Karbonius CF reproduction of standard S54 plenum **PROTOTYPE VIDEO**

[Silva1]

Could be interested if it doesn't come with the lettering

[///MBan]

Could be interested if it doesn't come with the lettering

The lettering should be optional

[maupineda]

Looking forward to the sound check

[NLW73]

Will this give any more bhp gains?

Or just for amazing looks and better sound for intake?

[hopz121]

Will this give any more bhp gains?

Or just for amazing looks and better sound for intake?

I wouldn't have thought any extra bhp hopefully some decent sound though. If it sounds good, paired with an eventuri could be epic

If this works, i wouldn't be surprised if evolve make something similar too.

[NLW73]

yeah true matched with the Venturi front snorkel bit it would be very good indeed.

[///MBan]

Will this give any more bhp gains?

Or just for amazing looks and better sound for intake?

I wouldn't have thought any extra bhp hopefully some decent sound though. If it sounds good, paired with an eventuri could be epic

If this works, i wouldn't be surprised if evolve make something similar too.

I approached Eventuri as well but they said it didn't make sense for them to do the development for such an old platform. I'm really glad Karbonius didn't think that way!

[hopz121]

Will this give any more bhp gains?

Or just for amazing looks and better sound for intake?

I wouldn't have thought any extra bhp hopefully some decent sound though. If it sounds good, paired with an eventuri could be epic

If this works, i wouldn't be surprised if evolve make something similar too.

I approached Eventuri as well but they said it didn't make sense for them to do the development for such an old platform. I'm really glad Karbonius didn't think that way!

That’s madness, they are doing them for M5 / M6 V10’s and there wasn’t as many of those sold as E46’s. Maybe it’s the fact the E46 has quite a few different intake / airbox options already, or they know something Karbonius don’t and it doesn’t make much difference.

Have they told you when to expect the results?

[Matt.13]

Eventuri / Evolve already their own intake system and a csl style air box. Thats enough for them i suppose. They tend to concentrate their efforts into the new cars that are on the market.

[///MBan]

Karbonius has test-fitted the plenum and made a video, as well as videos of the same car with a completely stock intake and the same car with their CSL-style intake. I've posted the videos below. Karbonius are on holiday until 30 August but provided a few comments when they sent me the videos:

"I just sent you 3 videos,
1- OEM airbox, you can see the results in dB , minimum 72,2 and maximum at 5000 rpm 106 dB
2- CSL airbox , minimum 79 , maximum at 5000 rpm 130.2 dB
3 -Karbonius OEM style airbox, minimum 74,3 , maximum at 5000 rpm 118,7 db.

Sorry for the quality of the video, maybe doesn't´do justice comparing with real sound, but I think you can hear the difference between the 3 boxes.
We have 2 dB more in the low measure and +12,7 dB in the revolutioned measurement . The Karbonius OEm style airbox is not as louder as the CSL airbox, but clearly louder than the OEM one.
We checked on the car and drove few kilometers, and we could hear clear the sound of the box, specially between 2500 to 4000 rpm, driving at few rpm and putting gas in 4th or 5th gear is easy to heard."

I also asked a couple of questions:
Q. Will the price be the same as originally estimated (1,200 euro)?
A. Yes , at the moment we will keep the price, but I´ll confirm you when we will make the 2nd unit!

Q. How long will it take to put into production?
A. We can start the production in middle of September

Videos:
Karbonius carbon fibre S54 plenum
[youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/NtCRPz1705A?feature=share[/youtube]

Karbonius CSL-style intake
[youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/D8S_IVLXTEc?feature=share[/youtube]

OEM
[youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/LV8jRFmXMyg?feature=share[/youtube]

[hopz121]

Interesting results, I’d be interested to hear the same with some drive by’s inside and outside of the car under load etc

I wonder what it would sound like with an Eventuri paired with it too

[///MBan]

Interesting results, I’d be interested to hear the same with some drive by’s inside and outside of the car under load etc

I wonder what it would sound like with an Eventuri paired with it too

I think Karbonius is going to send me the first production model so I can do some testing and report back. I have an Eventuri, so I plan to test both in isolation and both together.

[hopz121]

Interesting results, I’d be interested to hear the same with some drive by’s inside and outside of the car under load etc

I wonder what it would sound like with an Eventuri paired with it too

I think Karbonius is going to send me the first production model so I can do some testing and report back. I have an Eventuri, so I plan to test both in isolation and both together.

Awesome that would be great if you can, could you do some runs without it fitted too so we can see a reference with the Eventuri as the base case?

[///MBan]

Awesome that would be great if you can, could you do some runs without it fitted too so we can see a reference with the Eventuri as the base case?

That's my plan. I do already have some videos of the car completely stock and with the Eventuri but I think I have a better way to record the sound from inside the car, which will hopefully be more representative. So, I'll re-record all scenarios.

[///MBan]

Okay, so I have a couple of questions to ask Karbonius:
- can the plenum be strengthened so it doesn't flex so much?
- which rubber boots were used in the design (my understanding is that Z4Ms and post-2004 E46 M3s have one type of boot (part number 11617835861) and pre-2004 M3s and M3 CSLs have another kind (part number 11612466477) and they're not interchangeable. This also means the OE clips on the plenum side are different - Z4M is 11617835320 and pre-2004 M3/CLS is 11617830306)

Before I go back to Karbonius I want to check if anyone else has questions or comments?

The three z4-forum members I have on the list are below, but this forum doesn't seem to have a 'notify member' function?

@survivalist
@henderson_louie
@Justino