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      03-04-2018, 01:43 PM   #1
Anthony1s
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My thoughts on every single intake available.

So these are my thoughts compiled from research I've done into each intake over the last few months. I haven't used any of these intakes, but I don't think that's a reason to why I shouldn't write about them and give my thoughts. I'm also including replacement filter costs, because even though the filters are washable, well more info is never a bad thing. The filter prices come from the MFG of the intake. I didn't feel like figuring out the filter diameter to see what other filters might work with them.

Eventuri
- $1350
- Carbon Fiber
- Open Airbox
- No Heat Shield, but maybe the carbon surround shields some heat.
- Replacement filter - $80

Thoughts - Undesirable, whistling noise after whooshing sound completes. Sounds like someone is blowing across the top of a bottle. I can hear the sound in ALL youtube videos I've seen showcasing the sound of the Eventuri. Check out 3:22 in this video to hear the sound




BMS
- $230
- Plastic tube, which may reflect more heat than metal
- Open Airbox
- No Heat Shield
- Replacement filter - $60

Thoughts - Many many complaints of it throwing a CEL. The posts I saw about this are from 2016/2017, so maybe the issue is resolved now. However, if it was due to bad design/mfg problem, I have not seen anything indicating the intake was updated to correct the problem. CEL can be "fixed", if I understand correctly, by bypassing the MAF with a JB4. From videos I've seen, this intake seems to be the loudest of the bunch.



Injen
- $300
- Metal tube available in wrinkle black or polished
- Open Airbox
- Has Heat Shield
- Replacement filter - $70

Thoughts - Haven't found really any reviews on it. Looks good to me. Has a heat shield and is open airbox for loud sounds. The Injen logo on the tube stands out and therefore is ugly IMO. I don't think it's riveted on, so maybe can peel it off. If not, electrical tape or paint over it. Also, from pictures, it looks like a factory plastic wire cover needs to be permanently removed to install this intake.



aFe
- $650
- Plastic
- Closed Airbox
- Replacement filter - $71

Thoughts - Looks completely ridiculous. Close airbox design, maybe good for cold air intake. Maybe not so good for wooshy turbo sounds.



Gruppe M
- $2500
- Carbon fiber
- Closed Airbox
- Replacement filter - $150-245. Uses a K&N filter, but unsure of the K&N part number. Gruppe M lists it as a RF-3301A filter

Thoughts - $2500 is really fricken expensive. Also it seems to have the same bottle blowing sound the Eventuri has.




Dinan
- $635
- Carbon Tube, Plastic Airbox
- Closed Airbox
- Replacement filter - $50

Thoughts - Closed airbox design. Probably less loud than the open ones like BMS and Injen. The big downside with this intake is that you need to cut up your (suspension?) brace to install this intake.



CTS
- $265
- Metal Tube
- Open Airbox
- Has Heat Shield
- Replacement Filter - $50

Thoughts - The silver metal part behind the filter looks gawdy. I don't know why it's needed and not a one piece tube like the Injen. Also, the logo on the pipe stands out. Both can probably be fixed with paint or a wrap. Lastly, there is a stock plastic wire cover that needs to be discarded in order for this intake to fit, same as the Injen.



Arma
- $1300 or $1700
- Carbon Fiber
- Closed Airbox
- Replacement Filter - ?? Couldn't find any for sale.

Thoughts - The more expensive one uses a "stainless steel valvtronic filter" which they claim "combats the torque loss experienced at low RPM by many aftermarket intakes" Claims are claims, so who the hell knows. Both use a closed airbox design and are made from carbon fiber. Haven't found examples of how this sounds, but I'm assuming carbon fiber is what causes the undesirable bottle blowing sounds in the Eventuri and Gruppe M intakes, so maybe this one has the same sound.



Which would I pick?
Out of all the intakes available, there isn't a "perfect one" that ticks all the boxes for me.

I like the BMS because it looks good enough and is, as far as I can tell, the loudest. The downside is the seemingly likelihood of getting a CEL. It's cheap enough to give it a go and see if I get a CEL. Pretty sure I can return it if there is an issue. And I'll likely be tuning my car in the future, so that could get rid of the CEL, if it did pop up. The problem is that I won't be tuning my car for a while down the road after getting the intake. I think most people are like that. And needing to tune a car just to use a intake ain't cool.

Injen would be my next choice. It looks good and I think would be loud enough. But needing to discard a plastic wire cover bothers me. It's like the intake looks good, but installing it brings out a bunch of unsightly wires. I power wash my engine bays too, so the wires would be an additional thing I'd need to cover before doing that.

