Hello, I was looking to get an intake for my C63s coupe and am stuck between the two options: Eventuri or ZAC SHF intake. I understand that they are two different price ranges but I was wondering which one would be better for the car. I'm thinking of the Eventuri since it has the science and backs up the data on why a closed airbox is better than an open one. As far as sound goes, I believe the ZAC intake sounds better, however my main priority is whichever one will provide better performance and health for the car. I appreciate all opinions on this, thank you!

 

Hey @StormHawk
Obviously we are bias.
Our intake system forms a seal against the hood. effectively 2 large airboxes. Each system comes standard with air scoops that feed a lot more air to the filters (now available with a carbon upgrade).
There are plenty of customers out there running great dragy numbers using our intakes. And combined with our OPTIMUM tuning I am sure you would be happy with the results.


If you have any questions feel free to ask. Best to email or contact us on socials.

 

I went with modalworks intakes after a lot of research. They’re a good option and retain a semi closed air box style

 

Domjansson,

For a guy running a stage 2 tune with slight burble and catless downpipes; do you think I will be able to hear the sucking spool noise if I get the Modalworks?

 

yes 100% all the time Im on pure900, carless plus burbles

 

Although this is with hood open, you can easily hear it while driving. This is Modal catted DP also.

 

...Buying this 110 percent.

 

Eventuri! And I had experience with both.
A few drawbacks I had with ZAC - they work and on a quick view look great (got lots of compliments) but the devil is in the detail and I am picky.
- fitment was not sufficient - they supposedly improved over the years, but here my findings.
(1) had to "Massage" your bonnet insulation, which did nothing but made your bonnet look bad
(2) Right intake tube rides on the fuel rail connector - made a cap to protect it but should not have to be worry about it - that is probably the biggest design flaw, why it ever was released like that is beyond me.
(3) You have to alter/shave some of the OEM plastic underneath the funnels to make them fit under the hood - even if you revert to stock, you can't fix that when selling/trading in the car.
(4) The area to apply your builders batch is not sized correct, one edge hangs over, looks just poor design and in my case the builders edge rubbed against the bonnet insulation no matter how much I massaged it or shave of plastic underneath to make it fit
(5) I changed their filter to a K&N to make it better fit, why they supplied these oversized filters that make the fitment even worse is beyond me
- Quality is questionable
(1) My CF yellowed over time - actually it yellowed pretty quick
(2) My CF funnels came with a lot of debris inside
- Design Concerns
(1) You have to replace the turbo inlet adapters with their gel adapters, nothing wrong per se here but a) to get the OEM off is a pain (they are glued) and b) if you want to revert to stock sometime you need to replace them again - idea was to allow more intake diameter to allow more flow for large turbo's. So, if anything you only would need to be concerned if you want to add Pure 900/1000 and I would argue even here the Eventuri supply ample of air
(2) Some of their claims are just that. Like "sealed against bonnet" design to mitigate the heat sock. Look at the picture and by design you can find plenty of spots where its not sealed (look at back plate, gasket does not meet the OEM gasket left and right) - now, to their credit, it probably makes no real life difference in performance but I just dont like such claims.

Do they work - absolutely yes, they do but not significanty/measurable better than Eventuri that has none of these fitment or design issues. To their credit, they have released new versions and now offer the scoops and better designed heatshields (first iteration had additional issues). Now, they are much cheaper than Eventuri and if you don't care as much as I did about some the details they will be fine. Eventuri do not give you the "swoosh" as they retain the plumback path while ZAC does not.

Now, I prolly get some nice comments here but you asked for feedback on real user experience.

 

I believe ZAC Black Alloy Intakes have been fair to me so far.

Packaging and customer service were top notch. They sound good when accelerating and are easily removable when I need to access something in the engine. As far as data or if it improves HP, I don't know and didn'tt expect much. Only thing I don't like is there has been carbon buildup on the turbo and they recommended a $800 catch can to solve the issue. Don't know if they could do something to avoid that buildup, I don't recall the OEM intakes doing that.

Just being honest.

 

Wow thanks for this very detailed write up! That does seem like a lot of issues just to ensure fitment. I did want the swoosh sound but I could sacrifice it. It wasn't very clear if you said that Eventuri provides better airflow and better power, does it? And lastly, what would you recommend as a close second to Eventuri that does provide the sound?

 

Technically, you can still get the swoosh sound by installing VTA's and close the plumback port on the Eventuri. Some forum members have done that, I believe. On comparing performance - intakes alone never made enough difference to wow me one way of the other. My butt dyno can barely tell the difference to OEM intake. I was stage 1 tuned and switched intakes (OEM, ZAC, Eventuri) and never could really feel a significant difference between any configuration. Some forum members swear they can feel the improvement from just intakes - well, I don't. Now, if you want to do stage 2 tune and add larger turbo's it becomes more important to get an opened up intake. I simply did it because a) its recommended for stage 1 (I also tried OEM with K&N and Weistec filters only) and b) I like the look of the CF engine bay components. I did not test others (MW, VRP come to mind that also have no plumback port) but going by forum responses MW seems the most popular and cost effective.

 

Whoa....that is one fancy engine bay. Very nice.

Too bad its gone.....

 

Thanks...it a bit of a shock to go from that to one where I don't even have a real engine bay and the most update you can do is adding a fancy oil and coolant filler cap.

 

how has your experience been with the porsche? do you ever feel like that raw character that the amg provided is missing or maybe the porsche provides something else that makes up for it? are you still able to enjoy it driving around in the city in lower rpms?

