[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by ziekxq

You trusting a company with their intake design yet they lie about their power figures. You talk like you were sitting there when BMW was making their intake design lol. Also, more air flow is more air flow and just by looking at stock filter you can tell how restrictive it is.

They "lie" about their power ratings because power numbers can be manipulated for various reasons; insurance being a big factor. Manufacturers have been manipulating the numbers for at least 50 years. And dyno numbers can also be manipulated.

More air without a corresponding increase in fuel delivery will cause a lean condition and possible engine damage; the computer can only adjust for so much increases air.

I don't a dog in this fight and it really isn't any of my business how someone spends their money. I was just posting from 45+ years of automotive experimenting. Modern factory cold air intakes are superior to the under-hood hot air intakes that sat on top of the carburetor.

This should be moved to a different thread as it has nothing to do with the shock tower brace. I'm interested in the actual fitment problems, like the mounting points.

Just curious. Do you have a degree in fluid dynamics? I'm sure the fellows that design vehicle intakes (and exhausts) do.

[ziekxq]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

They "lie" about their power ratings because power numbers can be manipulated for various reasons; insurance being a big factor. Manufacturers have been manipulating the numbers for at least 50 years. And dyno numbers can also be manipulated.

More air without a corresponding increase in fuel delivery will cause a lean condition and possible engine damage; the computer can only adjust for so much increases air.

I don't a dog in this fight and it really isn't any of my business how someone spends their money. I was just posting from 45+ years of automotive experimenting. Modern factory cold air intakes are superior to the under-hood hot air intakes that sat on top of the carburetor.

This should be moved to a different thread as it has nothing to do with the shock tower brace. I'm interested in the actual fitment problems, like the mounting points.

Just curious. Do you have a degree in fluid dynamics? I'm sure the fellows that design vehicle intakes (and exhausts) do.

I tried to stop this conversation too and wanted to get back to strut bar conversation if you read my previous comments. And no I don't have a degree in fluid dynamics but I did my research and was going by the data that was presented. I even said you would have to Dyno to know for sure if there is extra power being made. And finalized the conversation by saying even if it can make a .1 second difference then that is huge for some people and could mean win or lose in a race. But when someone keep arguing that it doesn't make a difference at all then you (not you lol) are talking out of your ass without any solid data. I even said I will check with my tuner if it makes a difference and if it is okay to go back to stock intake with k&n drop-in.

Lastly, we don't know what went at BMW for all we know BMW could have asked the engineers for a restrictive design as 535i is not sports car.

Edit: are you saying K&N and other manufacturers that design aftermarket intakes got some Joeshamo with 0 knowledge designing the intakes?

[lsturbointeg]

lol my bad i said i wanted to keep hearing about this my fault! we'll all just get back into the strut bar topic and hey, we are all friends here so

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by ziekxq

Actually it is quiet the opposite. I don't really care because I am enjoying my purchase and it actually made a difference. All I have heard is assumptions from you so far. K&N even posted a Dyno, which I have linked in this thread with significant gains on stock 535i.

Also, I want to go back to my point of BMW could have pushed stage 1 tune power out of the car without any issues. Your said it is a reliability issue yet people are pushing north of 500whp without any issues so extra 50hp is proven to be reliable. A RAM style intake shouldnt have any effect either if there is 0 air flow restrictions from BMW intake design.

You trusting a company with their intake design yet they lie about their power figures. You talk like you were sitting there when BMW was making their intake design lol. Also, more air flow is more air flow and just by looking at stock filter you can tell how restrictive it is. And I am comparing a DI system against a DI system of same design air to air. Now if I was comparing air to air vs air to water then that would be a different story.

Again, never disputed the dyno numbers, and the stock filter is definitely a bit restrictive. Not sure why you think I'm disputing the dyno numbers. Just pointing out that dyno numbers don't translate 1:1 to real world experiences. For 99.99% of people, a 10-15 HP increase might as well be zero. That dyno is also a bit suspect. Stock F10 N55 only making 240hp? Something's broke.

Stop spouting nonsense about "but BMW could have if they wanted to!" You're missing the scale of things here. They sell tens of thousands of 5ers a year. When you're a major car manufacturer that is trying to maintain certain reliability standards and more importantly, emissions standards, a 50HP bump is not an insignificant number. Is a stage 1 significantly less reliable? Absolutely not, and most people won't run into reliability issues. But will it objectively reduce reliability in the grand scheme of things? Yep. And when scaled, even a 1% reliability decrease can cost you a lot of money.

A ram style intake isn't about restriction, it's about reducing the length of tubing between the intake and the turbo inlet. Less volume, less inertia to overcome, better throttle response. And while we're talking about physics, let's do some math here.

