COLD AIR INTAKE. Budget CAI DIY and Review E46 BMW
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TechTranscript
00:00Okay, so I said I was going to make this video, and I'm going to do it.
00:07This is...
00:08Oh, really?
00:09Okay, so this is a cone filter, and it is going to go way down out of the way to try
00:16and make a cold air intake.
00:17I'm going to use some of this 3-inch piping that I got on eBay.
00:21Total cost for all this stuff is like, looking at, you know, maybe $70 Canadian.
00:25So a pretty serious budget cold air intake.
00:29Now I wasn't going to spend $300 on one of these things because I'm not 100% convinced
00:34that they're actually going to make that much of a difference.
00:37So I've seen some stuff online, guys that dyno with cold air intake before and after,
00:42they get, you know, an increase in wheel horsepower.
00:44I saw one guy did, I think on Engineering Explained, great channel by the way, he found
00:51that he had some high-end horsepower increase, but he lost some low-end horsepower.
00:55So I have a hard time believing that this stuff here is going to be better than this
01:00factory air box system because this is so sophisticated.
01:03Look, we got this air going in here, and it comes into this thing right here, then it
01:08goes into there, and then there's another little piece down there that does stuff, and
01:12I don't understand how it works, and it's got curves and shapes in it, and it looks
01:16just so full of physics that I don't even, I couldn't even begin to design my own, but
01:21apparently this will do it.
01:22So this is going to go down, way in the fender well, out of the way, to suck in cold, more
01:27dense air, to hopefully give me more horsepower.
01:30There's more oxygen and denser air.
01:32Now the other thing that this is going to do is this is really smooth on the inside,
01:35so the idea is, is that the longer you make this, the more the air has time to calm down
01:40and be less turbulent as it goes up towards the mass airflow sensor.
01:45So that means when it gets there, it's more consistent airflow, and I'm able to get a
01:48better reading in the mass airflow sensor, which can then work more efficiently, and
01:52fancy stuff happens in the engine, so I get more power.
01:55So we're going to see if that makes a difference.
01:57So the whole purpose of this, I'm not going to do serious measurements, I'm not going
01:59to go on a dyno before and after, I'm just going to see if you put a cold air intake
02:03in a BMW E46, or I guess any naturally aspirated engine, can I feel a difference?
02:08Does this work in the real world?
02:11Okay, so let's do this really fast, I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail.
02:1511mm socket over here, takes off these bolts, which hold the actual airbox to the car.
02:24Okay, let's take the actual top of this off, disconnect the hosing, one more clip all the
02:32way down there, see that comes out of that, like that, elbow piece comes off, ouch!
02:42That was hot.
02:43Air filter out of the way, that comes out, two clips, pop, mass airflow sensor.
03:02There's a random piece of airbox stuff, does a thing, I don't know what.
03:09So I am going to put an elbow joint onto this right here, so be careful with this,
03:24this is a very expensive sensor, fits like a glove, I've got this one here which is the
03:33clear choice because that gives me the right angle, so that's just going to go right down
03:41into there.
03:50Now I've learned the hard way before, when you put these things on, put the thing in
03:53an accessible location so that you can undo it later easily.
03:57Okay, so I had to cut this piece and I had to stretch this guy over to fit on it, but
04:04this is all custom stuff so this is irrelevant, if you're doing your own you're going to have
04:07to kind of make it up yourself.
04:10All the way down into the anals of my car, there we go, lock that in there, tighten this
04:19one down, and take the wheel off.
04:40See how fast that was?
04:41Somebody call the Red Bull F1 team, let them know I gave them a lesson or two.
04:46Okay, so I've got to take this panel off right here because that's going to give us
04:49access to the cold air intake, there's two little bolts here and two just on the underside
04:57that I already removed, it's going to kind of be pretty apparent because it won't come
05:07off unless you've undone all of the bolts, right?
05:11So be careful because the temperature sensor is right down here, hanging there, there's
05:17a little clip here that didn't want to come out so I'm not going to bother it that much
05:19because I don't really need to, shove the whole thing, okay, so there it is, sitting
05:31down there like that, got the heat shield facing this way, you want to make sure there's
05:34no way that water can splash in here so I can't end up with a hydro-locked engine, but
05:41I'm going to cover this back up with that plate, that'll be there, there's the brake
05:47cooling duct, pretty cool, right, look at that, okay, so there it is, intake goes all
05:55the way down there out of sight, okay, so I know that it looks like it's up on a very
06:01harsh angle this way, but that's actually where the intake boot was going, so I kept
06:06that same angle, I didn't want to put any unnatural stress on the intake boot, so it's
06:11coming here, curving down all the way into the wheel well, so I'm going to try and find
06:15a way to support it, because it's kind of just sitting there, right, and then we're
06:21going to take it for a drive, okay, so I just attached this little mounting bracket here
06:28that came with the kit, zip-tied around this, and this is actually now very solid, and it
06:34can't reach the main part of the chassis down there, so it can't rattle, okay, so I think
06:41that was actually the easiest and most cost-effective way to do that, things don't usually go that
06:46well for me, so that was nice, alright, so let's hear what this thing sounds like.
