I was leaning towards getting the K&N Typhoon cold air intake, but I looked around the message boards and found a lot of people like the injen, and my local dealer is recommending AEM.
I'm just trying to get a feel for what the best brand may be.

Thanks in advance

 

AEM all the way, thats what i have. It id not give a CEL and it sounds like it could suck the road up

 

Why do people bother with CAI's on the WRX? The turbo compresses and superheats the air entering the intake tract anyways. Just get a good short ram like the MRT or Blitz that'll give you good throttle response and suck down lots of clean air.

But unless your setup is tuned to run an intake, just run the stock airbox with a good drop in filter.

 

I spent 2 hours reading the various threads about intakes here @ i-club. It would seem the general consensus is:

1. No one can agree on any of the published test results. There are usually a few other variables thrown in to the mix besides just the intake itself (down pipe, octane booster, etc). This makes me think that the intake needs to work with some other stuff to yield significant benefits. What is significant? That's up to the owner - it could be .2 secs off their 1/4mi, or 5 whp.

2. People who play in the dirt and water typically go with the "short ram" configuration to avoid worrying about sucking water into the engine. Also, if you plan to have a FMIC, I would recommend a short ram intake (or stock) to give you more choices when selecting a FMIC - most will get in the way of a CAI.

3. Many owners got it for the sound, and any other benefits is icing on the cake to them.

4. There are cars with over 300 HP running great on the stock boxes, so it would seem a CAI is not absolutely necessary to build up a fire-breathing monster.

5. Many people are satisfied with just uprading the intercooler's hoses. The idea is to make your interCOOLER do all the cooling work, and that the cold air coming from a CAI is not very significant due to the high temp increases that occur right after it goes through the turbo.

6. Hard data, acquired with sound scienfic methods is hard to find. A lot of it is lost in the marketing hype.

DISCLAIMER: I have an AEM CAI. Why? Because when I got my car, I asked the guys in the dealer's speed shop what one of the first, inexpensive performance mods I could get that would pass emmissions, and would not throw me into a Solo2 class that I would not enjoy (I'm new to it). Of course, I found out later that AEM's CAI is not CARB approved YET (KnN's is). I hope AEM's rep was telling me the truth when he said "all the paper work has been turned in, it should only be a few months." -- That was 3 months ago.

Based on what I've read, had I the chance to go back in time, I would have skipped the CAI, and put the money towards something like STI engine/tranny mounts in the hopes of gaining a few tenth's off my Solo2 times.

One thing I think most people would agree on: Having all that bulky plastic replaced with a nice tube makes it a little easier to get at other parts of the engine bay.