BMW E30 318iS Cold Air Intake (M42 engine) - Gen 3

We've seen so many poorly designed cold air intake kits for the E30 that we made our own. Our cold air intake has a conical AFe Pro 5R filter to increase filter surface area by 56%, a lightweight heat shield to keep hot air away from the intake and an intake adapter that provides a smooth transition into the square-shaped air flow meter (AFM) inlet. Read here about the poorly designed intake adapters we commonly see on E30s.

Another benefit to this intake kit is that the filter element can be washed with an AFe filter cleaning kit (sold separately here*). Instead of waiting for your filter to get dirty enough to justify replacement, you can clean it at any time to restore flow to new.

We won't make any outlandish claims to adding double-digit horsepower numbers, but our cold air intake kit will improve throttle response, unleash more induction noise, shave approximately 12.3 ounces (349 grams) and look good doing it. 

We improved upon our second generation airbox by adding lightness. We lightened our intake kit further by making the intake adapter from aluminum instead of steel. The heat shield geometry retains a clear view of the coolant expansion tank level, so the level is easy to read. We use relatively thin 0.040" thick aluminum in our heat shield for light weight but utilize part geometry to maintain strength. Borrowing from our engineering experience in aerospace, solid mil-spec aircraft rivets hold everything together.

Installation is easy and requires no drilling. The installation can be completed in about 1 hour.

This intake kit is not California Air Resource Board (CARB) certified, so we cannot ship to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, or Washington D.C. We can't make exceptions for off-road use only. The Feds keep tightening restrictions and will try to fine us into bankruptcy if we step out of line.

Engineered and handcrafted in Austin, Texas. Gaskets are included.

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