chiromikey

did you do this mod or are you just speculating?

our cars don't have cooling problems so imho, minimally blocking the radiator is of insignificant concern. many of us spend thousands for small gains in performance and this is a FREE mod (if you make your own) that seems to have given me a tenth in the 1/4mile even though i too didn't believe f/i cars would benefit from it.

E55Pilot

The reason large intercoolers impacted to cooling system is due to the fact that they were prewarming the air before it got to the radiator reducing it's efficiency.

Those intakes flaps are going to do nothing to impact the cooling system on the E55.

itsmeek

I have done so on a few other cars and seen it on many others with comparable results.

itsmeek

Perhaps some prewarming but it's actually because of restricted airflow. This is why larger cfm puller fans help to remedy the issue.

However I am not an expert on this stuff and will never claim to be. My z06's all had vararam intakes on them that I installed and it seemed to help them gain up to 20hp.

OXOJE55

Will these ran intake be better in CF so they will not heat up
Were can I buy them

blackbenzz

I will test my setup next year, I can swap back to stock inlets in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately there are no drag strips open here for a few more months

itsmeek

Your car is SICK.

blackbenzz

Thanks!

chiromikey

cf will not make any difference since they're ahead of anything in the engine bay that would heat them up.

seriously, on the next rainy saturday morning, make your own for the cost of scrap sheet metal and spray paint rather than pay a company $250 for them.

OXOJE55

Thanks,

jangy

I can attest to the car running stronger with the grill taken off. i dunno if that is restriction or RAM air, but maybe the two go a little hand in hand.

I get that RAM systems don't usually help our cause since we pull in our air, but what if we just consider the pre-filter portion of the intake? Could the RAM Air not be helping to overcome some of the restriction that we see in the piping from the mouth? In a way, wouldn't it sort of be the opposite of raising elevation, since it is increasing local pressure?

My main concern with this mod has been worrying about the motor cooling but we are getting some word that it may not be quite the issue.

All of this really tells me that the mouth needs to be wider. I've been dying to dremel the plastic frame of the radiator to allow a 3" tube through but I need to make sure the radiator stays solid. Worst case, I could pull it out and modify it. we have very little room on these cars and my only real choices are to run the tubes down to the fog light area or find a larger hole where they are. IMO, Ahmed's mod is the ideal.

NXtremeJeep

What about this? I believe it's a Renntech piece.

jangy

I have never seen the piece, but i have my stuff pulled out and that would definitely work. also, that part of the hood is a high pressure area so air would tend to come in. I just always wondered how hard to would be to fab something like that. We will see very soon

E55Pilot

You have data to back up that claim?

The grille is not going to be a intake restriction

jangy

Data that is documented and verified? No. Consistently running 1/10th faster in the quarter, yes. I don't want to argue with. Lets be productive. That doesn't mean I am right. It means please explain why you think not. BTW, this has been shown on more than just the E55....

E55Pilot

1/10th could be air density.

Take the total area of all the grilles that feed the radiator/air intake, now compute the shadow area of the grille (The blockage). now as long as you have more than 16 square inches open then you will have zero grille restriction. (That's using rough rules of thumb, the required area is actually much smaller)

So no removing the grille will not cause you to feel that the car is running harder (You won't feel 1/10th...)

chiromikey

i modified my grill at the same time i made my intake scoops so how much it's worth, i don't know...but there is at least a bit of restriction with the oem grill. if you look on the passenger side of the grill you can see where the slits are actually closed off right in front of the intake opening.

blackbenzz

Its even worse on the CLK. Not only is the grille blocked off on both sides, the hood closes directly in front of both inlets! What was MB thinking?

If someone local doesn't mind losing their high beams and having holes in their headlights I can try to make them the same setup as mine. Get before/after dynos and 1/4 numbers. If you guys just want dyno numbers I can probably get that done pretty soon. One pull with stock inlet location (hood closed) and one with headlight intakes

E55Pilot

it's easy to see if there is a restriction, just run a differential pressure gauge next to the snorkel and the other side of the gauge somewhere under the hood near the abs block (That looks like a good place to grab static pressure)

Do it with and without the grille. You're not going to see a difference

chiromikey

the e is the same. also the oem ducts have a nice restrictive cage around the entire inlet.

E55Pilot

That's actually part of the Helmholtz tuning to keep the intake quiet.

Guys you seem to be forgetting that the largest restriction in the intake is the throttle body.

jangy

as you would say, DING DING!! many here don't believe the 80mmTB is still too small.

chiromikey

unfortunately, removing that had zero effect on intake noise.

also, i'm not forgetting the tb...i've already opened it up as far as the market will allow at this point so i'm simply moving to other areas that are easier to deal with.

dyno

yes, I think it was their second best choice when they had to locate somewhere the intake duct after install of top mounted intercoolers (SLR style).

high pressure air will enter there only after removal of the grill in the hood

.. i think it is nothing to be emulated if you are not planning a scoop install

E55 Bulldog

I was thinking about doing this myself... looking to extend the airflow pipes down into the bottom section of the bumper by the fog lights or the center mesh, much like you see on some BMWs