cold air intake

Hey everyone, first post ever for me.
Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a cold air intake for my e46 (2000 323i). either from what you've bought or may have read about, any information would be appreciated!
Bryon

Try Dinan.

A Dinan system would be pretty expensive I think. I like the K&N myself...and there's a lot of cheap ones out there too. You get what you pay for I suppose.

thanks! i've been looking around, so all of the suggestions are helping me window shop.

at first i was afraid of hydrolocking with a cold-air intake, versus one that is mounted in the engine bay (with a heat-shield). but now i'm leaning toward the K&N and the Racing Dynamics which sit below the engine bay.

any thoughts??

Hmm, maybe you know more than me - what's hydrolocking?

I've also heard the heat shields don't make much of a difference if that helps.

i'm SURE i dont know more than ANYONE on this messageboard!

i think hydrolocking is one of the worst things that can happen to your car. for intakes that arent in the engine bay, the filter sits behind the fender, probbly like your K&N. if for some reason you're driving through high water, high enough to submerge the filter, then the intake will act like a vaccum, but instead of taking in air it'll flood your engine with water. then its game over man, new engine. thats how it was explained to me about a week ago.

i have 2001 325ci i bought a racing dynamics intake and then put a dinan cold air intake 6 months later. i recomend going with the cold air intake from dinan even though it is expensive. the racing dynamics intake and others that sit on the top dont do to good cause all they do is just recive heat from the engine. the ony thing is if u do get the dian intake they will tell u that u need to go ahead and get the stage two download cause ur engine could miss up (bull crap) but by getting the dinan intake and stage two download u will to be able to notice a difference. oh and about the cold air intake suking in water dont worry about it just take it slow when it rains but nothing will happen plus the dinan intake has a something around it that protects it so i recomnd the dinan

the racing dynamics intake i was thinking about doesnt sit by the engine. its a pipe leading down to the fender. i like it alot, but i still wanna get the dinan chip mod. but i just called dinan today and they said they wont do the mod if i have a different brand of intake.

so i guess the question is, do i spend the $800 to get the dinan chip mod and intake, or do i go with the racing dynamics intake and live with that.

i spoke with a friend of mine that owns a shop, and he suggested getting the dinan chip mod, and then putting in the racing dynamics intake. although the dinan mod wont be optimized for the racing dynamics intake, it'll still be pretty good. any thoughts??

i am enjoing my dinan intake and stage 2 downlaod very much. if u get it u will fell a lot quicker response from the car. the dinan cold air intake sounds the same as the racing dynamic one u want to get. the dinan cold air intake that i have is a pipe that goes all they way down to the bumber behind the fog light. but underneath the bumber it has a lot of air inductions so it still gets air even though it sits behind the fog light. I have no clue if its true that the stage 2 download and racing dynamic intake will not work. but i put supersprint exhaust and my guy told me even though it was a differnt brand and not dinan that the dinan stg 2 dwl would still work. so i guess that the racing dynamic and dinan dwl might work. but its what u perfer. like i said i recomend dian and its probly cause i have it.

thanks for the input. i agree, the best thing to do if money was no object is o go with dinan all the way. i bet its sweet. i also agree with you that it probbly doesnt make a big difference to mix brands. get the dinan chip modification, and then put in the racing dynamics intake.

i'm thinking about these things as my "stage1", and then i'll do the exhaust later on.

IM(very)HO you should think long and hard before spending the money for these mods.You may "feel,hear" an improvement but the reality is probably minimal if any compared to warranty/reliability considerations.BMW does have some concept of airflow.Wait a while and save your money for a nice supercharger and get a real performance boost!

Hi there bryonium,
I am believer of staying with one line, especially with companys like Dinan or even RD. They combine the products to work together. Call me old fashion........

all true, all true...
hmm, this is going to be an expensive hobby! well, i shoulndt have bought a bmw if i wasnt ready for it!

Let us all know of your decision.

I was thinking about getting the ECIS intake and possibly the shark injector.. Can anyone compare this setup to the DINAN combo. Is the DINAN setup worth the extra money and time to install? It looks like a lot of work to remove the bumper to put that intake in. ALso 500 bucks for an intake is rediculous.. I think the ecis intake is $250 and the shark is $350..

Any comments?

if you are worried about water getting into your intake, AEM makes a bypass valves that acts as a coupler between the filter and the pipe the leads into the engine. sport compact car did an article about it about a year or so back. they hooked it up to an NSX with clear piping and dunked the entire filter into a large bucket of water, it sucked it up but it didnt go anywhere near the engine....good stuff i'd say. hey, is the weapon/r intake any good for an E36? im looking for a real cheap mod.

it's really expensive, but the gruppe-m carbon kevlar intake is awesome. it uses the kidney grills as ram airs.

hydrolocking situations only occur when it is completely submerged like a pickup tube,,,if you are driving down the road and go under a bridge that has flooded 1ft of water,, your car will push most of the water, create turbulance and airrate the water where it won't draw a syphon,,, coldair is the way to go.