Anyone with Dinan High Flow Intake?

[J08M3]

Originally Posted by lucid

This is the part that most people miss with dyno runs. Folks report gains of 5-10 hp based on 3-5 runs. Some pick the best case runs for both the modded and un-modded scenarios and calculate the "gains". Others average 3-5 runs. Statistically speaking, and keeping in mind the variation/error of the measurement/instrument, reporting such small gains based on just a few runs (or a single run for that matter) is pretty much meaningless. Having said this, I'd assume Dinan does not base their numbers on a single or a small set of runs. That's probably why their claimed gains are lower than the competition in general.

+1

[tightie]

LOL.

[SpencerM3]

So can anyoen reccomend a CAI worth buyimg? Not that this Dinan one isn't worth it, but it seems over priced.

I was palnning on getting the Dinan CAI, but if you guys could reccomend another I am all ears.

[RGuard250]

I'm waiting to see how the Evolve one is priced whenever it comes out

[H Bomb]

i don't really see what is so funny?? show me another CF CAI that is cheaper then that and has actualy dyno claims

what is funny is when people talk trash about the Dinan stuff but don't have anything to back up the trash talk, they just type LOL, overpriced, etc etc etc etc blah blah

[TLud]

Originally Posted by H Bomb

i don't really see what is so funny?? show me another CF CAI that is cheaper then that and has actualy dyno claims

what is funny is when people talk trash about the Dinan stuff but don't have anything to back up the trash talk, they just type LOL, overpriced, etc etc etc etc blah blah

I've got nothing against Dinan stuff in general, but I'd just put in a higher flowing filter and call it a day. Their reported gains are the same as those putting in just an aftermarket filter, which makes sense, because the Dinan intake doesn't change the bottleneck in the system. All the benefits are coming from the better flowing filter. There are too many other mods for this car (or other things in life) that you could spend that money on instead and get a lot more out of.

[RGuard250]

Originally Posted by TLud

I've got nothing against Dinan stuff in general, but I'd just put in a higher flowing filter and call it a day. Their reported gains are the same as those putting in just an aftermarket filter, which makes sense, because the Dinan intake doesn't change the bottleneck in the system. All the benefits are coming from the better flowing filter. There are too many other mods for this car (or other things in life) that you could spend that money on instead and get a lot more out of.

I agree. I think buying certain DINAN products is like buying expensive bling for your wrists. It makes you feel better, but does it really make you cooler? Dinan and Gruppe-M seem to be like the designer jewelry for the M3. There have been too many dynos showing how a filer can easily rival the results of the Dinan $800+ intake.

[H Bomb]

i agree on the filter only part. i was reffering to the rest of it. i have yet to see a CF one for cheaper and that still had warranty

no doubt bang for the buck would be to change filter if you don't care about the bling

i just felt for a CF one that wasn't priced totally out of the ball park

Originally Posted by TLud

I've got nothing against Dinan stuff in general, but I'd just put in a higher flowing filter and call it a day. Their reported gains are the same as those putting in just an aftermarket filter, which makes sense, because the Dinan intake doesn't change the bottleneck in the system. All the benefits are coming from the better flowing filter. There are too many other mods for this car (or other things in life) that you could spend that money on instead and get a lot more out of.

[TLud]

Originally Posted by RGuard250

I agree. I think buying certain DINAN products is like buying expensive bling for your wrists. It makes you feel better, but does it really make you cooler? Dinan and Gruppe-M seem to be like the designer jewelry for the M3. There have been too many dynos showing how a filer can easily rival the results of the Dinan $800+ intake.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by H Bomb

i agree on the filter only part. i was reffering to the rest of it. i have yet to see a CF one for cheaper and that still had warranty

no doubt bang for the buck would be to change filter if you don't care about the bling

i just felt for a CF one that wasn't priced totally out of the ball park

With the Dinan and Gruppe-M, you're paying for an appearance piece, which is fine, as long as you know that's what you're getting. The reason the Gruppe-M is a lot more expensive than the Dinan is not that it offers a greater increase in performance, it's that you're getting a lot more appearance (carbon fiber) "upgrade" under the hood.

