Randy,

You seem to be the guru here on most issues. There is a lot of talk about the mini-madness intake, bmp intake, or others. But what kind of gains can a guy see with the stock air box, modified like you showed us (way cool by the way) and then use a filter in the stock box that moves more air like the Alta mini oiled foam filter.

Your thoughts??

 

Randy is offline. You can't do it unless you change the intake.
I am assuming you mean the holes?
The filters sit at the top of the box and you have dirty air
being sucked in. The Madness intake has the best numbers
as far as HP increase.

 

Yup. 2minis is right. I did the airbox modification. You have to have a Cone element filter not a panel in order to do the MINI Motorsport Airbox Mod.

 

Great question. You can see some improvement over the stock numbers with a Pipercross element change using only the stock airbox. Sound and response are improved with about a 3-4 horsepower gain. The holey modification wouldn't do you any good though. Until you open the box by replacing the top with a cone of some sort, no addtional air would get to the intake. It is sealed to the rear (and most everywhere else for that matter) and only receives intake air from the snorkel in the front which directs air to the "dirty" side of the filter on the bottom.

Here is a pic of the way the stock system works:



You can see that to the rear of the filter box, opening up the rear partition to the fresh air inlet on the cowl wouldn't provide any more air.

All that said, the drop-in element is a good buy at about $50. It also still looks stock when you open up the engine compartment, and there's always something to be said for that.

Let me know if I can help you with your decisions in any way.

Randy
randy@mini-motorsport.com
720-841-1002

 

I hate the air intake on the MINI it looks like a mobius strip on crack. All of those twists and turns must create massive amounts of turblence and restrictions.

 

Randy,

Thanks for the input. I realize the more popular intakes are superior, I'm just not a fan of oil gauze filtration. I had a K&N on a heavily modified 95 Eclipse. It moved a lot of air, but it's ability to filter was less than I think is good. I would never trust a K&N in an off-road application or in a dusty environment, even though I have friends who would disagree with me.

So with that said I thought one might be able to open up the stock box and use an oiled foam filter. And then if possible open up the box into the cold air area like your post showed. But after I got a couple of responses, I went back and looked at the your post and could see that wasn't possible.

So do you have a favorite intake between the piper, the bmp, or the mini-madness? Are both the bmp and mini-madness oiled gauze. Is the gauze weave any tighter than that of the K&N.

Thanks again for your help and insight.

John

 

John,

Check your PMs.

That's the reason I carry the Pipercross, for people that intend on competing in the Paris-Dakar

Seriously, the Madness intake is my favorite. It not only flows well, but it has a much larger filter = more surface area.

I have no problem with the filtration rate of the K&N type filters. The key is keeping them cleaned and oiled. The Pipercross is actually similar - it must be oiled to maintain the correct filtration as well.

You lose about 3 horsepower (more if the mods are significant) between the Pipercross and the Madness. The foam element on the Pipercross does have a higher micron filtration than the cotton elements, but you don't really lose that much in flow rate. I think the reason for the disparity is simply the size of the element (size does matter).

Here are the pics of each:



PIPERCROSS



MADNESS



BMP

Let me know if you have any questions. I carry all three of these filters, so I don't really have a bias other than what I've experienced.

Randy
randy@mini-motorsport.com
720-841-1002