Engine Drivetrain 1st Gen Cooper S Feedback wanted

For that price I would stick with the Alta (or some other foam filter cause they are the best......:biggrin5

If you already have a CAI, why change? No real advantage to any of them except for the differences in the filter.

 

It looks good to me. Not cheap, but quality usually costs. I'm thinking this is not a Chinese part, but one made in the USA.

I really like my JCW. They can often be found used at a good price.

 

I think it would be pretty easy to fab up a lid for your intake if you feel you need one.

 

Just checked-out the pics on eBay. I don't like how the cover doesn't completely isolate the filter from the rest of the engine bay. There's are some huge gaps between the cover and the bulkhead for the cowl vents and the corner bends are not particularly tight.



I recommend the DDMWorks R53 CAI to all my customers and run one on my car -- and I'm not even a DDM dealer. It's the most nicely constructed and unit on the market in terms of both form and function. The joints are tight and the heat isolation is excellent. If you don't want to fabricate a cover for your existing CAI, I'd go with DDM.



My $0.02 . . .

-Clint

 

Not sure about the K&N filter box, but I know the ALTA v1 box sealed very tight against the hood insulation. You could actually see the impression it made. Only reason Alta came out with the top was to compete against the others that had a top, but it wasn't really necessary.

And in fact there was some testing done years ago on intake systems and it was determined that while driving above about 15 mph there was very little "hot" air at the intake box area. And even if you heat soaked the intake by being stopped for any length of time, the intake actually recovered very quickly. There is a lot of air being moved around by the box, both from the front intake scoop and from the cowl vent (if you have opened it up).

 

True, there are various ways to seal-off the airbox from the rest of the engine compartment. I had an Alta R53 CAI back in '04. I didn't mind the fit, but it had some issues with the how the metal was prepped leading to poor adhesion of the powdercoating.

The testing that you mentioned is interesting. I'd love to see a link to some of the info that you mentioned above. Definitely send on a link if you can scrounge it up.

-Clint

 

Just get a JCW CAI, stick a K&N filter in it and never look back.

2cents :thumbup:

 

I use the top on my Alta because I like the very clean look of removing the Wookie looking ugly carpet from under the hood :cornut: I also remember reading that also.......the air just does not have time to warm up by going thru an even hot intake box.....and it seems to bear out by looking at my IAT'S with my Scangauge.

 

I think it was Gandini (?) on NAM that did some fairly scientific testing on the air temps and cowl vent efficiency way back when.