How ebay helped me go from trash to flash

NYSpeed Automotive
1

Well I bought my car way back in August of 06. It came slightly modded, including a K&N cone air filter.

Upon joining M5 forums, they urged me to get rid of it, as the oil from the filter F’s up the MAF wires and the stock airbox actually makes more power. So thus my journey began, searching far and wide for an OEM piece.

In the meantime, I ghetto rigged the filter by making my own POS heat shield, and “induction” thingy-do do get cold air to the filter and keep it from getting heat soaked. And in the meantime I noticed my intake arm was ripped, which is no good.

Now most stock pieces I’ve seen are $200+. But low and behold I find a guy parting out an entire m5 on ebay for insane prices. So I picked up a new box, arm, and filter for $50 bones and tonight I threw it on.

Anyway, enough with this incredibly dull and lack luster story, and on with the pics.

Stage 1:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/SpeedingHatch/intake1.jpg
intake1.jpg800×532

Stage 2 (notice the filter held up by fishing wire):

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/SpeedingHatch/intake2.jpg
intake2.jpg800×532

Stage 3 (yes thats my heat shield, yes thats my cold air funnel):

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/SpeedingHatch/intake3.jpg
intake3.jpg800×532

Stage 4 (ripped arm spot 1):

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/SpeedingHatch/intake4.jpg
intake4.jpg800×532

Stage 5 (ripped arm spot 2):

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/SpeedingHatch/intake5.jpg
intake5.jpg800×532

Stage 6 (new arm, clean as a whistle)

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/SpeedingHatch/intake6.jpg
intake6.jpg800×532

Stage 7 (done for now, stock heatshield missing as it was quite a bitch to get on)

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/SpeedingHatch/intake7.jpg
intake7.jpg800×532

A guy with an e34 m5 was in a similiar situation. He bought his with a K&N cone on it. He put it on the dyno with the cone, then put the stock box on. Here is his dyno.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/SpeedingHatch/m5fly.jpg
m5fly.jpg750×576

K&N = blue

OEM = red

Pretty big difference.

Anyways, the car sounds less ballsy, but runs a bit better

The end

2

Dirty K&N and clean brand new oem filter?

3

[quote=“BigRon,post:2,topic:39438"”]

Dirty K&N and clean brand new oem filter?

[/quote]

bingo…

and there is such a athing a dry cone filter, ie no oil to F up your MAF… also u can CLEAN the Maf

4

Yes, I know, I was running my cone dry, and from time to time I do clean my MAF.

But still, in 1991 the BMW M division knew how to make a good airbox, as it has specific design cues and a velocity stack to produce excellent flow

but i digress

5

wow nice, i didnt think it would be that much of a difference

6

I wonder if you tuned the ECU for the K&N if it would make more power then stock.

just throwing parts like intakes on a car without any adjustment will do things like this.

and the K&Ns are fine on just about all cars… what happens most of the time is that some kid cleans and reoils the filter then sticks it back on the car dripping with oil and revs the engine… you have to use the right amount of oil aid let it sit overnight.

7

K&N has been taking some bad rep lately…

8

The problem with the K&N filter is that it is so close to a metering device that wants a clean flow of air.

Where as it appears from the pictures there is a 4-5" gap between the stock filter element and the MAF. Happy flow = happy MAF = happy gains.

The K&N should be about half the size in length and the rest should be a runner directing airflow.

9

My Mustang had a K&N when I bought it. I should probably throw on the stock airbox I picked up 4 years ago and never did anything with.

10

Those KN filters are shit dude.

They are so porous that they let dirt in to sandblast your motor.

I have seen it so many times in used oil analysis’s posted on the net.

Just use a fucking paper filter, and keep the money in your pocket.