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Hey guys i own a 2014 c300 w204 and i was wondering what cold air intake setups i could run. Ive been looking around and couldnt find any engine bays that look like mine and would fit the intake. If you know what intakes that would fit this and you guys let me know that would be great.
What are you looking to do? I mean, this is a 4 wheel drive pseudo luxury pseudo sports car. If you're looking to ramp up horsepower, is all that money worth it for another 2HP with a cold air intake?
Lots of things you can do to achieve a similar result - the first would be to clean your intake valves since you have a direct injected motor...
Anyways, sorry, respectfully, I think what you're asking is a bit silly. If you're looking to mod it for the sake of modding it, sure, but if you're doing it to turn your C300 into a Corvette...well, ain't gonna happen buddy.
ummm, the air travels from the front inlet, about 6 inches into the intake system, through the filter and in, its not going to get much 'colder' dude.... leave your car alone.
If you are looking at one of those silly intakes that use a K&N cone filter then don't waste your time. They just suck in hot air from the engine bay.
Ya know...in these great United States...when someone can sue McDonalds for serving coffee that is too hot..and win, I'm surprised someone hasn't sued K&N for silly marketing.
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Hey guys i own a 2014 c300 w204 and i was wondering what cold air intake setups i could run. Ive been looking around and couldnt find any engine bays that look like mine and would fit the intake. If you know what intakes that would fit this and you guys let me know that would be great.
Mike, no reputable tuner has made one because what you have already is the best. When the time comes to replace your engine air filter, I suggest you DYI and you'll understand why.
Don't worry about the other comments. I understand where you are coming from and sometimes we simply need to scratch an itch (modding for the sake of modding), but in this scenario, it doesn't exist.
I recently did dual cold air intakes on my c350 and its definitely a huge difference.
I am not sure if any of you noticed....
But those Kevlar hose they use as stock, are breathable, and suck in tonnes of hot air eh, so ultimately the car already is getting a lot of hot air in, just in smaller volume. Slap some cones on there, take out those square filters in the air box, heat wrap your custom pipe fittings and you'll notice the difference!
Not to mention the bellow noise now at 3000+ rpm, good times!
its actually really good for the car i heard, esp the V6s have a lot to gain, +15 HP + the extra hot air and dust getting through the crappy reusable filter help scrub the inside of the engine extra clean.
I actually noticed that the engine cover/ intake assembly is more cleaner and free of dust when I used the K&N filters. The opening the intake runners attach too gather lots of dust and other stuff like leaves, many things can pass through there. But with the cone filter it eliminates that.
I'd just like to point out that those who have tried it themselves like me, don't really have any bad things to say about it. And the ones constantly bashing it never tried it themselves and are speaking subjectively.
I'm not sure if I can provide any knowledge, but I can provide you with my experience which I've said so many times, I feel like I work for K&N now. I have NEVER had problems with this setup or any of my other cars all of which I have used kn filters on. Is there an actual gain of power? Yes. Is it bad? I haven't had any problems. Does the stock intake configuration deliver colder air than this setup? Hell yea it probably does. Until someone can thoroughly compare stock panel filters, kn panel filters, and kn cone filters on a dyno and in real world scenarios with temperature readings then we'll never really have the "knowledge" you speak of.
B737 - Then get on a thread where you can actually have some legit input instead of being sarcastic and bashing on others who are genuinely enthusiastic about their cars.
First off the two engines pictured are different. The top engine the OP posted is the newer version which really has no room for an aftermarket intake. The short factory intake on the left hand side is about as good as it's going to get. If you wanted it to "breathe" better (and this is subjective and not scientific at all) is to replace the OEM panel filter with a K & N filter. Will it make a difference, probably not. Will you feel it, sure, you will subconsciously give it just a bit more gas as it may be a tad louder so your butt dyno will say it's faster. You wish it to be so so you convince yourself that it has more power. Could you pick up 1-3 HP, maybe, your won't be able to tell but you will say you did to satisfy your "tuner" brain and your emptier wallet. It's cool as I love to spend money on useless crap on my car too. Trust me, I spent $5K on my car in the first month of ownership.
As far as the second set of pics of an earlier pre-facelift car there are actually two OEM intake tubes and that poster has replaced what are direct to the engine air ducts with Spectre 4" cone filters with an filtered open front piece. It would look better if he had used the aluminum or red or blue silicone optioned Spectre branded connectors (which are also all available at most Pep Boys Stores). I worked at Pep's corporate office and for years was the performance buyer so all that stuff was brought in by me over the last 10 years so I know exactly what it is. It's really good product and since there are no aftermarket W204 specific CAI's available the Spectre product is the best option. If that poster removed the OEM filters (You should as otherwise the air now has to go through both Spectre and OE filters) then realistically he won't do any damage to the car as long as the filters are kept in good usable condition. Will it "feel" faster, most certainly. Will it be faster, marginally but again his butt dyno will tell him that it's faster and that is what matters.
Realistically though the OEM intakes are engineered to be the most efficient as they take air only from outside and basically ram feed it to the engine. The aftermarket solutions shown above capture air both coming in from the outside and from ambient air in the engine compartment. Keep in mind our W204's all have cladding underneath so outside of the grill openings and the OEM intake there really is no other air in there specially at idle or slower city driving. The aftermarket CAI may get more air at highway speed than the OEM unit but around town realistically the aftermarket unit will grab hotter air from the engine bay than the OEM unit.
