Best Intake - K&N vs Stock vs Swiss Cheese mod. Test & Review 

That was a fantastic comparison and just proves after all these years that BMW got it right from the factory.

You even sacrificed an airbox for us! And again as usual the stock sistem is the better, i might buy one panel filter just for the fact that there is no need to change it for a long time

I've done an air filter test on my E36 328i. I also measured the pressure drop across the filter. While testing, I had a laptop hooked up to ecu and was logging parameters. Here is what I found. * Kn panel filter had almost no air resistance. *Stock paper filter resistance is small * Mine has a custom pipe from front bumper to the air box. Ram air at 100kmh would eliminate stock air filter resistance. * Cutting holes to filter box would hurt the performance. You'd lose ram air and increase in air temperature. I've logged air temperature without the snorkel. * Stock air filter works really well, which is why it's almost impossible to make any performance gains with filter alone * MAF causes A lot higher resistance than an air filter. (Your m54 MAF is bigger than my m52. Maybe you wouldn't gain much with MAF delete)

Just proves that the manufacturers who spent tons of money on designing the factory air box might just know what they are doing 😂

I was looking forward to this video when you mentioned it in the last one, your channel is consistently great man 🤙

I do enjoy your stuff. You do a good job of demonstrating and explaining. Hopefully the youngsters will watch and learn the truth about these cone filters.

Recently found you channel and loving the e46 content. I was actually looking into getting a pod filter after I drove the car without the airbox when diagnosing an issue, the intake sound was amazing, I see why people like those CSL style carbon intakes on some M cars. Intake sounds even better than the exhaust lol

Thank you man! I subscribed because of ur amazing content

Fantastisk video, Tim!

Once again a great effort and comparison. I personally bought the KN cone filter from the kit only and home made a heat shield, keeping the stock cold air intake as the KN kit while also putting a tube with air from the duct for brake cooling. I noticed some gains but it's combined with cams, higher compression and an ECU remap so I guess the car just needed the extra air.

Great video! Like you mentioned, the E46 has a cold air intake from the factory. So getting a performance increase from an intake upgrade is going to be a challenge. That said, the K&N unit sounds amazing!

This is how it´s done! It´s proven once again, that factory intake systems are not that bad. Now when I have E46 M47N, there´s no need to fiddle with stock intake, but on my previous car (´99 Accord 2.0 ) i did sort of modified intake. Paperfilter and filter box remainded the same stock items, but I removed whole intake resonator box, which is located below the filter box (just behind the bumper in front of right wheel). Then I made ram air tubing from plastic plumbing with one 90 degree elbow leading from the right opening for fog light (my car didn´t have those, just black blanking covers) directly to the bottom half of air box. Basically ram air intake for cheap 😀 While stock intake system together with resonator sucked air from behind right light (that means also from engine compartment), this modified system took air directly from the front of the car. On idle or while driving slowly it was the same sound-wise. But during acceleration or with full throttle it sounded better. I admit, that it was catching more flies and a bit more dust 😀 But that wasn´t an issue for me, because I changed the filter every 10k kms. Most noticeable difference was during summer, when the engine wasn´t suffocating itself with hot air and heat soak from the engine. This was verified on the same day with stock intake and this modified one reading the intake temperatures via diagnostic tool .

Awesome video 👍🏼🍻

This video is great 👍 keep it up dude!

I found in my Mustang GT the biggest gain was dremeling out the stock intake plenum elbow tube past the throttle plate. Its aluminum and flating the round curves and polishing netted 16hp at the wheels on the dyno. If you can spend 4 hours after looking up Nascar plenium mods that are banned you will find charts on how to do this to any car.

Nice test, ty for the time and information

Very nice man! I can confirm as having tried the stock paper, k and n and pipercross filter. Difference is minuscule but k and n sounded the best, only fractionally, probably not even one db or so in the cabin. Maybe very slightly faster, but hardly at all, not by a full horse anyway 😅. Glad to have discovered the channel you’re putting some serious work in!

Great video!

Very well done brother thank you for your effort and expenses you did including the new air box you need to buy

Good content! Appreciate it!

Keeping my 330Ci stock all these years were my best decision. Stock exhaust, stock motor, just new paint and restoration under the car.

