I am looking to purchase a CAI and would like some input on what people think works the best for the R56. Will you guys please let me know what you think works best and where you purchased it. Looking to get some prices as well. Thanks ahead of time. ~ Erik

 

Intakes give you barely any increase in power. Its mostly about the noise.

If you want the most turbo/blow-off noise, find a open intake. Basically just an cone intake filter stuck on to the inlet tube. Sucks mostly hot-air (not a good thing), but gives you a ton of noise. Probably makes you think you are going a lot faster too. Alta/DDM/NM engineering/K&N + more make these type of intakes. Fairly cheap at around $200 for the DDM.

Then there is ram-air style intakes. They use a funnel attached to the hood scoop to direct the air into the intake. The intake is usually in an enclosed box. They make a little less noise than open-air intakes, but they suck in cold/outside temp air. DDM/AEM/M7 are some of the companies that make them. These are around the $400 mark, except for the Racing Dynamics and Gruppe M ones (which are $800+).

Then there is OEM style intake boxes which use the oem cold air hose to suck in air. They usually have a cone filter inside the intake box. They also have a larger than oem intake box housing. Gives slightly better performance than stock, but without the loud ricer blow-off noise. It is a little louder than stock though. JCW and ECS are the only ones that I know of that make these type of intakes. JCW is fairly cheap at $300. ECS is about $500, but made of CF.
I use the JCW intake.

Pick your poison.

 

You are about to get slammed with the "use the Search Button" rant!!!
BLUF... the only true aftermarket CAI for the R56 is the Defenders Of Speed Intake (DOS)

All others just provide great looks and sound under the hood👍

 

I was about to do that lol. I swear there are like 10 threads from the past week or so about intakes

 

You can find more out about Our ECS CF intake here: Its for the Cooper S and JCW ( turbo) R56+. You did not state if you have an turbo or Cooper ( Non S ) engine.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...er-intake.html

 

Here is a Ram Air System for you



http://www.m7tuning.com/m7-mini-coop...2007-2015.html

 

OK, My research has shown my typhoon is sucking in HOT air when stuck in traffic and heating up my nice new FMIC to the tune of 7 to 20 degrees F . So I;m either going to use a JCW intake to draw in fresh air only or go to a DDM ram air type.

My feeling is the DDM will heat up in traffic as well, probably not as much but still will , and I'm not putting a top of the engine heat shield for the AEM.

But the JCW would require finding and buying a N14 lower and N18 upper for a possible cost of more than a ram or and equal to a ECS CF intake.

I also wash my car weekly in a car wash so the ram air would require me to make a block for the scoop.

I'm liking the ECS CF but at $500 I could get the DDM for less. If the ECS was the same price I'd probably pull the trigger today. It does look cool BUT who would see it ?

 

I don't see a performance difference between an aftermarket CAI accept you will lose that low end torque by going with an intake that is basically a filter attached to the turbo charge pipe. When I first bought an AEM intake that utilized the scoop for air to be sucker in, I lost much of my low end torque, sold it in eBay for cheap. Put your money where it will matter, like a rear sway bar. There's nothing wrong with the stock CAI.

 

Its not only looks good when you pop the hood , its a CAI and does not pull air from the engine. Other intake just dont look near as nice and have the quality our has.

Good luck on whatever you choose , I don't think you will be disappointed, also our ECS CF intake is free ship. Really like it on our R58 JCW.

 

Unfortunately, we've not seen any gains with intakes for the Gen 2 cars. Put a clean filter in it and spend your money where it'll make you some power.

 

As everyone else said intakes are mostly for sound and other aesthetic changes, not really performance. I went with a K&N panel air filter and now I get that awesome blow-off noise but no real performance gain. Perhaps I get an extra MPG or two but I don't know. MSRP on them is around $50 but I found a used one here for half the price.

 

so no one believes the ECS dyno shots ? I know it's only a few hp. And if the JCW uses a round filter over the panel there must be SOMETHING to it ?

My biggest complaint or issue is heat during traffic. I am not sure if the IC is getting heat soaked or the hot air going into the typhoon is actually heating up the IC or a combo.

I am starting to think it's a combo, I have put my stock filter back on and will see if IAT temps decrease in traffic.

As for a rear sway comment, already done that, FMIC, JB+, exhaust. Contemplating a Manic tune next. So I want the best air flow with the least temp increase.

Again I like the ECS CF idea but they are fixed on the price, if it was the same as say a DDM ram air I'd buy it today.

I think the JCW design airbox is the way to go BUT if I have to buy all the parts, ie bottom and top it could cost as much as the ecs CF , and gotta admit the CF looks good but I can't find any reviews and don't want to be the first to buy one.

 

I skipped a "cold air" intake and dropped in the aFe dry panel filter.

 

Ok, put stock air box back on, sure enough in traffic my IAT's did not climb near as much as my HOT air intake K&N typhoon did , I'd guess about 75% better so I'm done with sucking in hot air which I believe also heated up my FMIC.
I do miss the sounds but not enough to give up power.
Another weird thing, I know today is hotter than yesterday BUT I got on it to watch IAT's and could not believe I pegged by boost guage, I had dash command set for 20 max , and it pegged hard and fast. Could hot air intake have been hurting max boost or over boost do to the sudden intake of hotter air under hood ?
I have reset to max of 25 and will check again. Glad I went to 1 step colder plugs a month ago.

