would a cold air intake for the sti sound and perform better?, or am I just better off getting a regular one?

get regular one
CAI will get u a lot of weird engine noise, and u can't clean the filter easily

Well I'd disagree on that a bit. A cold air intake will do just that get you cold air, a regular intake sucks up the hot air inside the engine compartment meaning less power for you. A Cold air intake, gets the air from the front fender where the air hasn't been warmed by the engine. You get more power because the air is denser meaning you can burn more fuel, now were only talking about 2-3 horses diffrence but for us true performance guys that's important. yeah it might make some weird noises but if your really seriouse about performance that shouldn't mater. Same with difficulty in cleaning the filter, if it isn't a little bit challenging where's the fun? I've seen some guys so into making power that they wrap there exausts, headers, cold air intakes, and all the hoses with thermal barrier tape (gives it a weired top secret mummy look but works pretty well performance wise.) So I guess it comes down to what you want, something that dresses up the engine and hardly works better than stock, or something that those in the know will respect and admire, while giving your car an edge others don't. Just my .02

CAIs dont really matter with turbos and intercoolers

my opinion....just save up and get a FMIC

Just a question about the FMIC, is it really worth it?
You are moving the unit further from the intake, the feed to the turbo is running back through the engine bay it just seems to me the induction would heat right back up.
also wouldn't the added length would add more weight.

I am not posting this to disagree I am really just curious this is my 1st turbo.

thanks

A FMIC doesn't necisarily mean your'e adding more weight, in one of the threads at NASIOC, installing a TurboXS FMIC actually SAVED you 4 pounds over stock. There's also some good info for you, and plenty of pictures. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=400124

There may be some reheating but only minute, silicone is a good insulator. There is also a bit more lag but nothing to horrible. FMIC's are good for when your'e going for big power, big turbos and high boost, that's when they come in handy.

With FMIC:

Flip your intake manifold, delete A/C compressor, and run much shorter piping...

Great idea! Should only cost about 20 bucks and 30 minutes of your time.

not cheap, and I don't know who makes the piping

Originally posted by metoo
Great idea! Should only cost about 20 bucks and 30 minutes of your time.

http://www.kaynzengineering.com/stealth.htm

The longest part about getting to this air filter and cleaning it is.. jacking up the car. Otherwise it will take you 5 minutes max.

Heres what I did about a CAI, works great;)

I was going to get an AEM CAI butafter hearing all the problems with using a CAI, I figured I would just get one of the Ebay reverse engineered CAIs, if it didnt work out, Im only out 35 bucks. I hook it up and it does just what everyone says it will, good down low, but by fourth gear I can only make 9psi, by 6th im making 4:( I go to put to stock box back on and notice the the hole with the rubber gasket in the stock box that goes down to the snorkel actually fits and makes a perfect seal over the secondary CAI pipe, the one that goes sown into the fender well! so I install the stock box back with the CAI pipe feeding into it and just cut out the paper element, works like a charm! I get better bottom end and response and no problems with boost, best of all it looks completely stock:D

umm...cold air into hot turbo...just get a short ram

Originally posted by tm999xxx
umm...cold air into hot turbo...just get a short ram

Ram airs are bad. How is using hotter air than the factory intake gets possibly better? "Cold Air" intakes aren't really any better. The best case scenario for an aftermarket intake is that it works exactly the same as stock. If it flows more than stock, your MAF readings will be off, and the car will run lean. If it reduces flow, which some intakes do, the car runs rich. The worst part is that intakes have different effects at different loads and different RPMs.

As for sound, if you remove the silencer and plug the holes in the fender, it will be just as loud as an aftermarket intake, only cheaper and safer.

cold air is better because it's dense... more air = more power. Even if that greater quantity of air is going to be immediately heated up it's still there and in greater quantity... = more power

and besides the intake side of the turbo is hot... but not as hot as the exhaust side so cold air does matter before it hits the intercooler.

