, it will. It needs a sealed tract to generate vacuum in the box to pull through the snorkel, which it will not have. Scoops will help force ambient air into the box at speed, but that difference is next to nothing. The temps I quoted earlier are with scoops on both the AFE and ECS.

The lid would be easy to seal, just some Armaflex tape around the inside lip where it fits over the box. About the only way to get it mostly sealed through the tube openings (and not look like total crap) would be with thick closed cell foam around the edge of the opening. You won't get it around the bottom edge of the opening the way the pipes come through though and will still leave a leak.

Yeah, the box is mostly for show unfortunately, they've done zero to actually seal it.

[rusty_sojah]

got my ECS CF CAI in last night. Already did the cowl delete earlier in the day so hopefully it won't take long at all to do the CAI install.

[rusty_sojah]

Well under same driving conditions the car was about 8-10 degrees F cooler the entire commute home and 10 cooler than average when parking the car.

Maybe it is too early to claim such a victory but for the money the cowl delete is a great mod so far. ��

[Jklad]

Originally Posted by rusty_sojah

Well under same driving conditions the car was about 8-10 degrees F cooler the entire commute home and 10 cooler than average when parking the car.

Maybe it is too early to claim such a victory but for the money the cowl delete is a great mod so far. ��

Yeah until water seeps Into your dme box or other electrical component. A better solution than cowl Delete is to convert to the m3 cowls which open up a lot of area. Cowl delete is great for a track day though but I wouldn't daily on it.

[rusty_sojah]

Originally Posted by Jklad

Yeah until water seeps Into your dme box or other electrical component. A better solution than cowl Delete is to convert to the m3 cowls which open up a lot of area. Cowl delete is great for a track day though but I wouldn't daily on it.

so do people who have removed their Cowl not wash their car then or what?

my z4 didn't have it and i took a hose to my engine bay (when cool) a few times without issues. I guess in the e93 without Cowl that is ill advised?

[Cabdriver]

Does cobb have alternate waterpump/cooling strategy settings?

Mhd allows you to select sport and track settings, going to sport drops temps drastically it did for me.
Also, try a water/coolant mixture that leans more towards water as well as a coolant additive like this https://www.hyperlube.com/product/super-coolant/

I also installed this and saw a 10-15 degree drop in oil temp:
https://www.bavauto.com/bmw-sg84006

There is not a lot you can do about idling in high temperatures, coolant and oil temp will rise but if you enter traffic at a lower starting point and are able to shed it quicker once traffic starts moving, you'll have a better experience.

Imo, not a fan of removing the cowl tray, just to many things it protects. Not worth it imo.

[Jklad]

Originally Posted by rusty_sojah

so do people who have removed their Cowl not wash their car then or what?

my z4 didn't have it and i took a hose to my engine bay (when cool) a few times without issues. I guess in the e93 without Cowl that is ill advised?

Just triple check that everything is buttoned up properly. I had my car into Bmw for service and the tech did not properly seal the rear of the dme box. Had I been running without a cowl in the rain I would have been screwed, and I only found it because I wanted to replace my spark plugs a few weeks later. Personally I will be doing the m3 cowl pieces when the time comes, they look better, deal everything, and still allow you to properly filter the air coming into your cabin while getting the cooling benefits

[rusty_sojah]

Originally Posted by Cabdriver

Does cobb have alternate waterpump/cooling strategy settings?


I also installed this and saw a 10-15 degree drop in oil temp:
https://www.bavauto.com/bmw-sg84006

I am not sure about the Cobb cooling adjustments actually but nothing of the sorts jumps out at me when poking around in there.

Ideally I would like to get it tuned locally and have it account for the higher heat and humidity here.

About the oil cooler thermostat thing, do you know if there is any difference between the BAVauto one and the BMS one? http://www.burgertuning.com/sport_oil_cooler_valve.html besides the look and price obviously. i am going to get this probably next week and drop it in as I've noticed my oil temps hitting 250 for me just pulling into the parking garage after a 30 minute commute home. I do push the car a little on about 3 nice straights with the last being just before pulling into the garage which is usually a quick 10-50mph (maybe 60 if no traffic).

if this is nothing to be concerned with i really don't care as much, just noticed that the hood is very warm to the touch when i park the car in the afternoons after oil temps hit around 250 and air temps read 130. thanks all for the recommendations/thoughts...