Using this calculator, we can see that at redline our engines consume about 741 CFM of air. Our intake tubing is 3.5" or so. Using this calculator, assuming we're traveling at 60mph (5280 feet per minute), our stock plumbing can take in close to 1411 CFM of air, almost double of what our car needs at redline. So obviously, plumbing is not the restriction here. Next, we need to look at the CFM of our filters. Good quality paper filters flow about 4.95 CFM per square inch. Given 741 CFM required, we need about 150 square inches of filtering capacity. Our stock filters are 112 square inches. Not great, but not bad either. More airflow is not just more airflow, your engine only needs a certain amount of it. Below 5000 RPM, our stock filter is actually fine. If you really want to get that last 2k RPM restriction out, using a drop in filter is actually just as good as the Air Charger. Which is probably why most people use the drop in filter.

Lie about their power figures? Lolwhut? Lying requires the intent to deceive. BMW underrates their cars, that is not the same as lying about their power figures.

And I am comparing a DI system against a DI system of same design air to air. Now if I was comparing air to air vs air to water then that would be a different story.

...what? Air to water? Are you confusing intercoolers with intakes here? They're both DI yes, but do you not understand that the intake plumbing is VASTLY different between the two cars? I believe he used a Forester in the video. Take a look at the forester's intake design. Heck, the filters aren't even the same size as our car's. Trying to extrapolate information from an entirely different design is misleading at best.

[BimmerHausPerformance]

Originally Posted by Unspec

Again, never disputed the dyno numbers, and the stock filter is definitely a bit restrictive. Not sure why you think I'm disputing the dyno numbers. Just pointing out that dyno numbers don't translate 1:1 to real world experiences. For 99.99% of people, a 10-15 HP increase might as well be zero. That dyno is also a bit suspect. Stock F10 N55 only making 240hp? Something's broke.

Stop spouting nonsense about "but BMW could have if they wanted to!" You're missing the scale of things here. They sell tens of thousands of 5ers a year. When you're a major car manufacturer that is trying to maintain certain reliability standards and more importantly, emissions standards, a 50HP bump is not an insignificant number. Is a stage 1 significantly less reliable? Absolutely not, and most people won't run into reliability issues. But will it objectively reduce reliability in the grand scheme of things? Yep. And when scaled, even a 1% reliability decrease can cost you a lot of money.

A ram style intake isn't about restriction, it's about reducing the length of tubing between the intake and the turbo inlet. Less volume, less inertia to overcome, better throttle response. And while we're talking about physics, let's do some math here.

Using this calculator, we can see that at redline our engines consume about 741 CFM of air. Our intake tubing is 3.5" or so. Using this calculator, assuming we're traveling at 60mph (5280 feet per minute), our stock plumbing can take in close to 1411 CFM of air, almost double of what our car needs at redline. So obviously, plumbing is not the restriction here. Next, we need to look at the CFM of our filters. Good quality paper filters flow about 4.95 CFM per square inch. Given 741 CFM required, we need about 150 square inches of filtering capacity. Our stock filters are 112 square inches. Not great, but not bad either. More airflow is not just more airflow, your engine only needs a certain amount of it. Below 5000 RPM, our stock filter is actually fine. If you really want to get that last 2k RPM restriction out, using a drop in filter is actually just as good as the Air Charger. Which is probably why most people use the drop in filter.

Lie about their power figures? Lolwhut? Lying requires the intent to deceive. BMW underrates their cars, that is not the same as lying about their power figures.



...what? Air to water? Are you confusing intercoolers with intakes here? They're both DI yes, but do you not understand that the intake plumbing is VASTLY different between the two cars? I believe he used a Forester in the video. Take a look at the forester's intake design. Heck, the filters aren't even the same size as our car's. Trying to extrapolate information from an entirely different design is misleading at best.

thanks for asking! yea, i love my new strut bar

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by BrowBMW

thanks for asking! yea, i love my new strut bar

Sorry, just can't stand misinformation (in addition to his misconstruing of what I said), and he's spouting a lot of it

[BimmerHausPerformance]

You guys are gonna make me unsubscribe from my own thread.

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by BrowBMW

You guys are gonna make me unsubscribe from my own thread.

Apologies, I'll drop the topic

Also, I double checked with my bar. It appears to be the same shape, so I don't think your fitment issues is related to the bar. I think it might actually be due to the black brackets. Did you try swapping the two brackets, left for right and right for left?

[BimmerHausPerformance]

Originally Posted by Unspec

Apologies, I'll drop the topic

Also, I double checked with my bar. It appears to be the same shape, so I don't think your fitment issues is related to the bar. I think it might actually be due to the black brackets. Did you try swapping the two brackets, left for right and right for left?

I was just kidding around lol...

Yea, that is a good piece of advice... THAT I COULD HAVE USED A COUPLE DAYS AGO...

No I didn't try that lol. You have yours off... do they look different?