Unless I just have that totally wrong. In which case I want pictures!!! :monkey: :p :D

I remember reading that the MAF isnt really a PITA on the STi, and aftermarket intakes dont have a negative effect on performance

Originally posted by Silky
cold air is better because it's dense... more air = more power. Even if that greater quantity of air is going to be immediately heated up it's still there and in greater quantity... = more power

and besides the intake side of the turbo is hot... but not as hot as the exhaust side so cold air does matter before it hits the intercooler.

Unless I just have that totally wrong. In which case I want pictures!!! :monkey: :p :D

Although I agree that cold air is always better(hence my last post;) ) the bigger prob for air in turbos isnt just passing through a hot turbine itself, but the actual physical act of compression that is the much larger cause of heat. Anytime you compress air it heats tremendously, regardless of wether or not it passes through a red-hot turbine first, its just physics:(

Silky- Cold air is indeed better than warm air, but no aftermarket cold air intake gets cooler air than the factory does already. That's not really the problem- by itself, thatintake really would work. The issues arise from MAF signal errors. When you change the way the air flows through the MAF, even slightly, it wreaks havoc with the ECU's ability to meter fuel properly.

awns, I'm not sure what you mean. The STi MAF unit is fine, but you still can't mess with the flow signal and expect positive reults.

Krinkov, you are correct about the air becoming much hotter when it's compressed, but still, the colder it is when you compress it, the less hot it is when it gets to the intercooler. The other side is, the hotter the air is when it passes through the intake, the less dense it is, and the less oxygen it contains. This is more of an issue than the actual temperature of the air since the intercooler will pretty much bring it within 15 degrees of ambient regardless.

well thats why I have my intake setup the way I posted on the first page;) and yes AWNs, my STi did the same thing all the other wrx's did with my first attempt with a CAI, sorry:(

Its funny that this MAF issue comes up again in the cars Ive modded, my last car(now my wifes) is a 92 300ZX, had the exact same prob. The no-brainer first mod for many 300ZX guys is to replace the filter assembly with a Jim Wolf intake, basically a K&N cone filter mounted directly to the end of the stock MAF. Half the time though you would get the same problem. Somewhere along the line a clever 300ZX guy came up with a simple fix, run a strip of duct tape down one side of the cone filter, this fixes it every time!;) best guess on twinturbo.net is that this causes a slight turbulence inside the filter that makes the sensor better able to measure the actual volume of incoming air. I love it when people stumble across simple and ingenious fixes to problems :D

Has anyone added a CAI and then reset the ECU on an STi? What happens? Does it adapt at all?

Sounds like from all the post you all are getting ZERO gain from doing this...

I dont understand. Why bother?


My solution, Remove the Intake Silencer. Better flow and the sound is there...


Cost= $0

what about the BLITZ SUS intake GOD used it on his STI with no problems.:D

Did anybody read the Aug 03 SCC, they compared three WRX's against a STI. Notice that the fastest car was the Vishnu WRX stock intake, stock BOV pop the hood on it the only thing not stock looking is the intercooler (although it had a full Stage 2 kit). Open up the exhaust and get some engine management. I had a blitz BOV on my STI it ran like crap put the stock one back on car runs fine I'm just waiting till I got the money and am gonna buy the Vishnu kit for the STI, now if they will put it on their site.....:cool:

I run cool air Ingin intake on my STI. It works, there is a little more power there. they have a new modified unit comming out at sema next week. mods to map sensor housing w/ significent gains in HP. I'll trade up.
Ira

My TurboXS short intake works just fine on my STi. The gains are noticable with a DP/exhaust combo.

i have an extra blitz sus intake for sale if interested
it's used for only a month
$183 shipped
cann_lui@yahoo.com
selling it coz my buddy got his car back to stock and he has an ARC air box for me

Buy the blitz if you want the best. $183 ?

Great, mine was 250 last week from God.

No cel, great recirc sound, noticable performance gain.
Add a dp and a bc (SBC-id) and you've got 300 at the wheels.