I have been looking into replacing the intake on my 2011 Non-S. In looking at the different options available, there seem to be a few main routes people have taken:

DDMWorks - Replaces the stock airbox with an open cone filter and a metal shield

AIRVIP 2 - Replaces the stock intake muffler with a solid tube

AIRVIP 2.5 - Replaces the stock airbox lid, putting the filter on top of the airbox rather than inside it

My question is, couldn't these $200-$300 systems easily be replicated for about $75 with just a cone filter, some holes in the stock airbox lid and and a piece of pipe bent by a muffler shop? I don't understand why these are so expensive for what seems like not much. If there is more to it than I am seeing, please forgive my ignorance and correct me accordingly. I am very new to all of this, just trying to get some clarification on what exactly I'd be getting with the above systems.

 

that's more or less what i did with my evo - pulled off the intake box etc. an stuck a cone filter on the end of it, it's pretty much the go-to setup.

that said, none of these are gonna do much of anythin gon the non-s coopers, definitely not worth the money

 

IMO best thing would be to replace the filter with something hi flow. from what I understand on the gen 2, it pulls air from a great place, if you drill a bunch of holes in it, youll be pulling in the warmer engine air, which may or may not make a difference

 

Part of the reason I wanted to change the intake though was for the sound. Replacing the filter with a high-flow filter won't change the sound much will it?

 

most likely not, since the intakes are also designed to not make noise. if looking straight for noise. delete that box and put a cone filter on it, should get better throttle response, but a tad less power, anything I doubt you would be able to feel

 

Thanks, this is exactly what I needed to know!

 

Do you have a recommendation as to which cone filter to use?

 

k&N makes a bunch of different shapes and sizes for many inlets. my GF has the 2nd gen, and she doesn't let me mod her car. so it would be hard to say which filter to actually get haha. but im sure you could get a barrel style or a cone style fairly easy. I think I remember somewhere if the filter is too close to the maf sensor, it may give it some strange readings, so an extra piece of pipe to the filter may be useful depending on where the sensor is

 

All good to know, thanks!

 

For anyone else reading this thread, the filter used by the DDMWorks intake, the K&N intake and the AIRVIP intake is the K&N RU-1480. This is the filter I'll be going with.

 

i was thinking of getting some silicone intake tubing and making my own tube to replace the oem silencer
ive heard it improves throttle response from the threads ive search out here
I was then going to see if I could use some more tubing to replace the oem stuff from the airbox to the intake and see if i could mod the stock box to fit a decent size cone filter

now, i dont know if i will ever do it but thats what I want to do
saw it done on a clubman in one of the other forums here

 

I just got the K&N panel filter removed the silencer, put in a chrome tube. Sounds nice that way!

 

Hear for yourself

 

Dear god that's a lot of noise. I think the silencer delete is *nearly* equal to the noise level. It is worth noting that the current thought is that the engine is tuned specifically to work with the silencer in place and that there's a very minor power loss from using anything other than stock.

 

my intake built for around 50-60 bucks

 

Nice whats it sound like? I do notice that it is several inches to the right of where it would have been mounted!

Art

 

it was originally mounted in the factory location but it didn't seem to do more then make a little noise so I extended it to give the air more time to smooth out. Now it is a noticeable difference pulls hard in the middle of the rpm range and growls loud. eventually going to add a box around the filter and larger bore tubing to fresh air.

 

Cool, I just have the K&n filter in the original air box my DDM kept falling off and I lost it.

 

Would anything negative happen if I were to remove my silencer and grille intake tube entirely, leaving just the stock airbox? I have a nice filter in it, but cold weather has beaten it up. The tube going to the grille likes to slide out of the silencer (clips broken) and the silencer is only sealed to the airbox because of a bit of tape on the back where the lip broke off.

 

I would just remove silencer and keep the tube plugged where the silencer was. I ran mine that way for awhile.

 

I have been running mine like this for over 20k miles with the K&N drop in filter, works great. Modest noise increase lets you hear the engine working old school. Possibly a little more poke in the midrange on a Justa, hard to tell though.

 

And you just have the tube coming from the grille blocked off?

 

Actually removed the whole tube to the grill but left the "fan" shaped fresh air collector in place. Some whine about using hot air inside the engine compartment, but in my climate there is not much difference in temperature. The key to all this regardless is to remove the silencer and either replace it with some sort of tube (pay big money or go Home Depot) or just leave it open like I did - the silencer is the choke point.

 

I don't think the hot air is a worry, almost every good performance intake for the R56 uses engine compartment air. Mine runs better when it's warmer.

 

So I removed my silencer today, I'm happy with it. Even though my silencer was "disabled" using tape, it's way louder now. It's about the same noise level at 4k RPM as it used to be at 6k. As I thought, the engine doesn't seem to give a **** about sucking in warm air. I doubt there's much air temperature difference, given that the air typically would knock around in the silencer briefly, which is going to be around 150F in a MINI engine bay.

I didn't block off the intake tube because I checked and there's no way for bugs/dirt to fly in there.

Edit: In relation to CAIs, removing the silencer is really doing the same thing a $400 CAI is as long as you've got a performance filter in.