cold air intake any views on this one?

[robzilla]

has anybody had any dealings with these? i'm looking at the stage 2 version.

aFe Cold Air Intake For E53 - BMW X5 SAV - 2000-2006 From bimmian.com

[JCL]

BMW built in a cold air intake.

That is a warm air intake.

It is a nice racy blue colour. As aural and cosmetic mods go, it is as good as any if that is what you want.

[DillonInCO]

Yeah, you might actually LOSE power installing something like that. I'm sure it would sound nice, though. I often wish my 3.0 had some growl to it...can barely hear the engine at all.

[rayxi]

I think the fit of the aFe is good so it won't be any warmer than the BMW intake. However it won't be any colder either.

[ants_oz]

I'm slightly confused - where does the new intake source it's "cold air" from? I can see that the cone filter is encapsulated from the engine bay, however I can't see where the air intake is. It appears that one wall of the "box" is the side of the radiator, so without any other insulation, it would absorb heat nicely...

The factory intake (over the top of the radiator) is not optimal, but directs ambient air to the filter. And the plastic from which it is manufactured has a low thermal value, so is slow to transfer heat energy from the surrounding environment (of the intake assembly) to the air within.

This version has a "still air" box with SOME isolation from the remainder of the engine bay, but where is the ducting feeding fresh, ambient air to the intake? It looks to me like this system simply uses air leakage around the headlight to fee the intake. If that is the case, not good at all.

Pretty colour though.

[PropellerHead]

I've run that intake on my 4.8is for over 3 years now. I even wrote ab it here. Still happy with it.

[Ricky Bobby]

I have an AFE on my 3.0. I enjoy it

[Joshdub]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

I have an AFE on my 3.0. I enjoy it

How does it sound?

[rayxi]

Originally Posted by ants_oz

I'm slightly confused - where does the new intake source it's "cold air" from? I can see that the cone filter is encapsulated from the engine bay, however I can't see where the air intake is. It appears that one wall of the "box" is the side of the radiator, so without any other insulation, it would absorb heat nicely...

The factory intake (over the top of the radiator) is not optimal, but directs ambient air to the filter. And the plastic from which it is manufactured has a low thermal value, so is slow to transfer heat energy from the surrounding environment (of the intake assembly) to the air within.

This version has a "still air" box with SOME isolation from the remainder of the engine bay, but where is the ducting feeding fresh, ambient air to the intake? It looks to me like this system simply uses air leakage around the headlight to fee the intake. If that is the case, not good at all.

Pretty colour though.

The aFe intake uses the same air inlet port as the factory intake. When the hood is closed a box is formed using the partition walls, hood and front of the engine compartment. The only opening in this box is the inlet port for the factory intake. It's basically just a bigger box with a different filter.

The only time heat transfer from the engine bay makes much of a difference is when the engine is at idle and vehicle isn't moving. Once the engine revs up and the vehicle is moving the air going though the filter is close to ambient temperature.

[ants_oz]

Fair enough mate. I've never taken a look at the petrol engine air intakes because i'm only interested in diesel. And the diesel intake is vastly different to that one