Check out my custom Intake

[NZM50SWAP]

Threw this together today
It's not quite finished hence why it ain't all clamped up.
Welded a small tube of the bottom for vaccum hose and plumbed my charcol filter off and made a catch can for the oil fent hose.

What do you guys think?? I'm gonna make up some sort of shield to cover the filter in to

[tonytony]

wow tha'ts excellent, plus you dont have the abs pump right there to get in the way. My engine bay seems more clustered up than yours, nice!

[Jason89i]

looks good. dont forget to add you two breather lines. i have also been told (reputible vendor) that it is best to have 4" of straight pipe before the hfm. this will eliminate turbulance in the hfm and create a more consistant reading. cheers, jason

here's my 3.5-3.0.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=2393&stc=1&d=1149268632

[matt]

looks good. dont forget to add you two breather lines. i have also been told (reputible vendor) that it is best to have 4" of straight pipe before the hfm. this will eliminate turbulance in the hfm and create a more consistant reading. cheers, jason

here's my 3.5-3.0.
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/atta...1&d=1149268632

I would use the stock TB hose. You're spot on with the straight pipe in front of the MAF. It would be better to have the filter right on the end of the MAF than that bent pipe.

The intake looks good aside from those little details. Step number next is to holesaw a 3.5 or so inch hole under where the filter is and run another pipe down there. Don't forget, it needs to get straight BEFORE the MAF.

[Garageaholic]

Where IS your ABS pump? do you even have one?

[erik325i]

Where IS your ABS pump? do you even have one?

It's probably an early model car, so it doesn't have ABS.

-Erik

[NZM50SWAP]

Mines a 89 320i 5spd. No abs. (yay):)
Breather lines??? What for and where?? I have the big vaccum hose pluged in to the bottom of the intake that goes back under the intake manifold.
I don't have any other vaccum hoses that aren't hooked up..

True....... I didn't realise I need to have a straight pipe before my air flow meter .. Is that what you guys refer to as "MAF"??? WHy can't I have the bend before it?? If I had the filter just on the air flow meter without the bend wouldn't it still get turbulance???

Thanks for the info guys .. Shit I'm no mechanic just a poor delivery boy thats sick of paying heaps for stuff I can do...

[Rocla]

320i(and 323i and 325i before 8/85) model never had ABS as stock item, but they could be ordered with ABS.

[Jason89i]

Mines a 89 320i 5spd. No abs. (yay):)
Breather lines??? What for and where?? I have the big vaccum hose pluged in to the bottom of the intake that goes back under the intake manifold.
I don't have any other vaccum hoses that aren't hooked up..

True....... I didn't realise I need to have a straight pipe before my air flow meter .. Is that what you guys refer to as "MAF"??? WHy can't I have the bend before it?? If I had the filter just on the air flow meter without the bend wouldn't it still get turbulance???

Thanks for the info guys .. Shit I'm no mechanic just a poor delivery boy thats sick of paying heaps for stuff I can do...

there are two stock breather lines that plug into the bottom of the intake boot. the one your missing is the valve cover breather.

MAF (mass air flow) is what this engine uses. measures the mass of the air passing through the cylinder.
HFM (hot film meter) is very similar. the 92 m50 uses it.
AFM (air flow meter) is what the m20's use. air pushes open a flap door to get reading.

if you put a bend in the tube just before the meter, the air will compress on the outside of the bend and create thin air on the inside of the bend. depending on where the filement gets the reading could mess things up. yyou really want equal pressuure air (no bends) without swirling turbulance (no baffle elbows / quick change in direction) before the metering device..

4" of straight pipe befor the meter is sufficient to equalize / stabilize air.

cheers, jason

[NZM50SWAP]

Awesome jason
Thanks for the info.
Mate this is why r3vlimited has made my swap so easy you guys are a huge wealth of knowledge about the e dirty

[NZM50SWAP]

Pics

Pics of it finally finished and installed

[equate975]

Gah you bastards with no ABS have it soo easy ;) Looks good

Im going the m30 box way though

[tonytony]

what's with that little filter?

[NZM50SWAP]

Little filter?

Oil catch can bro. It's the only place I could mount it and not have it in the way

[jrez]

NIce job!

I don't think I'd give much concern to the "turbulence" issue, as the radius of those bends looks to be quite gentle, and internal boundary layer seperation not a great concern.Many turbo cars have much tighter radius bends anywhere in their intake plumbing, and considering the problem would be amplified under boost it does'nt seem to deter people from using them.
My intake is considerably worse in regards to bend radiuses, and probably would stand to gain something by straightening it out, but I'd be surprised if i noticed it.
Also, I'd definately go with your current setup over a aircleaner clamped to the MAF. The pipe length will give the airflow time to develop velocity and direction, unlike the aircleaner setup, which is trying to swallow up air from all around and throw it together. My opinion is the turbulence will be worse, and unless a heatshield of sorts is installed, will taking in hot air from the back of the rad.

my two cents