You know someone will ask, might as well make a thread they can just goto. My take on things...

Cold / Cool Air Intakes:

Cobb Tuning: (http://www.cobbtuning.com)
A real cold air intake, my personal favorite. Nice "non-ricey" sound. Arguabley the best gains but definitely one of the best out there. I hear the inline filter can be hard to clean. Only made for 2000+ (Non-MAF) cars, but can be adapted to fit older ones. ~$270

Gravel Sport: (http://www.pkzero.com)
Top-Mount cold air intake. You have to have a hood scoop for this to work. Running an open scoop you will of course get some water on your intake, to my knowledge this intake has not given anyone any problems though. By the design of this intake I would imagine it trades low-end for top-end power. Which isn't really a bad thing in my opinion since the 2.5 needs help up top. Only made for 2000+ (Non-MAF) cars. ~$300

Injen: (http://www.injen.com/misc.html)
The "traditional" cold air into the fender design. Probably offers good gains with less loss in the low end that the others. Much more susceptable to water integestion than the others, I would not recommend this intake if you like playing in puddles. I hear it's kind of a PITA to get to the filter to clean it and you can't just look to see if it's dirty. Made for MAF and MAP cars. ~$250

Ganzflow: (http://www.subaruplanet.com)
Generally regarded as the best value intake. Doesn't replace the stock filter or air-box, so retains a good amount of low-end but doesn't give the gains that others too. One of the quietest intakes you can get. Only made for 2000+ (Non-MAF) cars. ~$110

PDM: (http://www.pdm-racing.com)
Basically a copy of the 2nd gen. Ganzflow, so see above. Only made for 2000+ (Non-MAF) cars. ~$50

Intermediate:

Rallispec: (No longer available)
Opening the side vent and a blocking plate allow it to suck in cooler air. Had some mounting problems that Rallispec later fixed. Good gains, mostly top-end. The loudest intake for the 2.5l that I know of. Made for MAF and MAP cars. ~$ depends

Turn 3: (No longer available)
The first intake made for the RS. Opening the side vent and a blocking plate allow it to suck in cooler air. A good option for '98s, I dunno if it fits 99s too. Good luck finding one though. Made for MAF car. ~$

Short Rams:

AEM: (http://www.aempower.com/)
Well known company, I would imagine a very well made intake. From a design perspective, I have to question this one. Since it's a short ram it's a hot air intake, in addition the bend in the intake is unnecessarily sharp which will happer air flow. Also this intake interferes with a lot of strut tower bars. I'm sure it adds some up top, but I can't see it adding the performance of the others. It looks pretty though. ~$150

JC Sports: (No longer available)
The infamous JC sports. Known for being loud, it's not as loud as the Rallispec, if you want sound it's a good choice. It is dyno proven to add hp and will do so. I'd say it's more a top end intake like most short rams. Better designed than the AEM IMO but not as pretty. Made for MAF and MAP cars. ~$ depends, don't pay more than $100 for sure

Weapon *R: (http://******************/intakes.html)
Comes in two types, Dragon and Hyper. Dragon is the newer of the two and I must say looks really cool, but I don't think either offers more performance. It's longer than the AEM or JC Sports, so should offer more low-end. Should, but as far as I know doesn't. I've heard people complain of bogging at low RPMs but good gains up top. I've also heard complaints of poor fitting and poor quality. Made for MAF and MAP cars. ~$175 for hyper, $205 for the dragon, I believe the price may vary based on MAF/MAP

RS Akimoto: (?)
I don't know much about it. I've seen it, that's about it. If you are looking for a short ram, might as well buy this one. It should be the cheapest and provide the same gain as the others. Made for MAF and MAP cars. ~$?

Technik Motorwerks: (?)
Just a basic ram air from what I gather.
Made for MAF and MAP cars. ~$?

DIY:

Filter Directly on TB:
Opening the hoodscoop gives a so called "ram-air" effect at higher speed. General consensus is good high end, bad low end. If you run something like this, I would advise keeping a blocking plate around in case it rains. ~$? depends on your filter

Removal of the silencer:
Little more sound, no performance increase.
~$ free

Look farther in the thread for more stuff...

My opinion, ante up for a cold air. If you are going to modify your car, might as well do it right.

I have Injen and I like it. Good sound, not ricey. Good gain in high end power. Found mine at www.optionsauto.com

There's also the Technik Motorwerks intake.

Don't forget about the AEM short ram intake.

JC Sports too!

Let's not forget the RS Akimoto intake, which was one of the first aftermarket intakes available for the RS. *Fits both MAF and MAP*

Also, for Pre-00' guys there is the Blitz SUS Filters w/ Adapters, as well as the A'pex-i Super Filter, the HKS Filter, and last but not least, the Airnix filter, these would all maintain the stock airbox piping, just elminate the Filter box and Panel. (As far as I remember, these will all bolt onto the MAF via Kartboys MAF adapter *or any other adapter made for the 95-99GC8*)

Cheers,

Rich

I have heard your choice of intake should be easy based on what you want from it.

