I have the APS 65mm CAI (based upon my tuners recommendation).

One thing you may or may not like, is that its loud as hell! Seriously, I can scare innocent bystanders on the sidewalk by flooring it and letting off. PISH!!!! I had no idea it would be so much louder (although I also have TGV deletes and turbo inlet hose too).

As for it sucking in water, I dont see this happening as long as I stay away from GIGANTIC puddles. There have been a few times in the last few weeks where I hit a huge puddle going 70mph on the freeway that has worried me but when I get home I can reach my hand to touch the filter and its always 100% dry (its pretty safe inside the fender well). I dont see it sucking in water unless you're crossing a small lake.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention. If you buy an intake - HAVE IT TUNED!!

 

A good drop in filter would do you pretty well, as the stock intake is great. If you are looking for the sound that you would get from the SRI or CAI you can always look into the snorkus delete, I have always ran one on my cars, breath easier, and you get a little turbo spooling noise, with out the wooosh...I hate the wooosh personally. The whole intake benefit thing has been a hugely debated topic over the years, so I am not sure what sort of benefit you will see in terms of HP on an otherwise stock car. And as previously stated, if you get the intake, get tuned for it.

 

Cool, this thread feels like a flashback to 2002. I feel so young again!
But cereally, stock is good!

 

A lot of people say stock but seriously if you are pushing for more power (big #'s like 300-350+), you will need more air to compress at a faster rate. I think Short Rams is the way to go aftermarket wise. Needless to say many of the people on here aren't tuners who play around with every millimeter in the mechanics of things.

 

Stock + K&N is the cheapest and works fine, but theres nothing wrong with a CAI. I got a CAI simply because I found a good deal on it used, have bigger plans down the road and my tuner said some more power could be squeezed out in the present with a CAI.

I learned the CAI paranoia is akin to the meth injection paranoia. Someone always knows someone who heard of this guy who knows a guy where his engine blew and it was most certainly the ________ (insert cai or meth injection here) fault.

 

what bryan said +1

 

stay stock. CAI on stock turbo is NOT worth the cost or possible idle issues.

This hydrolock scare everyone is preaching with cold air intakes is absurd. Does anyone have ACTUAL DATA to back up this theory, or is it all just hearsay? How about an estimate on the amount of water it would take to hydrolock an engine?

I have been running the APS cold air for 25000 miles, in ALL conditions, through LARGE standing puddles while in part boost (which is NOT what a cold air will usually experience during daily driving by the way) and I have had no issues with water. My filter almost always bone dry, except when I destroy my fender liner on a yearly basis...and even then (fender liner is currently destroyed ) the filter is STILL DRY after driving.

Even before the APS when I had the crap XS engineering CAI, I drove through water deep enough to come half way up my wheels. I was on JDM pink springs at the time, so I was dropped around 1 inch all around. At the time I did not realize how stupid this was, but the car never sucked up a noticeable amount of water or skipped a beat.

My theory is that any water that was sucked up was vaporized and actually acted as light water injection

 

Absurd huh?

I know most of you know I work at AHQ. During the last rain storm I had two separate people call me about hydro lock. One was a Toyota and the other was a Suby, sad to say but both engines were done... It's sad getting these calls because neither party has $$ to rebuild their engines because they had a cai... Needless to say, but the suby front fender gave out to a medium sized puddle on 680 at 80mph.. It happens, so don't say it doesn't unless you have 100% proof. I can only say so much in trying to help out on a question.

 

yea my friend with his tc that hydrolocked lol. so tragic. we went out to bj's in newark on a rainy night and knew there was a large puddle and tried to get out a different way but there was only one way in and one way out. he attempted to go through the puddle and sucked in a small amount of water i think and it died in the middle of the puddle and we had to push it out -_-

sucks cause he was supposed to bring his car back down to ucsd the next day. hella fail

 

drop in panel filter FTMFW?

 

Why is it that every time you question an opinion someone has to flex nuts and bust out some attitude instead of actual giving proof? I am sorry to say, but saying that you work at a shop and have seen a couple busted motors (allegedly due to hydrolock) does not make the hydrolock argument true.

In the court system, the party making the claim would be the one with the burden of proof. Is this not a reasonable policy for most arguments or discussions?

Having run 2 different cold air intakes for over 40k miles, and having stressed about this very issue for over half of those miles, I believe I have the right to question this issue. What is wrong with that? I live and drive in a place wetter than the Bay Area, and I have I spent a lot of time collecting logs and checking my filter after time I would stop or go through a large puddle. I have not had a wet filter, much less a saturated one. Maybe the engine had already ingested all of the water, or maybe the filter was never exposed to enough to draw it through the oil impregnated filter.

Maybe I am just lucky.

Sorry to hijack, but I cannot stand when an opinion is taken as truth with little or no actual evidence. I will just reiterate that the OP should keep the stock intake due to this possible issue, cost, and any other possible issues with intakes

 

Wow.. Okay you're an exception... By the way, I wasn't flexing nuts. Just throwing out some examples.
In the end people do what they want anyhow..

 

ive heard the stock airbox is good for like 400 hp.... anyways you dont really need a aftermarket intake unless you go wit ha bigger turbo....

 

Man, relax. You make it sound like somebody took a doo doo in your cereal or something.