NickIt seems with BMW vehicles in particular, fitting a high performance Intake makes a big difference in the performance of your Bimmer’s engine. A performance intake, especially a properly engineered, “tuned” intake that is designed to actually suck in a cool air charge, will have a slightly different effect on your BMW’s performance – for instance, aFe Power’s new Magnum Force intake system for F10 535i gives the car a massive 32whp and 60wtq max gain over stock… those figures might seem impressive on the face of it – and they are – but a further look at the dyno sheet gives us the real meat: those gains under 3,000 rpm, making a major difference in the car’s low end grunt, giving it an extra 30hp at a point in the rev band that your 300hp+ N55 is only making 150 or so HP – and the 60lb/ft of torque is a huge amount of gain down low. Up top, the gains peter out – but that’s the beauty of engineering an intake. The car may not have that much more to give up top, but with clever engineering, you can get a hell of a lot more out of it down low. This will vary from car to car, but it goes to show the huge role the DESIGN of your intake system makes.
On that system, the intake makes a huge difference down low and then evens out with slightly more output than stock as RPMs approach redline. On the other hand, some systems deliver what I like to call “across the board” gains. That’s the advantage of a “tuned” intake system – by tailoring the shape of the intake you can engineer the airflow to have certain characteristics at certain RPMs. We told you a bit about that last week when we brought you coverage of Cold Air Intake Development for the BMW M4 from aFe Power but we’d like to show you the benefits of the work they do firsthand.
We’ve fitted this E64 2006-09 BMW 650i w/4.8l V8 with an aFe Power Magnum Force Stage II Pro 5R intake system, good for a gain of 12hp and 11tq at the wheels on the 650i. Unlike what we see on that 535i intake where it gets a massive gain at the lower end of its powerband, this system delivers a more modest but more consistent 10-12hp increase from 2700rpm up, giving the car an overall boost in output that you’ll definitely notice. The OEM intake flows at just 153 CFM – the aFe Power intake flows at 236 CFM, a 100+ CFM gain in airflow, meaning your V8 is uncorked and can breathe to its full potential.
This intake system for 650i is more than just a short ram system – featuring proper heat shielding, this intake system features a sealed airbox heat shield to keep the engine from inhaling a hot aircharge from under the hood, the filter housing and brushed aluminum cover help channel cooler air into the inlet.
The aluminum cover not only advertises you’ve got a high quality intake from Advanced Flow Engineering, but also helps reduce temperatures while also providing ready access to the filter for easy service.
The connecting tube is molded using low-heat-soak plastic to help insulate the aircharge further from heat sources, and plastic or silicon intake tubes offer better heat insulation than metal intake pipes.
The aFe Power Magnum Force Stage II Pro5R intake for the E63 650i also happens to fit 645i models and fits the E60 550i.
An intake upgrade is a great way to add some power to your BMW and certainly a great way to get started modding, as this upgrade serves to help enhance the effect of other performance parts further down the line. Interested in knowing more about Air Intakes? Check out this blog post where we explain the types of Intake Upgrades available and what the differences are. Interested in an aFe Power Intake for your car? Talk to ModBargains.com‘s Modification Experts to have our enthusiastic car-modding pros recommend an upgrade that’s ideal for your car and how you use it. Call us at 714-582-3330 today!
Story by Nicholas Gregson
Photos by Doug Johnson, TheDrivenLifestyle