For sound, get JC Sports.
For power, Cobb first and probably Ganzflow second.
AEM is just so you can spend as little as possible and still say "I have an intake." They lose much more on the low end than they gain high.
The Gravel Sport sounds intriguing, and making the scoop functional was the first impulse I had after buying my '01 RS. But $300 seems awful steep for an unproven (so far) product that can't really do all that much for power. It should have a screaming sound though. To approximate it, take off your whole intake tract past the plenum box (where the filter is housed on '00-'01 RS') and pull the backing plate off the scoop. Shouldn't be too much quieter.

For the record, I have actually used none of these, it's all conjecture and repition of things I have heard from others. Also, www.subarureview.com has lots of user feedback on all kinds of goodies. We should all go there and list every upgrade we have done as a servic to each other.

For Canadian people, you can order PRM CAI's (Cobb CAI's) directly from PRM itself, but only if you're from Canada.

http://www.prmracing.com

Another real treat if you're from Canada, they sell some kits that are made for MY99's at special request.

For the U.S. of A, Cobb is the offical distributor of PRM CAI's.

What about good old DIY? Best bang for the buck...hands down!

Tachometer

Originally posted by Tachometer
What about good old DIY? Best bang for the buck...hands down!

Tachometer

Haha, yeah. It should be mandatory for anyone with an EJ25 to take off everythng back of the plenum box at least once just to hear it!

Originally posted by Keiho
There's also the Technik Motorwerks intake.

is that intake any good??

Originally posted by AWD OWNZ U

Injen: (http://www.injen.com/misc.html)
The "traditional" cold air into the fender design. Probably offers good gains with less loss in the low end that the others. Much more susceptable to water integestion than the others, I would not recommend this intake if you like playing in puddles. I hear it's kind of a PITA to get to the filter to clean it and you can't just look to see if it's dirty. Made for MAF and MAP cars. ~$250




I got this intake. In fact, my car was the prototype for this one. :)

no problems so far. had it installed for a little over a year now.

It is true you can't see the filter redily, but if you take your bumper light off and flash a flashlight through, you'll see it.

Had no problems with water at all!


->arthur

I have the cobb tuning intake and I love it, but it's freaking noisy at WOT. The power gains are good and noticable and I would really suggest if you do get an intake, get some headers and an exhaust too. it's a potent combo and fun as hell to drive.

Go with what fits your budget though, and if you don't like something change it.

I've heard someone told me the injen intake was also CARB legal and comes with a sticker that says so. I'd get this intake if I had the money. I don't get big puddles around my area so i'm safe. Plus i hear they did one of the best compared to other intakes with good gains without that much loss in low end.

so far i still have my GanzFlow intake.. for got the version since its a 2 piece. i've also cut the fins in my stock intake box. great bang for the buck with the GanzFlow ;) I don't know if it is one of the quietest intake since my engine did get louder with this on.. very noticable.

Daios (Day-ohhss)

I still like Dcrawford's custom "cowl" induction modified COBB intake...

http://www.moesrealm.com/img/neil/intake/PRM-1.jpg

Originally posted by bakchoi
is that intake any good??

Its decent. A typical short ram style intake similar to JC Sports, AEM and whatever else has a short ram intake for the EJ25.

A lot easier to get then say, a Cobb or Injen though.

Same with the PDM intake. Because both Technik and PDM are local to Vancouver. ;)

Originally posted by Kostamojen
I still like Dcrawford's custom "cowl" induction modified COBB intake...

http://www.moesrealm.com/img/neil/intake/PRM-1.jpg

Yeah, I hear that dcrawford guy really is da man when it comes to DIY intakes. ;)

I wonder if he will ever get off his lazy ass and do some more serious testing with that intake setup?

http://www.moesrealm.com/img/neil/intake2/PRM-1.4.jpg

Tachometer

Originally posted by Tachometer
Yeah, I hear that dcrawford guy really is da man when it comes to DIY intakes. ;)

I wonder if he will ever get off his lazy ass and do some more serious testing with that intake setup?

http://www.moesrealm.com/img/neil/intake2/PRM-1.4.jpg

Tachometer
Ya, a dyno test in comparison to his other dyno test would be good :p Ill offer him to pay half so I can see for myself!

Added some more...

I had an old Minam intake.. possibly the loudest one I've heard yet.. but I can't say I was overly impressed with it.

I've got the Cobb now, very pleased with it.
Nicely built, doesn't get that loud when you get on it.