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by BrowBMW

I was just kidding around lol...

Yea, that is a good piece of advice... THAT I COULD HAVE USED A COUPLE DAYS AGO...

No I didn't try that lol. You have yours off... do they look different?

I didn't take the brackets off. Given I've already stripped 1 of the bolt holes on each side due to BMW's crappy self tapping aluminum crap, not risking it. I checked the bar by just undoing the bolt holding the bar to the bracket.

[lsturbointeg]

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

IMO these bars definitely need to get painted. The brushed look sticks out like a sore thumb in our engine bays. I'm planning on painting mine a satin black once the HD opens up again.

[BimmerHausPerformance]

The brackets are 100% symmetrical and left to right, right to left would not have mattered. BTW, John polished his and it looked awesome, alone with the black supports AND oil filter housing...

[BimmerHausPerformance]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

Wow pisses me off how easy that was for him,

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by Unspec

IMO these bars definitely need to get painted. The brushed look sticks out like a sore thumb in our engine bays. I'm planning on painting mine a satin black once the HD opens up again.

I'm gonna leave mine polished for now and see if I can wrap it with 5d carbon fiber vinyl. If I don't like how it turns out gonna paint it satin black. Or I might paint it Bronze?

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by BrowBMW

Wow pisses me off how easy that was for him,

Yup! He made it look easy! I think you got screwed?

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by BrowBMW

Wow pisses me off how easy that was for him,

I'd raise a bit of a stink with the ebay seller. Having to remove your heat dampening of the hood is kinda dangerous, those hoods can get stupid hot. if someone leans on it unknowingly, they might actually get a solid burn.

[BimmerHausPerformance]

If someone leans on my hood, they deserve to get burnt

I have dealt with bad product off ebay and I've already modified it, installed it, and while I might let him know it didn't fit at all, it's just not worth the rise in my blood pressure. If I had paid full retail I would have sent it back straight away but when I got out the dremmel tool there was no turning back...

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by BrowBMW

If someone leans on my hood, they deserve to get burnt

I have dealt with bad product off ebay and I've already modified it, installed it, and while I might let him know it didn't fit at all, it's just not worth the rise in my blood pressure. If I had paid full retail I would have sent it back straight away but when I got out the dremmel tool there was no turning back...

Sometimes they refund some of the money to avoid bad feedback. Might be worth something.

While saying someone deserves to get injured is a bit questionable when it comes to morals, there are good reasons for someone to touch your hood sometimes. For instance, I went for a 2 stage paint correction and the detailer went to take paint depth readings on the hood. If that hood is burning hot, I'd feel pretty horrible if he got a burn.

[BimmerHausPerformance]

So I had a major gaffe on this review... I was testing my new endlinks and I pulled into the gas station to adjust my CO and make them a bit stiffer when i realized I JUST freaking CAPPED MY COIL OVER ADJUSTMENT NOB WITH THIS STRUT TOWER BAR...

fail. lol.

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by BrowBMW

So I had a major gaffe on this review... I was testing my new endlinks and I pulled into the gas station to adjust my CO and make them a bit stiffer when i realized I JUST freaking CAPPED MY COIL OVER ADJUSTMENT NOB WITH THIS STRUT TOWER BAR...

fail. lol.

oh damn!!! so now you gotta remove it just to set the dampers? lol that sux but funny i still have yet installed mine. probably this weekend

[lsturbointeg]

so now that i got to do some spirit driving for the last few days here's my impression on the strut bar. if you've done some spirit driving with your car you know how your car responds and reacts to the different types of turns you make as well as how fast you are going. from my impressions i can totally tell a difference with this bar because like most of you...you know your car and when something's different or wrong with it you notice it right away. when coming into some normal S turns the car sticks pretty good. usually i feel a bit of body lean say if i'm going 40mph. with this the car feels pretty flat with no roll. i usually kinda lean into the turn with my body if that makes sense? now there was some pretty knarly bank turns that shows a speed limit of 40mph and i can take them at about 60mph. wheels didn't break contact and i can feel the car lean but it felt tight as it didn't feel like the car was loosing control. it just stuck the turn and it felt pretty good. not with round-abouts (for those that don't have them) it's just a round circle with no stops but exits so usually you're suppose to enter those like at 10-15 mph. usually my car has a lot of body roll into those as i have to slow down at times but with the strut bar in place i can totally feel that the body roll is gone and it just sticks now with applied gas. my last test was the 360 degree on ramps. i usually have a lot of body roll/lean and if i'm going fast enough the tires will break. i usually take these ramps pretty aggressive but now the car doesn't feel like it's leaning so much. again feels pretty planted and even when i really pushed it the tires never broke contact like it usually does. i could go on and on with different scenarios but i will say if you're thinking about getting these just for some handling improvements i totally recommend these!