The Dinan warranty is also kind of a non-factor for two reasons. First, as long as you maintain your filter, changing out the intake isn't going to cause any major warranty-voiding problems.

Second, I seriously doubt the Dinan warranty is worth the paper it's written on. If they can't even pay their customers' long delayed (and relatively small) rebates, what makes you think they'll cover major warranty costs for the same customers? The real benefit to Dinan is that, in most cases, it is promoted, sold, and installed by your dealer. Your dealer will have a hard time coming back and telling you that they won't cover any warranty work for you and work it out later themselves with Dinan. Maybe that's just semantics, but it means that I wouldn't purchase Dinan products anywhere but through my own dealer.

[mPlasticDesign]

Originally Posted by TLud

I've got nothing against Dinan stuff in general, but I'd just put in a higher flowing filter and call it a day. Their reported gains are the same as those putting in just an aftermarket filter, which makes sense, because the Dinan intake doesn't change the bottleneck in the system. All the benefits are coming from the better flowing filter. There are too many other mods for this car (or other things in life) that you could spend that money on instead and get a lot more out of.

TLud, I think you have to take alot of these dyno results with a grain of salt. Too many variables, but what you can do is use simple logic. Just look at the two pieces side-by-side. I would bet my paycheck that in a controlled environment, with unbiased testing techniques, the Dinan intake would outperform a simple drop-in filter alone. It might only be 2hp, but that could be 30-40% increase over a filter alone.

FACT: The DINAN carbon fiber tube has over a 30% larger cross-sectional area!

FACT: DINAN does in fact address the bottleneck in the system. Just look at the diagram below. The most ristrictive point is B, which is cleary larger on the DINAN intake.

I have seen too many posts that say the airflow is limited to the opening to the plenum(point C). But that is clearly the largest cross section of the three points. Ideally you want the cross-section to get larger from A to C.

Originally Posted by RGuard250

I agree. I think buying certain DINAN products is like buying expensive bling for your wrists. It makes you feel better, but does it really make you cooler? Dinan and Gruppe-M seem to be like the designer jewelry for the M3. There have been too many dynos showing how a filer can easily rival the results of the Dinan $800+ intake.

Why do people get so personal with their comments towards Dinan owners? I will never understand? To answer your question, I don't think anyone could be as 'cool' as you are. Thanks for the intelligent contribution to this conversation.

[isugoo]

Dinan, BMW Performance, Nismo, TRD... all over priced, but all have top notch built quality and all of those don't give most HP/$. But somehow a lot of Dinan haters compare to rest of safe, conservative tuners.

(note- I'm not taking about Nismo, TRD's racing division parts which we can't get it for our street cars. I'm simply talking about dealership catalog products).

[TLud]

Originally Posted by ///Metak

TLud, I think you have to take alot of these dyno results with a grain of salt. Too many variables, but what you can do is use simple logic. Just look at the two pieces side-by-side. I would bet my paycheck that in a controlled environment, with unbiased testing techniques, the Dinan intake would outperform a simple drop-in filter alone. It might only be 2hp, but that could be 30-40% increase over a filter alone.

FACT: The DINAN carbon fiber tube has over a 30% larger cross-sectional area!

FACT: DINAN does in fact address the bottleneck in the system. Just look at the diagram below. The most ristrictive point is B, which is cleary larger on the DINAN intake.

I have seen too many posts that say the airflow is limited to the opening to the plenum(point C). But that is clearly the largest cross section of the three points. Ideally you want the cross-section to get larger from A to C.

Attachment 310561

Metak, before I say anything else, you know I'm not one of those anti-Dinan guys. I have the Dinan exhaust, which I'm very happy with, and I plan to get the Dinan pulley kit, if it's ever released.

That said, I held the stock piece and Dinan piece in my hands side by side, and it looked to me that the bottleneck in the stock piece is at point B, like you said. On the Dinan, the bottleneck seemed to be on the right side of where point A would be. I'm no engineer, but it seems to me that a bottleneck is a bottleneck whether it occurs at point A or B. Granted, I didn't get a tape measure out and take exact measurements, so you may be right. The question is whether the extra 1 or 2 hp over a filter alone is worth the extra $750 in price over a higher flow filter.