So I sucked it up and ordered the ECS CF intake because I want the ability to flow more and finding a JCW upper and lower could cost be almost as much . This way I'll have the factory colder air intake with a high flow filter without giving up torque and it's without a doubt the best looking.
Should have known this as my first motorcycle had those high flow air filters on the carbs and it's perf was horrible till I found a factory air box, albeit carbs are diff than our situation .
I just hope the ECS dyno numbers are real.

 

Thanks for the purchase rckrzy1. You will love the looks. The numbers are real. Post up a overall review, we appreciate the feedback.

 

The aFe Power Pro 5R/Dry Air Filters are a good choice.

-Luccia

 

I have never used a dry filter, but know with about 40 yrs of playing on cars that oil filters work, especially in dusty climates. Provided you don't over oil and coat your MAF and clean as needed.

The only thing I wished ECS had done was wrap a metal tube with CF were clamps are applied as CF strength is not in that force of being crushed. Luckily it's on the vacuum side and does not need to be too tight.

But it is the best looking setup and if it functions the same as the JCW tuning box I'll be happy.

 

The M in M7 stands for Money. I wish sometimes my MINI was a Honda and we had more market share so prices would be so on goodies.

 

• Composite construction using prepreg fiberglass materials and autoclave manufacturing processes.
• It is shipped in the "directly out of the mold" gloss black epoxy finish.
• It uses a 12" long x 5 " diameter dual stage super high flow/low restriction washable foam filter that will outflow any air demand your engine will ever need.
• The 100% silicone connection elbow fits perfectly to the factory MAF housing. No modifictions necessary.
• A properly designed intake tract allowing the air to speed up with no restrictive air-box interface. The filter will see the airflow across the entire 12" of filter media, not just a small portion of it.
• Rain/water drain holes are located in the lowest area of the intake box. If water enters the the intake box, it will drain without harm.
• Easy engine servicing.
  • The filter element can be cleaned and re-oiled by opening up the easy access filter cover at the rear of the intake box. The access panel uses three quarter-turn aircraft fasteners to hold the cover tightly in place
  • Easy access to the oil fill cap without removing the AGS-R2.
  • For spark plug service, just remove the AGS-R2 airbox. This is a simple process that takes no longer than a few minutes.
• Since the AGS-R2 is not attached to the hood, a M7 Straight Strut Tower Brace (PN 53-5M7102) easily clears the air box.
• The M7 R56 Vortex 2 Scoop (PN 56-4M7202 or 56-4M7203) will be a fabulous addition to this system in terms of style and air volume entering the AGS-R2 intake tract. The Vortex 2 Scoop is sold separately.
• Heat is Enemy Number 1 under the hood of the R56. Since part of the AGS-R2 sits above the turbo, we recommend adding our turbo heat shield (PN 56-3M7111 or 56-3M7115) as part of the installation. The Turbo Heatsheild is sold separately.
• Total system with all brackets weighs under 5 pounds! (<2.3 Kg)

 

I have yet to modify my air intake system. The stock airbox on my 2011 R56S pulls cold air from just next to the left headlight. I don't see getting any colder air from anywhere else. The hood scoop may be an option, but would require a lot of heat insulation due to the turbos location just below the scoop. I ran a K&N panel filter for a while, and liked it. Then, I upgraded to a foam PiperCross filter. I really think that I feel more HP in the butt-dyno, and I can hear a bit more blow-off (or recirc, lol) with the PiperCross. Since the turbo adds hot air to the engine after the air intake, I am not sure where a cold-air intake would help. FMIC would seem to be the BEST upgrade for cooling the intake charge, but finances prevent me from doing that mod just yet.

 

Not to completely derail this thread, but since we're already beating a dead horse here...

It's pretty much common knowledge around here that there are little - if any - power gains to be had from the current batch of CAI's on the market. I'm curious if anyone has documented power loss from any of the open filter designs like the Alta or NM "CAI". I put an Alta intake on my JCW years ago and liked the sound so much that I carried it over to my GP, but I've always felt it was not really an ideal design. The AGS-R is appealing, but I don't think it would be worth the coin unless I was loosing power with the intake I have now.

 

Loss in low end torque, same thing will happen if you port your head to much, it will be sluggish. Restriction adds torque and open type filters with little restriction gain HP.

 

I actually just got done doing some monitoring of IATs. I currently have a helix intercooler and a K&N intake. I have a hard time believing that the intake temps are higher with the CAI designs. The ambient temp during my last test was 90F and my intake temps were, at max, 93F...usually hovering between 91-92F. With those readings I can't see how that would result in lost power due to heat.

Even if I did lose a slight amount of power, how much could it realistically be? The sound and looks of the CAI offset that in my opinion.

 

When MOVING yes. But after sitting at a light and wanting to GO I was seeing +20 degrees above ambient IAT .

Now with a CAI ECS it's more like +5 . The open elements are HAI .

These are my findings. Yours may vary.

 

The trip I logged was pretty varied so maybe that's why? My peak IAT was 93 though. I'll have to log when I'm in heavy stop-go and see what it is then. Interesting findings you had though. Maybe humidity plays a role? I'm in SWFL, can't see your location on the mobile app but I wonder if the humidity doesn't provide some evaporative cooling of sorts.