On most modern high performance cars buying an air intake kit will not gain anything and may even loose you some HP. Back in the 80's, 90's, and into the early 2000's an air intake kit would make a nice gain, but now manufacturers are trying to pull as much power out of their engines as possible. Everything is optimized. Most air intake kits and even cat back exhaust systems will not make any power difference. The only reason to buy that stuff nowadays is to make the car sound more aggressive.

The best E46 stuff here, thanks ♥♥👍👍

I’m aware that aftermarket filters aren’t really going to make a difference. But they sound and look cool. Working on a car you enjoy driving is also just plain fun.

thx from germany for your awesome test

love this man keep it up

Excellent advice as usual, just proves that intakes are a sound bonus (if one likes that) and nothing else. My first M5 came with some cone filters and very nice aluminium tubing when i got it, removed it after tyrying it for a few days and put the stock system back on which made the car feel alot faster still, no heat soak I guess. OEM's engineer these things alot better.

E46 has air scoop connected to air filter . OEM panel paper filter like Mann or Hengst will have the best results for sure !

Amazing work 💯👏 thanks for sharing this with us. I love ICE cars 🤩 god save modifications and personalisations.

I like the empiric approach of your test. Also came to the same conclusion when I tested several intake mods on my e36 323ti. The stock airbox works very well and no need to spend tons of cash here because it will not gain anything, other than louder intake sound. Which when i had the cone filter setup, it got quite annoying after a while. Also, the cone filter setup will cause turbulences of the air, of which the MAF will be affected by and read wrongly causing the adaptions to wander off a bit. This I noticed because i was also logging the ecu data while performing the tests and comparing MAF /load / temp values.

Woohoo! New channel to watch 😊

That is a very lovely Danish accent 🇩🇰

Igen en fantastisk video 😉

That is why I always tell people that if your car is not tuned to make more than 2X stock power, you don't really need more air and the stock filter is not just fine, it's probably protect your engine much better over KN and stuff like that. Not to mention that most people install new or open air filter that don't have access to fresh cold air but hot air in the engine bay.

I always wanted to know how much of a difference these make. Now I can remove these kits from my eBay watchlist considering the differences are marginal. Absolutely amazing work! Thank you! 🫡 You are like the E46 equivalent of Todd, Project Farm.

thnak you for your work it was great, no stalling no bs just facts. good job

It's the tuned length trumpet from the MAF to the air box that's the key to power increase .

Wow 👍👍great video.

Thanks for saving my money, but I decided to stick with stock intake with a drop-in panel filter a while ago :D Remap and different headers planned this year...

Good bro niC ❤👍

Dope video. Appreciate the breakdown. Know I can slap my cousin with proof about his aliexpress SRI.

Been watching a lot of these types of videos lately, not even mad anymore that all intakes for the VB WRX are basically illegal in California. Unlikely anything that doesn't require a tune would make much of a difference for performance. Thought I wouldn't mind a bit extra noise

Love this vid. My Alpina has a K&N panel filter. I didnt notice any difference 😂

nice test! but beware the K&N filters are oiled. This oil will effect you're MAF sensor in time giving faults. I had to replace but there seems to be sprays out there to spray it but I didn't know. so beware using K&N filters in long term

I've tried all these filters and mods, except the swiss cheese box, and your right the performance is minimal at best but the k/n cold air intake is the loudest and sounds the best it also creates a whistling sucking noise when you give it gas at low speeds. The only thing is you better have your cooling system working properly because if it over heats and it spits up coolant it's going to get sucked in. I use my stock box for the majority of the year and only use my k/n in the very dry summer months when i go on canyon drives amd want to hear more sound.

Well we all know that any standard engine is restricted first by its exhaust then by its air intake . The exhaust would be the limiting factor needing to be made better in order for the need for a performance air filter. And even then the power gain would be un noticable unless on a 1000hp engine

This applies to 95% of all cars,the factory air box system is designed for optimal performance and reduced sound. A lot of money is spent on design with factory induction systems and this is a good example. Well done comparison. So all you young guys out there that put cold air induction systems on your cars your actually loosing power and getting worse fuel economy.

I have noticed with the k&n filters that fuel economy is slightly better. Ive seen an average of 1-2mpg better on the highway vs a oe paper filter. Some vehicles may see an hp or two increase, but it tends to be vehicles with inefficient factory boxes

The sound on the end 😂

I built an intake box out of a trash can from Walmart and it made some more power. No lie.