Eventuri would be my third choice, but only if the bottle blowing sound is fixed. It's loud and looks good. But realistically, no one is gonna see my engine bay often enough to matter. So I feel like I'm throwing away $1000 if the BMS or Injen are functionally the same.

Hope this post was helpful. Feel free to correct me if I got any info wrong.

Last edited by Anthony1s; 12-05-2021 at 07:36 PM..
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      03-04-2018, 02:05 PM   #2
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My thoughts on every single intake available:

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      03-04-2018, 02:15 PM   #3
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Intakes are pointless and as previously said, most look awful
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      03-04-2018, 02:56 PM   #4
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A K&N BMW M2 air filte $53
Designed to increase horsepower & torque for the 2016 BMW M2 with the 3.0L engine.
Washable & Reusable
This K&N M2 air filter lasts the lifetime of your vehicle.
Million Mile Limited Warranty with use on Street Vehicles

https://www.knfilters.com/air_filter...iABEgItUPD_BwE
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      03-04-2018, 03:23 PM   #5
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You forgot 'Stock'
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      03-04-2018, 03:37 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AGM2 View Post
A K&N BMW M2 air filte $53
Designed to increase horsepower & torque for the 2016 BMW M2 with the 3.0L engine.
Washable & Reusable
This K&N M2 air filter lasts the lifetime of your vehicle.
Million Mile Limited Warranty with use on Street Vehicles

https://www.knfilters.com/air_filter...iABEgItUPD_BwE
If you do buy a drop in filter, make sure it's dry, not oil'd. Oil'd filters fuck up MAF sensors over time and will cause the car to eventually throw codes.
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      03-04-2018, 07:39 PM   #7
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These aren't the responses I thought I'd get lol
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      03-04-2018, 07:43 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewc89 View Post
If you do buy a drop in filter, make sure it's dry, not oil'd. Oil'd filters fuck up MAF sensors over time and will cause the car to eventually throw codes.
aFe pro dry drop-in. Done.
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      03-04-2018, 07:48 PM   #9
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From what I’ve seen there are no good options on the market. They all mess up MAF scaling, minus the CTS one. I don’t know why it’s so hard for manufacturers to actually put some engineering into their intakes and make the MAF scaling correct. For this point I’ll be sticking with stock air box and drop in filter, if someone would come out with a CTS like intake with a lot more quality I’d jump on that boat.
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      03-04-2018, 08:31 PM   #10
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Regarding so called heat shield:

It's commonly misunderstood that carbon fiber provides good heat isolation. In reality, neither plastic nor carbon box heat up the air going thru it, because flow rate is way too high for heat diffusion - the physical contact type of heat transfer. It all comes down to where air comes from. The coolest would be a "front facing" duct, the type you often see with aftermarket superchager kit (check out these E90X M3 blowers). But due to air hitting filter hard, it protects less.

Open air intake sucks air mostly from engine compartment, in N55 case, the upper and hot half of it. Which is why IAT climbs quick at low speed when not enough air flow to dissipate heat from compartment.

Closed box takes air from outside thru scoop or duct. That's what "heat isolation" is all about.

Additionally N55s' MPPK and M2 boxes are half open at lower part, which flows cooler air by nature.

We can't just come to conclusion factory is best. Power/Flow can go up to the point where factory intake plumbing become a restriction. But I'm sure it's somewhere beyond most of builds out there.
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      03-04-2018, 08:44 PM   #11
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whats the best drop in dry filter we should all be getting?
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      03-04-2018, 09:04 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony1s View Post
These aren't the responses I thought I'd get lol
FWIW I thought it was a great post and a good contribution to the forum. So many "I just ordered an M2!!!!" and "What is Sport mode" type of posts that this was a good contribution and is a nice consolidation of the intakes available. Someone should do it for all the exhaust options.
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      03-04-2018, 11:20 PM   #13
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Has anyone used the Eventuri drop in filter?

https://ind-distribution.com/product?sku=EVE-N55-PF

If so was it worth the cost over the stock paper filter?
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      03-05-2018, 03:24 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony1s View Post

Arma
- $1300 or $1700
- Carbon Fiber
- Closed Airbox
- Replacement Filter - ?? Couldn't find any for sale.

