AFE's M3 Air Intake System Initial Review

[SoCalM3Mang]

Originally Posted by **********s.com

I've personally had the honor to visit and tour aFe's state of the art facility in Corona with the **********s.com team. I have nothing but great things to say about the quality, and engineering that goes being all of their products.

As most of you already know I have personally sold this exact same aFe intake system at a sponsorship price to another member here XunXunDCT on M3post whom from my understanding is a good personal friend of MrHarris.

From my conversations with Will, he has gone to SP Engineering for to conduct his dyno. He has already completed the dyno with the stock filter and box on his E92 M3. The car has now been driven around 200 miles to allow for the ECU to adapt with the aFe Air Intake System installed and I'm awaiting on confirmation from him that the dyno has been completed.

I've also had the pleasure of driving Will's M3 and the car both before and after the aFe intake. I have nothing but great things to say about this product and the engineering that goes behind it. On top of the increase in sound from the engine bay you will definitely feel an instant increase in throttle response. The intake also puts use of the hood vents on the M3. The aFe intake not only blows out hot hair out from the vents but it also sucks in cold air !! I can attest to this from driving in the rain today and water blew up numerous times from that vent alone!!

I'll keep everyone here updated in regards to the status !!!

If you guys have any questions at all please feel free to contact me here at 714-582-3330 ext 8006.

I love Mod-Bargains!

Thank You Jason for coming on the forum and offering Dyno testing and also data to back up your power claims.

I'm sorry I'm not going to agree with it. Granted my terrible experiences were with a 07 550i, but an unclosed intake is an unclosed intake. BMW's stock airbox is closed/sealed. Why would we believe anything not sealed/closed is going to be better than BMW engineering?

Driving it around in So Cal now with much colder temperatures is not going to produce a real world environment of hot air/heat soak you'd experience driving around from May to October.

I will give the AFE product the benefit of the doubt for the M3 system, especially in light of never installing it. But it's very similar in design to what was on my 550i. That car lost drastic power(confirmed by the Dyno at RPI and the refund I received from AFE themselves) and felt like it had a 1000 pound Gorilla sitting on the engine when going North on the 101 Freeway in Universal City in the summer months.

If somebody wants to give it to me for free to test out for a month, I'll be glad to get it independently dynoed at multiple shops. If it is confirmed to make power relative to stated claims, I'm glad to pay full retail.

Let me know.

Happy New Year Fellas!

[05SCM3]

^ Sounds like a fair proposition. As confident as AFE is in their product, there is no reason for them not to take you up on this offer.

[Kyoshi71]

Originally Posted by tom @ eas

I agree. Remove the included scoops and replace the AFE filter to the OEM unit to see how performance really compares to stock.

Stock airboxes are very good, it will be hard to improve on this design.

+google (that's 1 with a hundred zeros). That's how much I agree.

[F360C]

Originally Posted by SoCalM3Mang

I've spoken to BMW engineers who LAUGHED OUT LOUD when asked if a non closed Intake system would avoid heat soak.


Happy Holidays to everyone!

I guess those are different BMW engineers then the ones that desigened this system for the CSL.... Seems pretty open to engine bay heat to me. I wonder why, if BMW engineers were so worried about heat soak,they would build an intake like the CSL when they were looking for max performance. The only AFE system I hear bad reviews about are the e60 systems. You gotta remember one thing... when a car is actually driving on the road and not sitting on a dyno the air that is in the engine bay is not static like it would be on the dyno. Even with huge fans the flow of air will not be the same as actually on the road.

[aFePower_Jason]

SoCalM3Mang,

Thanks for your feedback. I would be glad to hook you up for a test product. Please call me at 951-493-7147 or email me at jbruce@afepower.com so we can work out getting the product to you for a test. I am looking into the E60 issue. This issue happened before I was here but I will look into it and see if I can provide some history and data as to what aFe has done about this reported issue.

Thanks again to you all.

Jason

[C17MooseDriver]

I give props to AFE for putting up their product to scrutiny. I am very hesitant to believe an open system will not suffer from heat soak. I look forward to seeing some unbiased real world analysis.

[Dsaryan]

AFE provides dyno results but theirs only goes up to about 7200 RPM. I was wondering if anyone can provide a full dyno graph up to the 8400 RPM redline with the AFE intake installed and a full dyno with it stock.

[xxe92xx]

+1 on sending out a tester!

[ModBargains.com]

XunXunDCT (Will) has completed a thorough review with an independent dyno for everyone!

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthr...ght=afe+intake