07:16Okay, so here is my real-world review of this budget cold air intake that I've made, now
07:27I waited a day or so before I actually filmed this for two reasons, one, I wanted to make
07:32sure that the computer had adapted to the change in airflow, and two, I wanted to drive
07:37it in a series of different scenarios and temperatures and whatever to give you a good
07:44encompassing picture of what kind of a change it's made. Now, I'm having a hard time admitting this,
07:49but I really like this cold air intake, it has made a very noticeable difference, actually,
07:55in the way that the car's power is delivered. At first, I thought that I had lost some high-end
08:01power, but then when I realized what that was later, is I, this is very counterintuitive,
08:06right, this is not usual for a cold air intake, but I feel like I gained some low-end power,
08:11low-end torque, because the drivability of my car has completely changed. Before, I would
08:17never in my wildest dreams be in fifth gear below 100 kilometers an hour, it just wouldn't
08:23happen, because of my lightweight flywheel, whatever it would rattle, it just wouldn't
08:27have any oomph. Now, I can actually go around corners, slow corners in the city in third gear,
08:33I can drive at 80 kilometers an hour in fifth gear, I don't, I have no explanation for why
08:37this has changed this much, but it has, it doesn't make any sense. I'm not complaining,
08:41though, because it has changed. Now, what it feels like, is it's like the torque curve has
08:46flattened out a little bit, so in the high-end, it's difficult for me to tell if I've gained any
08:52power. I think that I have, there's a little bit more punch around 5,000 rpm, but when you get up
08:59near the red line, it's very distinctively flat. Before, I had, with the stock airbox and my
09:04current setup with all the other mods I've done, it felt like my car would just keep building in
09:10power and torque all the way to the red line, which is actually very cool and satisfying,
09:15but this is actually much more usable, so it kind of feels like it flattens out,
09:19but I haven't done any timed runs, I have no numbers for you, but I can absolutely tell you
09:24that it has made a difference. Is it huge? No, it's not a massive difference, it's not groundbreaking,
09:31it's not like mind-blowing difference, but for the price for a budget cold air intake like the
09:37one that I made, which was like 70 bucks Canadian, this is definitely worth it. I have noticed
09:44a difference. Now, I don't think though that I would go and I would spend a couple hundred dollars
09:53on a cold air intake, a proper one, unless you could prove to me that it's going to make an even
09:58bigger difference than this, because this is not a couple hundred dollars worth of difference. A
10:03couple hundred dollars can go a long way in other sorts of suspension modifications for an E46,
10:09but for the price that I paid, I definitely would recommend this as a mod. It sounds better too,
10:17it's kind of a more like low-end grunt and a little bit more of a noticeable induction
10:22noise system. The best my car has run since I bought it, and I have no explanation or reason
10:28for why the cold air intake did that, but I can tell you that all I have changed between two days
10:32ago and right now is the cold air intake, period. End of story. So, it gets my vote. I will happily
10:39eat my words on that one, because I honestly did not think that it was going to make that much of
10:43a difference. So, there you go. TH admits he's wrong, and you can go ahead and follow my DIY
10:50and make a cold air cold air intake yourself, and let me know if it makes a difference for you,
10:55because I would love to know if it just happens to be a fluke for mine. Also too, another thing,
10:59very important before we go, I'm getting nine, just around nine, sometimes under nine liters
11:05per hundred kilometers now, driving in the city, on the highway, combination of everything, before
11:11I was getting 10.5. So, that's over one liter per hundred kilometers difference in fuel mileage.
11:18I don't know what to tell you. I have a hard time believing this myself, but there is your answer.
11:22Okay, cold air intake, I would do it if I was you, if you can do it for this price. End of story.
11:30All right, if you have any comments, questions, or alterations you think that I can make to mine
11:34to maybe improve it, improve the airflow, or improve the cold air coming in, then please
11:39put them in the comments. Let me know, let me know what you think of mine, and if you did one
11:43yourself, really, really let me know, because I'd love to know how it worked out for you.
11:47Okay, talk to you next time.