I have the AEM Short Ram (slightly modified b/c i have a 2.2L with a sensor in the airbox). The sound is awesome but extremely loud. My impreza can be heard at least 5-6 blocks away at WOT. I have no complaints about loss of power, and it really added alot from 4K on up.

Can someone confirm the Injen comes with a CARB sticker..???

Honestly I don't believe it :)

I already spoke with AEM and they arent sounding very confident that they will ever get the actual carb approval for there intake...they are in endless "CarB pending which means...no sticker or EO numbers.

I'm getting the Gtech Pro competion meter this christmas, I think we should test all the above listed intakes, we can then accurately say what intake is the best for what applications and overall performance, if anyone is interested in donating there intake for testing reasons please contact me, I'll pay to ship it back and the test should only take a day. What variables should we test other than HP, I was thinking tempature also, and maybe even measure the air travel, meaning what intake is getting the most air to the engine. Please inform me of the thread if this test has already been done. I think this test is way past due! I've seen to many "what intake is the best threads" and I've also wondered myself what intake is the best?

Without doing some serious testing of all the intake out there it's very difficult to seriously say which one is best.

I couldn't tell you which gives you the most peak HP/TQ, or which gives the best overall power through the whole rev range.

There has been some testing...but most of that has been one intake vs another on the dyno...and since everyone's car is different it's hard to compare those results to each other.

And sound...well, some like 'em loud, some like 'em quiet!

But I think there are some general things to look for...
1) quality of the filter material. Something durable and strong, easy to clean, not paper but a good strong matrix

2) heat properties of the tubing. Some will absorb engine heat easily and may possibly increase the intake charge.

3) quality of the tubes. Some have smoother fewer bends and are nice and smooth...some aren't.

4) where the air is being drawn from. A true "cold air" intake (in my mind) will draw air from outside the engine compartment and keep it cool on it's way to the throttle body.

5) water. Can the intake be used during a driving storm? When driving through deep water?

6) CARB. That's just a pain in the ass.

If we could take all these intakes in a list and apply those 6 items to them perhaps we could get an better idea of "which is best"

Tachometer

if i remember correctly. someone actually did a test and measured the temp with different intake. search the nasioc site...

I wonder who that was.....

heh

Tachometer

Whoa! What's going on _there_ with the cowl intake?

--BA

I run a DIY ram-air on my 01RS. Remove the silencer and the little grill thing below the passenger side directional in front. Use some self adhesive weather stripping and run a couple of circles around the airbox inlet. Buy around 4 feet of 3" brake duct/intake flexible hose (about $4 a foot) and fit it over the airbox inlet. The weather strip makes it very tight. Snake the hose into the rear fender hole, down to the front hole under the directional. This is most easily done by removing the plastic fenderwell, but can be done with it in place. Once it's right behind the openning in front, make a tubular plastic insert to force into that hole. I used something like a 20 oz soda bottle cut at both ends. This holds the duct in place. You still use the stock airbox and air filter. It's not overly noisy inside because any noise is at the front corner of your car. If you have a loud exhaust and run at the track, the intake and exhaust are on opposite sides of the car and opposite ends, so you will probably not have any problems (I've had none). The ECU will adapt after some number of startups.

jack

Anyone here actually have a Gravel Sports intake? I'm considering getting one (it's only $30 more than the Cobb intake) and wanted to know how decent it was.

As a side note, is there something that is made that can be used to keep water out of the scoop if you had one of these installed? If not, than it shouldn't be any more susceptable to water ingestion than the WRX...

Thanks.

JackFFR --

Do you have any photos of this install? I love DIY stuff like this and it sounds like a fun thing to toy with even if I do end up replacing it with something mass produced.

Thanks in advance. And, irregardless of seeing photos or not, I think I'll give this a try.

--BA

Originally posted by Nemnith
As a side note, is there something that is made that can be used to keep water out of the scoop if you had one of these installed? If not, than it shouldn't be any more susceptable to water ingestion than the WRX...

Thanks.

I would imagine you could use the stock backing plate. There is a big difference between an intercooler and an intake. An intercooler can get wet all day long without any problems (hell it will work better) an intake does not have the same luxury.

JC

I think I'm going to yank all the intake plumbing up to the planum this weekend when I install my strut brace, just to see what happens. Anybody else up for a little weird science? ;)

Forgot to mention that I'm not driving a WRX... I've got a '01 2.5RS, with everything still stock. I'm going to take the false back off from under the scoop and hook up the gravel sports intake.
That being said, I don't have whatever is under the scoop of the WRX...

Bump. Hopefully this will help all the intake questions.

I bought an injen intake used, it didnt come with the carb sticker. How can i get one?

There are no Carb legal intakes, and please don't cross post. This isn't even a WRX related forum.

