ucsbwsr

I started a new thread because everyone likes pictures, especially when they are at the beginning of a thread and no searching is required.

Hope you enjoy,
Evan

nomis_nehc

Nicely done!

Martin1986

Nice!
What's the name of your rims?
And what is it you have coloured red at the cooler?

ucsbwsr

Thanks!


Wheels are Forgestar F14 Super Deep Concave.
19x9.5F and 19x10R
Hankook V12 245/40F 275/35R

The red is an RPI Scoop which redirects airflow into the stock intake snorkel, it is supposed to aid air flow when the is at speed.

Evan

Lotus99

Looking great!

You've only got one air scoop? All the N54 air scoops I've seen come in two's, one behind each grill.

I went with black myself, as I don't like things that stand out like that... And in keeping with your white/black colour scheme, would have worked well IMO.

ucsbwsr

@Lotus: As far as I know all n54 E60s have 1 intake snorkel on the driver side, your car has 2? I would have preferred 2 for symmetry but it simply wasn't an option. I also went with red because I bought the scoop used on Craigslist for $40. Red it is.

Lotus99

I should have qualified my statement... My knowledge comes from my 335, which has the same N54 engine, and therefore I presumed same airbox. In that one, the airbox inlet is wide and comes in the top of both grills, hence everyone buys two.

Sounds like with this car, it just enters off the driver's side you're saying. So the inlet is smaller?

You can see on an E92 the path of the stock airbox:
.
.
.

ucsbwsr

N54 535s have an intake like this...

As much as it pains me to leave the flimsy ugly plastic snorkel in place without the air box, people have experienced lower IATs with it left in place, I assume this is even more true with the RPI scoop since the two are essentially connected

Lotus99

So when you take off this black cover over the grills, where does the cold air path come from? You can see in the 335 pic above it comes in from both grills (under the red oval that's drawn).
.
.
.

ucsbwsr

It pulls air from right behind the forward inner tip of the drivers side headlight. It is not designed as a ram air system. The RPI scoops tries to accomplish this by catching air and redirecting the air flow 90 degrees horizontally into the snorkel pick up.

From seeing this 535xi intake as well as the intake on my old E39 M5, BMWs seem to have intakes that pull air from low pressure points. The snorkels on my E39 pulled air from directly the front bumper bar, seems odd but apparently it was designed well and aftermarket intakes for the E39 M5 had negligible gains. I assume the tight engine bays and lack of space for ideal intake routing is the reason these systems are used?

Hopefully this made sense.