Before 2005 you needed to use aftermarket intake to get more hp. After that the manufacturers smartened up and started engineering good intake systems.

I think for a test like this 3rd or 4th should be driven all the way out as the air isn’t as useful down low but as the extra air begins to get in the higher flowing filters and intakes will take advantage of it

The KN panel filter gave my diesel Volvo V50 a slight boost. I have one hill where the car could always barely hold the speed at 60 km/h in fourth with a stock filter. With the KN it was able to accelerate slightly. It also got slightly more induction noise. That's the only noticeable difference. No noticeable difference while driving otherwise.

Only issue is engine temps. The cooler your engine is usually the better performance. There is a sweet spot. Along with air density etc…

Fun !

I've always thought of putting a velocity stack in the airbox in place of the tiny scoop that goes between the radiator and headlight

You need to put fresh air from the fog light area directly to the CAI shield filter are with some tube. The only time you will actually notice a difference, also that in combination with some speed.

I drive a suzuki alto 1.1 and put in a k&n filter. The airbox inlet was tapered really narrow so i sawed it off, put a big bend of alu intercooler tubing on instead. From 3000rpm the car sounds super loud and way faster than it is. At 6000rpm it sounds like it will take off like a jet plane haha

A popular thing for the n52 cars is the dinan ram air snorkel, i bet something similar would be of benefit on the e46

And as always, it is very detailed and with passion. As for the KN, 2 relatives installed and deleted. Besides the sound, no benefits

I don't usually install intakes for performance I do it for the sound but usually I go with like something like the latter option either a kn or something similar but cheaper

The biggest issue with the k&n is it's filtering ability, years ago there was an article in a hot rod magazine where they tested a variety of air filters for filtering capabilities, K&n was the worst. I threw mine out after reading the article. That small gain is not worth grinding the engine to death with dirt

bravo

I have a Volvo s60 2.5 liter inline 5 and I took of the top cover if the stock intake box and mounted a big and long K&N intake with great results, better spool time (1400 rpm-1500rpm full boost) stock 1500rpm and better throttle response, little bit lower gas mileage maybe, what I mostly se people doing wrong is using a very tiny filter like your 50 dollar one so I would Aa get a longer one at least like the K&N kit you got or longer(original filter has more surface area then the tiny pod filters 😅)

You do get a performance increase using a high performance filter. But it's like 2-3% max so it's almost not noticeable, unless you have other mods also.

As usual, the factory intake air box is often the best... Until you modify others stuffs as exhaust system and tuning...

I installed this thing called a, "ProCharger," in my intake, and it actually makes a lot of power.

Bimmerhaus Performance intake - gets up to 20 hp and 40 lb ft of torque, high flow and connects directly to turbo inlet.

this tickles my brain i feel like the k&n would be the same as diy but i guess with it having the cover and being able to redirect air with its design better it makes sence

I got the KN Cai kit. Only sounds better, no performance gains. Take note that the KN filters are dipped in oil and sometimes messes up the MAF. Hence I regularly clean my MAF.

This test is very subjective because it differs how much restriction the stock airbox is. Nowadays with new turbo vehicles the management can adjust way better to more air. Often increasing 10-25hp with JUST an intake. No additional tuning required. Nonetheless fun to see :D

My 330 came with exact same K&N setup(expensive one)…I was wondering if factory would be better and tried comparing them back then. I had Laptop hooked up and I was monotoring intake air temp sensor numbers. Before I removed KN, I did about 15km or more drive around lake, get back at home, change it to stock in about half an hour and quickly gone to same 15km root…results shocked me back than, I remember there was about 10 degree difference in intake air temperature, KN was hotter than stock system. Yes, I’ve seen this with my own eyes. Even had data files saved, but it was many years ago and lost it somewhere. Now after all this time I drive with stock system and KN collects dust.

Like your approach of testing. Maybe it's personal but definitely notice a difference; the sound seems higher with the brass. You didn't mention if the droning was less though (?)

