Need help with intake ideas with OEM look - 55
 

I want to get more air flowing but I don't want to get rid of the factory airbox look. Are my only options K&N filters and spacers? Is it worth running new pipes down to the grill from the OEM air box?

What can I do but still retain the OEM look?

Just leave the OEM airbox and ducting. Aftermarket variants rarely flow more and it often ends up less. I don't know if there was ever a consensus on the spacer kit but the OEM intake is generally quite good.

Have you actually measured the flow on your air boxes? I can guarantee that you are not out flowing them

leave them alone, there are better ways to spend your time and money

Great feedback guys. I was not sure of the factory box's capabilities or restrictions. I'm about to tune the car and add an 80mm pulley. Upgrading the factory box was an intuitive decision based on everything else I have built in the past. Seeing all the modified 55 engines online with the crazy intake setups made me belive, the factory box was very restricted. It sounds like that might not be the case.

I'm sure that Mercedes Benz had their best engineers, thinking long and hard about getting the best air flow into that supercharger.
This can not be solved by simply added a new air filter, airboxes etc.

If your mildly modding the car then leave the factory box, if your going crazy FBO then that’s a different story .

There are some green filters that are supposed to be good. K&N's let in a lot of fine grit. I went back to stock

Very good point.

Stay stock unless putting bigger tb

Thanks for the input everyone. Staying stock!

I went with Weistec drop in air filters, they are thinner than stock variants so you do not spacers in order to keep the filters from blocking incoming air flow.

The Filter doesn't block air. Never has and never will

Doesn't the stock filter hang down 3/4" or so into the incoming air? Maybe I made that up.

This is what I was talking about:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...c3064661d0.jpg
Weistec air filter
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...7a89b36309.jpg
Stock paper filter

Yeah? and how does an air filter work?

That is not a restriction Fluid dynamics doesn't work that way

Please be kind enough to explain this. I was under the impression fluids generally don't flow the best with solid objects jutting into their path.

That's not a solid. that is filter element.

Yes and air from the intake snorkel runs straight into the side of it before making an eddie and going around and through it.

only that’s not what happens

You are oozing technical information today. Please refer to post 16.

Filter element or not wouldn't it still increase turbulence or disruption of the incoming air flow hanging into the air intake tube vs not at all?