"These build journal entries are part of a Special Series on the development of the E60 M5 & E63 M6 sealed carbon intakes and written in collaboration with Sal at Infinity Design.

In this journal entry, I cover the removal of OE air intakes along with assembling & installing the sealed carbon intakes."
- Matt

Finally, something easy to install. 

Nothing is easy on the V10, going into a DIY with arrogance is a surefire way to get stuck snapping clips, breaking connectors, and forgetting one too many hoses. 

But this, I have to say, was easy as pie. It took me around 45 minutes in street clothes over a lunch break as I hijacked tools from my friends at Exclusiv Automotiv. 

Removing the OE intakes

Unplug the MAF sensors.

No need to unbolt them yet as you risk damaging them.

Unbolt the clamps on rubber flex tubes to the plenum.

Unclip the upper housing of the OE intakes.

BMW used neat integrated metal clamps. Don't go too hard or they'll pop straight to your face!

Unclip the breather hose on the upper housing.

Unbolt the lower housing of the OE intakes.

There are 2x bolts if I remember correctly!

The air ducts are gravity-held, aka, just pull out the lower housing once it's unbolted.

 

Assembling the dragons.

Something easy, again, yay. 

Transfer the MAF sensors to the intakes. 

This is pretty straight forward. Sal included black bolts for the MAF instead of the OE's stainless steel. 

Put in the cone filters in the correct direction. 

The "nose" of the intake should be facing upwards towards the engine. You can easily differentiate the upper and lower housings by the air ducts into the bumper, and the MAF. 

"Hi, I'm weird, but I'm nice."

Clamping the housings together. 

This is the alien part of this install. The filter is purely held by the sandwiched housings. It's a key design feature to give the sleek aesthetics. 

Start with loosening the clamps to get some wiggle room and put in the lower housing. 

"Tip: to get a perfect and tight seal, get your hands into the lower housing by the bumper duct opening and turn the filter on its carbon flange. You'll feel the housings settle on themselves straight."
- Matt

Adjust the clamp to put the bolt out of sight. 

It's a clean look. 

 

Installing the dragons. 

The beautiful part of the install is now.

Fitting the new breather filter.

Take the new and included breather filter, along with the 3D printed tube, and firmly push it into the breather hose pressure-plug. 

Wrap the clamp around the hose and bolt it into the threaded hole of the chassis 

Of course, I had to do something wrong. This is where I messed up. 

Can you notice it?

I learned this the hard way as the hood's closure ended up wiggling the filter of the hose and getting emissions codes as the vacuum went wacko. 

You want the clamp facing downwards to put the breather filter lower in the engine bay.

Fit the rubber inlet tubes first*

I preferred fitting the rubber tubes on the intakes prior to installing them into the chassis. 

It was a bit of a PITA as space is tight, with cooling and vacuum hoses, but it works. You have freedom here. 

Slide the intakes into the ducts. 

The bumper duct is a straight triangle with no tabs. The chassis duct is a flexible rubber hose with tabs. Make sure to align them right.

The good thing here is the OE rubber hose that fits the duct is flexible, and loose.

You can wiggle in. 

Plug the MAFs and get a tight seal on the rubber tubes. 

Any leak on a MAF & MAP equipped engine will lead straight to misfires. 

Quadruple check this for a tight seal. 

Bolt the washer fluid bracket.

Use the provided nut and bolt to fit the bracket. Make sure to have the bolt pointing upwards and use the nut on the top side to avoid it coming loose. 

I don't have detailed pictures of this. You can sort of see it by the negative terminal. 

Double check all bolts, and fire it up :) 

Up next: I go for a drive, record a clip, document GPS  performance gains and give you my driving impressions.