Another good thing with the insert KN FILTER is that it will last the lifetime of the car because, you can clean it

Yea, I installed an Injen CAI on my Celica. noticeable sound and power. Could be the lightweight flywheel and the intake combined, but noticeable quicker on acceleration and easier to launch

These are always car dependant. The E46 evidently has a well designed intake system. Other channels have shown improvements on other (stock) cars by using aftermarket intakes or just cone filters. I'm into GM F bodies. My 3rd gen Trans Am is well known to have a restrictive air filter housing, rated 5-10hp lower that its equivelant Camaro. Just replacing it with an SLP designed housing is good for almost 20hp on some versions. Unfortunately they're discontinued so I made my own version of that K&N kit.

My toyota corolla Tsport 2zzge 192hp 1.800cc in the same dyno, same gasoline, same air temperature with k&n cold air intake took 6bhp! (From 189bhp-195bhp) And lower air intake temperature (-10°c)

10 years ago we did a similar test on a dyno with a 325i, stock filter gave more power overall compared to K&N as the Dyno operator predicted beforehand.

i had my CAI ducted to the cabin air intake on my mini r50 , it ended up roaring so damn loud inside the car! i got one mate after another inside and did a sprint and the top end screams giving everyone one of them a mad smiles that says '' now thats fucking cool '' ... good fun and loved that car

Hey, for how long did you test the filters? Most ecu-s does have a possibility to relearn fuel/air ratios, just needs some time for that :)

Not surprised there was no performance difference, remember, any increase in intake air velocity will be registered by the MAF and compensated for. No matter what you do, the factory tune has a baseline it's trying to achieve and will hold back. Everyone who says they got a performance increase from a CAI without a tune is, maybe lying is too strong a word, but mistaken for sure. With a tune, absolutely a CAI is a legit, proper upgrade that will genuinely increase power in a meaningful way. Without changing the tune, the ECU will try to hit it's targets and nothing more. It'll probably throw a CEL if you actually increase airflow too much and your car will probably run like garbage until you get the tune fixed.

Thanks for this comparison. I was actually looking into intakes for my E46. Would you say the sound of the K&N kit is anywhere close to drone? Or not annoying at all?

project farm also did a test, his test showed the K&N panel filter did make an improvement, but maybe it depends on the vehicle.

Had K&N, went back to oem filter. K&N filter messes with air intake map sensor.

My N54 benefited massively from dual cones, especially after mapping. Gained 24hp around 3000 rpm when on max boost. The factory box becomes very restrictive when adding 100+ hp. NA engines do not gain much especially without a map.

Just the video I was looking for! By the way, that strut bar looks super clean. Where did you get it?

That not a CAI, CAI's go down into your fender to get COLD AIR. That's a short ram with a shield to help with hot engine bay affecting intake temps.

Could you please tell me what data-logger you use? Is it an OBD2 type?

The problem is the engine. You can fit any filter on this car, and the result will be the same . Why? Because until the car gets enough air flow without air surge, it will give you the same numbers. If it would be a tuned turbo engine or builded one, then we could see many different results. Simple as it is.

Temperature very different in some tests 😊

Correct me if I’m wrong but you need to tune to see the performance benefits from come intakes especially cold air intakes

Be very careful just connecting a cone to the MAF. I had a stalling issue on my 330 (when I had it) finally worked out you really need that little curved pipe before the MAF.

An aftermarket CAI is a waste of money unless you plan on upgrading your header(s), even then, the stock airbox is probably still the best.

I have read in serveral places that the oil from the k and n filter can get on the maf and cause issues. Not sure how true it is as I've never fitted one.

I installed the K&N 57i CAi on my 01' RS4 Avant and 12' Speed3 .... on my 92' Mirage CyborgR, is just stock oem .... the 4g93 NA runs on Haltech Sport 500 standalone. Bottom line, the CAi works better on a tune forced induction engine while on the NA it doesn't do shit, tune or stock, but I went and install the K&N panel filter just bcoz its washable ... also the same on my 14' Duke 690r and there is a reflash to it too.

Ive tried every type of filter and never seen a difference. Until I watched a video by jullian edgar. I enlarged the pipe before the filter and added a bellmouth not much better sound but better mpg and slightly better throttle response.

The k&N drop in panel filter is actually a way better value than you give it credit for. Instead of replacing it every 10k miles you clean it and re use it for 100k miles. Additionally once you computer adjusts to brething differently, youll notice better gas mileage ive used them.on all of my vehicles for 20 years after putting 100k miles on one

CAI is a must for NA car

would be cool to a/b the k&n cai kit vs stock with a hot engine bay

What app are you using for the mesure ?