Holy CRAP this is an old thread! It's like the oldest one in the forum... heh, I remember posting that too...

I have a Weapon R Dragon on my 2.2. The filter looks really cheesy but produces a really cool sound. I doubt I will get another replacement Dragon tho.

I got my new injen CAI intake from a "dealer approved" tuner for Subaru (Easy Street in So Cal) and I felt the low and high gains right away. I'm not afraid of cops looking for illegal mods because of the CARB sticker. So I would recommend injen over the generic if you can afford it.

This is a really old forum, but I have the JC Sports intake. At the time there were only a few manufacturers with dyno results posted and the JC Sports had the best overall gain of 13.5hp/13lb.ft. . Of course, the dyno can be manipulated somewhat with setup and can be different altogether from other dyno locations due to atmosphere. I was just trying to find the best for my money with some sort of proven power than just a sound good goody for the engine. This intake is really loud though. Especially if you have the vent on the right side of the hood removed for a semi-ram air effect.

I bought a CHEAP air intake off of ebay a few weeks ago. It is nothing more than a simple pipe that curves around so the cone will rest facing the fender. The intake seemed to help out in the high RPMs but the trade off for that was an extremely high pitched and annoying sound. Infact from about 4-4.5k it is louder and more annoying as it reaches it's rev limiter. I put up with it for a while but one day on my way to work I had to hit WOT to get through an intercection before the light changed. The next thing I knew, the high pitched sound not only attracted the attention of the people walking along the side of the road but also that of an a-hole in a firebird that must have though I was some 16 year old that thought his import was the fastest thing in the world. The next light the guy wanted to race.

The following day I took off the intake and put the stock back on.
I still plan on putting a full exhaust on my 01 Legacy and a few other things, but I still would like to get rid of the horrible factory air intake.

:confused: Is there any way to quiet my intake down so it wont attract so much attention? Or is there an intake that isnt so noisy at WOT?:confused:

Thanks in advance guys!

Just so you know my intake looks exactly like this one sold by rallitek.
http://www.rallitek.com/pictures/PPintake_noMAF.jpg

I made a custom intake for my 2000 2.5rs as you can tell its dirty and I’ve been running it for about 1yr now with no problem and it has really good gain especially in colder weather since I open my hook scoop and the filter sits right under it :) never had it tested though so can't give you stats but trust me its very noticeable and also the sound is pretty crazy

This cost me less than $100.00 and im sure it works better than any other intake out there

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/3889/untitled2rz9.png (http://imageshack.us)

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/9702/untitled2vl4.png (http://imageshack.us)

its been a while since i changed the filter too cuz its from an older injen system as you can tell from the "injen" on in the middle of it :) once again sounds insane with really good gain

Scooby00'

O and i forgot to add the open hood scoop and the filter under it cause the intake to act as a ram air system also best setup i've seen in my opinion need a little cleanin up and better hoses but these will work for now :)

i didn't relize i posted the same pic twice heres a close up
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/4637/untitledkl2.png (http://imageshack.us)

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=731658513
this is how it will sound although this video was still in the development stage now its a much deeper sounds more like a subaru should sound like

please DEFINE "RICEY-SOUND" from a intake?!


you poeple sure in the hell use the word "rice" a little to much.

I bought a CHEAP air intake off of ebay a few weeks ago. It is nothing more than a simple pipe that curves around so the cone will rest facing the fender. The intake seemed to help out in the high RPMs but the trade off for that was an extremely high pitched and annoying sound. Infact from about 4-4.5k it is louder and more annoying as it reaches it's rev limiter. I put up with it for a while but one day on my way to work I had to hit WOT to get through an intercection before the light changed. The next thing I knew, the high pitched sound not only attracted the attention of the people walking along the side of the road but also that of an a-hole in a firebird that must have though I was some 16 year old that thought his import was the fastest thing in the world. The next light the guy wanted to race.

The following day I took off the intake and put the stock back on.
I still plan on putting a full exhaust on my 01 Legacy and a few other things, but I still would like to get rid of the horrible factory air intake.

:confused: Is there any way to quiet my intake down so it wont attract so much attention? Or is there an intake that isnt so noisy at WOT?:confused:

Thanks in advance guys!

Just so you know my intake looks exactly like this one sold by rallitek.
http://www.rallitek.com/pictures/PPintake_noMAF.jpg

once you do your exhaust. it'll even out the intake at WOT ;)

your exhaust will atract more attention then your intake.

hey never said it sounds ricey i love the sound and with the addition of headers high flow cat and cat back its a pretty crazy sound

Cobb Tuning: (http://www.cobbtuning.com)
A real cold air intake, my personal favorite. Nice "non-ricey" sound.

taken right out of the 1st post!


DEFINE "RICEY" sound

any honda civic with an aftermarket exhaust or intake...that's rice