[Route 16]

Anyone with a reference of which one to get? Dinan Ram-Air intake assembly for $400 or BMW PI for $725? Disregarding looks and price for a sec and just think about performance wise.

[roadkillrob]

Ultimately neither will make any noticeable difference in your performance, a $69 drop in filter will do as much as the car already get's cold air from behind the kidneys and the stock airbox isn't add much for restriction on the 328. For looks, BMW wins this one.

Here is an idea - look up the Mr. 5 intake mod for the 335 - I have never looked in the 328 airbox, but if it has the room to do something similar, the Mr. 5 intake basically does what the Dinan intake does for about $100, just not sure if there is room to get the hose adapter mounted in the airbox.

[mlifxs]

from reading up on the opinions on this site, regarding 328i intake,
seems to be many people favor the BMW euro air box, a link to a new one is shown below: http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E90-328...ake/ES2072577/
It's BMW oem, and cheaper than the PI.
It uses a high flow cone filter vs a panel filter.

if you search on "euro air box", you will find ample discussion of this option.

roadkillrob makes a good point about a drop in filter. There are links here describing how to remove the charcoal filter and install a drop in. I've done this and it does make a noticeable difference. Only issue is that a fabric filter drop in such as K&N must be maintained carefully so that the MAF sensor does not get corrupted.

[Wires]

Originally Posted by yoko kai

Anyone with a reference of which one to get? Dinan Ram-Air intake assembly for $400 or BMW PI for $725? Disregarding looks and price for a sec and just think about performance wise.

Both are going to be a giant rip off for performance, as you're just not going to see the gains/$ you'd like to see.

Typically, CAI's are only going to net you a couple of HP, and that's going to be at WOT, and very high RPM. Stuff that you typically don't see when driving. Modern intakes are quite efficient. There is no point in BMW really crippling the HP of the car with a poor intake design, since they can market it as more powerful if the intake track is good.... HP numbers sell.

You'd be better off with a high flow drop in air filter.