Why won't a cone filter work?

[Bimmerfanatik]

So I had swapped the airbox for a cone filter on my old 85 euro, and wanted to put it on the ES.

Tried swapping the entire AFM/cone setup - no go. Car just stalls.

Tried swapping the cone filter adapter from the euro's AFM to the 86 AFM and tossed the cone filter on - still just stalls.

The only combination that the car will run on is the stock 86 airbox.

Any ideas why?

[DaN]

How's the afm boot? any cracks in it?
Maybe the mounted airbox squeezes the boot together enough to seal it slightly?

[tonytony]

did you plug the AFM back in?

[Pieter E30]

Do u mean something like this:

[Surge]

No tubes coming off the parts that bolt onto the airbox that you've just unplugged or anything along those lines? Most obvious thing would be 'plugged the AFM back in?'

[nando]

why bother? it's an ETA, and the stock airbox is more than enough with a quality filter installed. I guess if you want the sound and the looks?

[EtaSport]

The only thing im thinking is the temp sensor on the airbox, but that shouldnt make any difference. Crank up the screw on the TB when you start it to at least keep the car running, and then try to unscrew the ICV to bump the idle up. When I installed my cam I had to unscrew the ICV almost all the way out to keep it running, when before it was screwed all the way in.

[Bimmerfanatik]

why bother? it's an ETA, and the stock airbox is more than enough with a quality filter installed. I guess if you want the sound and the looks?

Pretty much :) I have the cone filter...it always sounded and looked a lot better than a rusty beat up stock airbox.

Yes, it was plugged in. I even had the barometric sensor mounted and plugged in too. The ONLY change was the cone filter instead of the airbox. Strange.