need help wiht air intake for 97 318 ti

[barische]

i have a 1997 318ti its in great condition and i wanna upg its intake system right now i have the stock intake box and its buggin my mind i want to improve the performance of the car.
i dont know what brand to get i was lookin at cosmo racing they got short ram intake for 66 dolars and i want to know that do i need a heat shield for the intake
thank you for the help

[barische]

from what i hear that i decided to buy the cosmo racing cold air intake system its 103 bucks but i have a question
do i need something to stop water from going into the intake
some people say i need like a cover or somethin
thanks for the help

[Chrisbailiff]

from what i can tell, if your worried about water getting in, you can get a bypass valve, which is pretty cheap, but from what i looks like, you dont have anything to worry about unless you get your intake fully submerged in water

[gooten1]

K&N all the way if you're on a budget. Hook it on, then get a heat shield and you're golden. Besides, the engine looks soo much less cluttered than it does with the airbox and all the stuff that goes to it.

[gadgetphreak]

I just purchased a '98ti with the K&N intake already installed, but no heat shield was installed...

What kind of heat shield works best with the K&N Intake?

Also, I noticed a smaller exposed element slightly in behind the K&N filter, any ideas what that is?

Thanks,
Gadget

[96cali]

Check out the pros and cons of aftermarket intakes here:

http://www.logun.org/fog.htm

Basically it boils down to the availability of 318ti/M44 heat sheilds, which I'm not sure anyone makes (mass production anyways). You need a heat sheild to avoid sucking in hot air, which has decreased mass, which combines with less fuel which means less go.

If you do find a heat sheild then yes the argument falls to protecting your engine from debris and water which the stock airbox does well. This is why he "fogged" his airbox.

[gooten1]

The small tube behind the K&N goes to the airpump. It's on the M44 for emissions reasons...blows intake air into the manifold to make the exhaust seem cleaner at startup.