Thoughts - The more expensive one uses a "stainless steel valvtronic filter" which they claim "combats the torque loss experienced at low RPM by many aftermarket intakes" Claims are claims, so who the hell knows. Both use a closed airbox design and are made from carbon fiber. Haven't found examples of how this sounds, but I'm assuming carbon fiber is what causes the undesirable bottle blowing sounds in the Eventuri and Gruppe M intakes, so maybe this one has the same sound.

[img]
View post on imgur.com
[/img]
Arma have teamed up with Pipercross here in the UK to adapt their CF intake to use PX intake.

[IMG]https://ssli.ebayimg.com/images/g/Kb...hoG/s-l640.jpg[/IMG]

Not cheap but at least there's no cutting into LH corner brace as there is with Dinan CAI.

FWIW I had Dinan CAI on my M135i and I'd have it again if it weren't for the bodge to make it fit my M2. From logs on JB4'd M135i, Dinan CAI with AFE scoop showed lower PWM, improved throttle response & lowered IAT's.

I ran AFE dry drop + AFE scoop on my M135i before Dinan CAI and this was by far best bang 4 the buck. This relative cheap mod benefit IAT's, PWM and throttle response.

Due to M2 open lower airbox, cant see the benefit of the AFE scoop [compared to sealed airbox of M135i] so my plan fwd, based on my experience with my M135i, is just to put AFE dry drop into my M2's OEM airbox.
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      03-05-2018, 11:36 AM   #15
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Like Sean stated, all of these CEL's that are occurring after most of the installs are from MAF scaling issues. CTS turbo seems to be the best for this. Modern cars have intakes that are pretty functional until the piping diameter starts to bottleneck (reiterating Sean here again).

I will disagree about hot v. cold. On a turbo application it doesn't matter. Plumbing cannot diffuse heat to air fast enough, this is true, but the air temperature rapidly increases once it is churned up and compressed (friction that cannot be avoided). Intercooler does it's job before it is ingested by the engine. a few degrees before the filter is NOT going to make much difference.

Buy an intake for the sound, if you think it's worth the money; why not, sounds cool to hear your turbo. In my opinion the most important thing to consider with any intake is MAF placement.
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      03-05-2018, 11:52 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewc89 View Post
My thoughts on every single intake available:

Hahaha very true. But some ppl do want to have "more pronounced turbo sound" compared to stock. It is more like cosmetic feature that some wish to add. MP parts like side winglets and fron winglets do not do any shit on the car's aerodynamics and still ppl have them on regarldess as some will like the cosmetic upgrade that they give.

I personally not spend money on intake as I do not spend money to upgrade any surround sound system haha. But some do care. Cannot say that it is money waste its all personal preference.

I will say spend money on upgrading DP if OP has not done. That way, you get added performance and sound. My two cents.
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      03-05-2018, 12:55 PM   #17
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I'd like to see a short ram intake (or SRI). A properly located MAF with a decent length straight section with an open-element filter. Plenty of noises, cleans up engine bay, and and would be significantly cheaper than these long, bendy "cold" air intake designs.

It's unnecessary to snake out the intake all the way across the bay like that. It's like everyone followed the same template.
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      03-05-2018, 01:10 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TampaF87 View Post
I'd like to see a short ram intake (or SRI). A properly located MAF with a decent length straight section with an open-element filter. Plenty of noises, cleans up engine bay, and and would be significantly cheaper than these long, bendy "cold" air intake designs.

It's unnecessary to snake out the intake all the way across the bay like that. It's like everyone followed the same template.
That would indeed be interesting to see. A different design would be cool. I really love the way the Eventuri intake looks under the hood and want to kind play off of the whole carbon fiber theme.

It would be great to have more options, though.
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      03-05-2018, 01:50 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jsmooth65 View Post
whats the best drop in dry filter we should all be getting?
https://afepower.com/afe-power-31-10...y-s-air-filter
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      03-05-2018, 04:27 PM   #20
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I just installed the CTS. Love the way it sounds, and the quality is ok. I'm not tuning my car so no CEL was important for me. I can live with the plastic cover being removed.
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      03-05-2018, 04:51 PM   #21
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Thanks for making a breakdown.

However, on the CTS intake, the silver metal bar behind the filter has nothing to do with the CTS intake. When I installed the mine, there was no plastic wire cover that needed to be discarded.
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      03-05-2018, 05:08 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stage IV View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jsmooth65 View Post
whats the best drop in dry filter we should all be getting?
https://afepower.com/afe-power-31-10...y-s-air-filter
I will give it a try thanks
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