Guess you just gotta see it for yourself sometimes....*waiting on vids and dyno results*

 

ill never understand why people buy something and then ask "hey is this a good deal or worth buying"

ask first

 

 

yessir!

 

I know everyone says that this thing causes a drop in HP because it is a hot air intake. I haven't seen one in person and no one seems to want to post pictures of it installed. I have said before that I had a CAI on my E36 M3 and it did create HP. The way it was made created a tight seal at the hood and was basically a closed box except in the front where air entered the box. Is the AFE unit that different? Is it made from a metal that can transfer that much heat from the engine bay that it would heat the air before being drawn into the intake? Does it not seal against the hood? Is the engine bay that much smaller than an E36? Could it be more of a poor quality filter than the shield itself? Everyone swears by the ram air thing but I still don't see how directing more air into the stock box alone would create HP. I have to think again that it has something to do with the replacement air filter. The engine will only draw in so much air regardless of how much you force into the air filter box.
I doubt that the initial dyno will show much if any improvement. Seems to me that the ECU will have to go through a few cycles to learn the set up. One of the E36 software gurus, Jim Conforti, and I had this discussion when I got his software for my car. I had it dyno'd right after installing the software and showed nominal gains. I drove the car for a period of time and re-dyno'd the car and did in fact get near the claimed hp gain as advertised.
I'm not trying to be an a** about this I just want real answers.

 

Nothing is sealed with the AFE. I was one of the idiots who bought the AFE intake. Then, someone wanted to buy my intake. I told him it may lose HP but he wanted the sound so I sold it to him. I swapped back to the stock airbox and immediately, I felt MUCH quicker pickup.

 

The aFe HAI is NOT sealed off from the engine compartment on the e60's, therefore it pulls in HOT air from the engine compartment. This increased hot air input causes the engine software to retard the timing causing HP losses. No mater how many time you run this setup, the computer cannot learn. It will still retard the timing because of the hot air being pulled into the engine.

The OEM E60 airbox IS sealed off from the engine compartment and pulls in Cold Air from outside the engine Compartment. The RPi scoops direct air in to the OEM air ducting to the airbox, pressurizing it at speed and causing significant HP gains.

This topic has been discussed numerous times and that is why you wont see too many people posting in this topic, as it is a dead horse.

REAL ANSWERS BELOW!!

Read through this thread. Pay particular attention to RPIPower's posts. https://5series.net/forums/index.php?showto...1955&st=125

How RPI Ram Air works: https://5series.net/forums/index.php...opic=80392&hl=

DYNO info regarding aFe power loss: https://5series.net/forums/index.php...opic=63222&hl=

 

What if - and I'm saying it with a big IF - you have a CF vented hood, you build a custom heat-shielded box for the cone and you make sure that no water gets in through the vents into the CAI (or HAI - whatever you want to call, just the HAI associates with something else in my mind*) - would it then be more effective than an RPI scoop with a BMC filter and the intake tube and stock box heat-wrapped?


*HAI that I am thinking of is something like this btw:

 

I have personally dyno'd at an independent shop and it lost HP. If you dyno the car with the hood closed and do 5-6+ runs it WILL lose HP. Honestly, I don't even believe in dyno's I like to take it to the streets "mexico runs".

 

So, "just say No" to AFE, right?