[mPlasticDesign]

Originally Posted by TLud

Metak, before I say anything else, you know I'm not one of those anti-Dinan guys. I have the Dinan exhaust, which I'm very happy with, and I plan to get the Dinan pulley kit, if it's ever released.

That said, I held the stock piece and Dinan piece in my hands side by side, and it looked to me that the bottleneck in the stock piece is at point B, like you said. On the Dinan, the bottleneck seemed to be on the right side of where point A would be. I'm no engineer, but it seems to me that a bottleneck is a bottleneck whether it occurs at point A or B. Granted, I didn't get a tape measure out and take exact measurements, so you may be right. The question is whether the extra 1 or 2 hp over a filter alone is worth the extra $750 in price over a higher flow filter.

I know you're not a hater, that's why I feel like I can have a reasonable discussion with you. Now, you said that it seemed that the bottleneck on the Dinan was at point A. Technically this would be the 'bottle opening' not the 'neck', and as long there isn't any narrowing after that point, which is quite evident in the stock piece(point B), the Dinan is an improvement. Point A is almost identical on the stock vs. Dinan, so going in the direction of airflow which is what is important here, you want point B to be bigger not smaller like in the stock unit. Now is the minimal improvement (2-3 hp) worth the extra $750? That's relative. You and I both have Dinan exhausts that give us about the same $ to hp ratio and we are both happy with those results. Is that any different?

[bogdan]

What you are missing from that picture is a straight-on shot of the openings to the filter. The Dinan filter has a larger opening into the intake tube than the oem-replacement filters.

[TLud]

Originally Posted by ///Metak

I know you're not a hater, that's why I feel like I can have a reasonable discussion with you. Now, you said that it seemed that the bottleneck on the Dinan was at point A. Technically this would be the 'bottle opening' not the 'neck', and as long there isn't any narrowing after that point, which is quite evident in the stock piece(point B), the Dinan is an improvement. Point A is almost identical on the stock vs. Dinan, so going in the direction of airflow which is what is important here, you want point B to be bigger not smaller like in the stock unit. Now is the minimal improvement (2-3 hp) worth the extra $750? That's relative. You and I both have Dinan exhausts that give us about the same $ to hp ratio and we are both happy with those results. Is that any different?

I see your point about how the Dinan intake tube could, at least in theory, result in gains over the stock tube due to increased flow. Of course, this begs the question, if it would have been so easy to increase air flow (which is obviously so important to this engine), why didn't BMW increase the volume of the stock tube right out of the box? In many cases, there is a significant cost or penalty to squeezing a few more hp out of a given component, but making the intake tube a little bigger doesn't seem like one of those cases. Any thoughts?

I think the Dinan exhaust is a little different situation, especially for someone like me. I didn't buy the Dinan for increased power (I just didn't want to lose power). I bought the Dinan to lose the ugly cow udder mufflers and exhaust tips that stained and pitted far too easily, to lose a little weight, and most importantly to improve the stock sound. It's likely that the Dinan A-B exhaust adds a few ponies, but that's just icing on the cake for me. I can obviously only speak for myself (and I certainly don't intend to criticize others who feel differently), but the cost/benefit ratio is just too high for the Dinan intake.

[cpiguy]

Unless you're like me, who bought every fricking thing Dinan makes

[TLud]

Originally Posted by cpiguy

Unless you're like me, who bought every fricking thing Dinan makes

Hahaha, yeah since you're getting everything else, you're pretty much pot-committed. I'll see your stage 2 suspension and raise you an intake!

I think you'll be pretty happy with the overall package. Dinan stuff is often a little more expensive, especially since it gets installed by a dealer, and it's a little less aggressive than other aftermarket products, but there are significant advantages to those things as well.

[mPlasticDesign]

I installed the intake myself. It's like a 1.5 difficulty (1-5 scale).