 

I probably could write a book about that question. In short, I enjoy driving it a lot and as often as I can. Of course, it does not have that gorgeous V8 rumble nor the kick in your back feel when hitting it...but for some reason, I can drive a lot quicker with that much less hp and torque. To my surprise, I can easily get in the 3's (and I am not a very skilled driver at that and sure did not buy it for that reason but good to know it can) and the feeling when you whip that 3400lbs around corners on its 305 rubber is extremely gratifying. On long drives and highways - nothing beats the AMG mix of comfort and performance - but I now have another daily commuter for that. Also, the modified AMG got a lot more attention - just started to modifying the 911 some though ... but where I live we have more 992 Porsche Turbo S around than AMG C63s. I loved the AMG but enjoy the experience of the new to me 911 just as much - just a very different experience even though both are performance cars. Some other interesting points: the 992 performance exhaust is quite good, quite a difference between the comfort and sport mode, pops and bangs in sport mode and more like true sport car shifting noises in sport plus (no pops but winding/spooling noise, requires sport chrono package), my local Porsche dealer offers a performance package (tune, intake, exhaust) that they warrant (not through Porsche Corp but on their own), the car feels more on rails around corners and stiffer than AMG even in comfort mode but straight highway drives are not as pleasant (I think its the light front end that makes it more squirmish at higher speeds and susceptible...I have Techart HAS kit in its way to hopefully improve that), feels like a big go-cart (I have the GT steering wheel that is rather small making the Go-Cart comparison even more valid)....okay, I did almost write a book. All I can say, enjoy your AMG, its a great terrific car and lots to love, when its time to move on to find the next pleasure car, strongly consider a 992.

 

great info! ive been exploring my options recently since ive had this c63s for 4.5 years and its at 75k km. Been looking at M8 comp coupe, s63, porsche 992 911 and amg gtc/r. My mind was made up on a GTC but then I realized that with 20-30k more one could get a GTR instead which would be better since it also looks so much more aggressive but im priced out of that right now so looks like im gonna be keeping the c63s for a bit longer.

enjoy your new ride and the upcoming mods

 

I very strongly considered a AMG GTS too (GTR is great but more than I wanted to spend) and I decided on 992 as its just a bigger jump in experience than from C63s to GTS. I test drove a lot GTS's and decided its just more of the same as a C63s just a step up, better, somewhat different but still the "same" type of experience. 992 is just truly a change for me.

 

Going to go ahead and throw our hat in the ring.

Our 3" intake kit features piping that goes all the way from filter to turbo using some of the largest filters on the market. The extra wide intakes will enhance the turbo spool sound while providing a better throttle response and significantly increased unrestricted airflow.


And the sound is phenomenal!

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I tested this on stock air boxes and stock turbos with high flow filters vs MW intakes with stage 2 tuning. 80-120whp difference between them past 5.3K rpm all the way to redline. Massive difference even with stock turbos

 

Are you talking about 80-120 whp of stage 2 tune, which includes intake and downpipes on stock turbo? I can believe that. My point was intakes alone are not providing enough performance improvements that my butt dyno can tell the difference. Even a 20hp on crank above 5k RPM is too little for me on 545hp base to feel any difference. If your butt dyno can discern 545 vs 565 hp on crank - all cudos to your butt.

 

Why can't you run a closed style intake if you would like to do a tune in the future? If I went with the closed style Eventuri and later on planned on getting it tuned, what would be the negatives?

How hard would it be to install the VTA and close plumback ports, and would that be detrimental to the performance of the Eventuri system?

I honestly might go with your setup with the GruppeM RAM flow sytem and ZAC intake, and I also feel like your setup would sound way better and have just as good performance, except I have a facelift 2019 coupe, so I'm not sure if the GrouppeM would fit. I also might just still prefer Eventuri but to be honest, I'm not really sure. These would be my two options.

 

You seem to have misunderstood some of my writing. It's perfectly fine and advantageous to tune the car with an Eventuri. Any tune only benefits from more available air and most tuners even recommend to add an intake of any sort. Also, adding the VTA and plug the plumback port is very easy to do and once you do that Eventuri sounds basically the same as ZAC. The swoosh comes from vent to air via the VTA and that's the same if you don't use the plumback port anymore. If you want to add Gruppe M they fit for both, coupe and sedan, just fine. Only caufion: if pairing it with a system like Eventuri you may need to do some modifications to either the Eventuri intake funnels or the Gtuppe M intake funnels to connect these two systems. The CF Eventuri (btw also look at Wagner tuning intake) intake funnels are larger and don't fit easily into the Gruppe M openings. The Gruppe M funnels onbthe other hand are design to fit the OEM intake housing, which is different than Eventuri.
I ended up to run with the Velos tune, Gruppe M and Weistec highflow filters just fine. I prefer Weistec as they are dry filters and not like K&N oiled filters. Latter just accumulated in the turbos. At least that what it appeared to do after testing the various combos. Good luck, don't overthink it / pick the one that you like the most from the looks and price point - they all work sufficient.

 

Hilarious..... what are we still in high school or something

 

🤣 well...

 

Thanks for your honest review.
Yes you are right, EVO2 improves on first edition.
No more massaging bonnet felt or trimming PCV tanks under intake tubes. Smaller filter diameter. Only mod needed is removal of harness cover on one side. Simple and easily reversed. We also changed to another carbon factory for the EVO2 intakes, with better processes, and better cleacoat.

Thanks for your reference. Glad you are liking the intakes.
As we mentioned, the residue is coming up through the PCV system. Not in through the intakes, there is no oil in the filters. Catch cans are used to stop the oil residue entering back into the engine intake, reducing performance.
You can read more here or YouTube "what does a catch can do"
Catch cans will benefit any DI turbo engine, regardless of intake or other modifications.