At the end of the day it's the owners money to spend as they see fit. I can have all the spectre product I want for free, I have chosen not to do this particular mod to either one of my 2 W204's as to me the benefits just aren't worth it.
Two things to keep in mind:
If you decide to change your OEM intake for an aftermarket on please remove your OEM filters
Keep all OEM components so when you go trade your car in you can put it back to stock. No one wants to buy your "Custom Made Cold Air Intake Kit"
Last edited by Atlas Grey; 06-14-2017 at 09:23 AM.
when I first got my MB, i had a list of things I wanted to do to it, customize, or learn about customizing, and coming from tuning Hondas, CAI was on my list. Knowing little to nothing about MB's when I bought it, I was confused why so few options existed. But after researching the issue and the products that exist and/or don't exist led me to the forums where unanimously the preference is to leave it alone. Like someone above me said, if all you do is run the highways, you might justify putting a cone in, because you're traveling at higher speeds forcing cooler-ish air into the intake, unlike city driving. With the engine bay set up the way it is, you can't justify the risk of damaging your motor just for the look of customization.
I'm not saying it doesn't look cool or is stupid or you're not going to see HP gain (you won't see a massive increase anyway, as you should already know) or anything like that; but there is a reason there aren't a ton of options when it comes to intakes on the 204's.
there are ways to be enthusiastic and there are ways to hurt your car while trying to make it 'better'. i would put this into the latter.
how? simply search the internet for the 4 million comparisons, ratings and studies of K&N vs paper. paper filters better. i would bet most people oil the K&N improperly and in turn will cause slow long damage to components and poor filtration. why expose a machine to such risks. you're not going to make it better. I dont need experience to know i would never run anything like this in any of the 3 vehicles i own.
That's a great link, but the link just shows that a "better" filter is very subjective, which I've been trying to point out. Different technologies, techniques, and materials are used. Other things need to be taken into consideration, if the filter is reusable, how often you have to clean it, to how you drive, and even area of residence (some live in dusty areas).
Has anyone ever seen me say my setup is better or worst than anyone else?
All I ever do is try to point the interested parties to information regarding said mods, but it always ends up in the SAME debate.
I haven't tried anything with air intake as stock is a decent ram style but I will say I'm tired of having to clean the stock intake box once a week due to so much crap getting sucked and shoved into them.
I don't even know how it's possible but last week I opened it up and had peanut shells all over inside and covering back half of media filter on both sides. I can't imagine that being good, nor the butt load of butterflies that get sucked into it. Like seriously, once a week I am opening it and I need a broom and dustpan to shovel crap out.
Plenty of dry filter media options now a days so no need to worry about an oiled product. I just don't like knowing all the stuff gets in and deflects airflow and covers air cleaning media impacting breathing possibly with MB's stock setup.
There is no denying that with filters that breathe easier there is a bit more dust etc that slips through, that's kind of how they allow more airflow. The question is how much is too much and that is personal preference. If one changes oil often they can feel more comfortable in allowing more in as they know the silicon(dirt after burning will turn into) in the oil will be trapped by oil filter and then changed and cleaned therefore not just being kicked around and ground into engine. As just an example, since all dirt ends up in oil eventually.
Paper media filters better than cotton but is more restrictive to cfm.
Plenty of info out there about this and tests have been done. It does appear through testing nothing protects your engine better than an OE setup and paper media filter.
At the same token, unless injectors, headers exhaust etc have been modified, stock airboxes provide ample flow of air for engine, especially in our over engineered MB's. They are not starving for air unless your filter is dirty and needing changed. Do these cotton filters give more power, slightly possibly maybe if you're lucky. That's usually at the low end of rpm range, at higher end rpm range it maybe will add nothing as it can't suck air in any faster than it can get it shoved out.
Now, this is not saying CAI's don't have a place and won't help in any application. Simply stating there can be a time and place for each setup.
You don't find CAI's for MB's because stock is pretty darn good, not enough gain for Injen and them to mess with. Even Kleemann uses stock setup until you get to crazy supercharging and turbo setups.
In the end, it's user preference and application use.
The sound change is essentially from nullifying the stock air intake baffling process.
Lol MCM is great. There is no company that makes a true cold air intake because all the systems like KN, AEM, INJEN, require removal of the entire stock intake box. And as you know, the W204 cover doubles as an intake manifold so nobody wants to deal with making a kit for it. It really does come down to user preference and application like you said. I just think if someone wants to go all out and have a full I/H/E setup, then more power to them, literally. Or maybe they want to keep it stock so they can trade it in in the future, and that's all good too.
Last edited by mr.brightside; 06-14-2017 at 03:40 PM.
Back again, car still running good my friends lol. It's just more air going in... Settle down...
If you didn't notice, on the c350 2010 models, there are kevlar extension pipe that goes to the air scoops slightly under the hood and blocked by the grill. Well those pipe extensions are breathable, meaning, they suck in air from the engine bay while air is being rammed in from the front.
So really anyone saying that this setup sucks in air from the engine bay, is right, but so did the old setup. But with all the air being sucked as close to the front of the grill now, without those bleedy air kevlar pipes, i personally feel it draws more cold air in now.
Car feels stock HP on hot days, cold mornings, you really do feel it. I look forward to the other 6 months out of the year here where its 0-10celcius.
I have 2 turbos for this car already, but need to do some forged part installations first before I get into that. Winter project. In the summer, snowmobiles get fixed, in the winter, cars get worked on.
06-04-2017, 05:06 PM
