Alright, when I first bought the car I installed An Injen RD cold air intake, because thats just what you do, according to all the propaganda my unenlightend little brain has soaked up from all my magazine subcriptions.
Mod after mod I come back to this site to check out other peoples expiriences with thier setups and I come across Shiv Pathack's take on aftermarket intakes. We all know the story, that maf sensors don't work correctly or you could be leaning out your engine, water injestion, blah blah blah.
I've invested a lot of time and cash into my wrx, and want the best for it, but I paid good money for the damn thing and get bear to remove it. Plus I did a little grinding to install it so I'm not sure I could put the stock box back on anyway.
With some serious engine management as my next step I need some advice.

Should I just ****can the thing and go on my not so merry way?

Pawn it off on one of my friends?

Or can I keep it, and work around it and work around it with custom dyno tuning? After all every wrx I've seen in the mags has one.
Am I going to hurt myself in the long run if I do?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'd say keep it for now and can it if and when a new mod gets in the way. if you do decide to can it ebay will get you probably 70-80? look at whats there now...

as for what it's doing performance wise... yeah a new intake will lean out your engine a little and up your HP about 1-3 because of it. because of the way a turbo works the new intake is kinda useless until you upgrade the turbo or block (monster tune etc...)

and even then you're better off with a POD sytle intake than a CAI.

the research (or science) behind that is fairly simple. cooler air produces more power (fact). also larger air flow produces more power (fact). on a NA car the cooler air helps more than the higher flow and a few degrees makes a BIG difference. On a TurboCharged car the air gets superheated by the turbo so a few degrees makes little to no difference. if you'd like to see the actual math I'd be happy to write it out...

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if I were you'd just leave it be for now and if you get an upgrade that would bother the intake then can it for either a POD style (like MRTs) or whatever intake your tuner recomends

some mods that might not like your intake are new intercoolers, or an aftermarket ECU (unichip/utec/etc) Because dyno tuning for an intake takes several hours alone some tuners wont let you use any intake but they're own simply because they they have their own intakes pre mapped. when it comes down to the cost of a new intake is most likely less than several hours of dyno tuning too!!!

I've done a lot of research into this and thus far decided to leave my intake stock. The only consideration I've made is removing the resonator and building a plastic trumpet. This has about as much gain as a POD intake and it's free

hope this helps

 

Thanks for the advice, with a manual boost controller pushing about 16 pounds, according to my stock gauge(if I'm reading it right), leaning out the engine was my main concern.
When the time comes for major tuning, possiably turbo xs utec, I'll probably junk it or replace it. I just want my engine to run safe in the mean time (because I run it hard of course). Thanks again

 

from my understanding the wrx engine runs rich to begin with. i currently have a aem cai and i have no problems so far other than the fear of water getting sucked in. if the engine is leaning out very little and very un-noticeable. again i havent seen any decrease in performance. and did have on prob it was after i installed the cai the cel came on but i reset the computer and learned the new setup in my car and still to this day no problems

 

I dont get it. I would think that the engine controller would see the colder air and compensate for it. If the air is denser,and you add more fuel(maybe with some kind of user tuneable controller) that would mean that you have more air/fuel charge in the cylinder and that means more power. At least thats the theory with normally aspirated engines, I just dont see the difference weather or not you have a turbo. Maybe it makes the maf sensor read incorrectly?? Im not that up on maf...Im used to speed density.
I do know that cai's help some cars a tremendous amount and other cars not very much.I have an AEM cai and haven't noticed any problems. It's awfully loud though.
C-YA

 

I can't remeber where but I read an extensive thread started by Shiv Pathack from Visnu performance somewhere on this site. I'm aware of and trust his opinion on cai's since he's been in the bis for quite a while. But, I still can't bear to part with my shiny cai unless I can see proof that it's harming my engine. Another concern was with running 16 pounds of boost through my mbc will this further complicate things since stock mafs don't read correctly with cai's? And if anyone knows where that thread from Shiv is could you please point it out here for anyone who hasnt bought thier aftermarket intake yet? Thanks

 

Air will Actualy be colder if you use a short ram and make more power becouse you have denser air so the intercooler can compress it better and disperse the heat faster. Thus a short ram pod is the way to go Pluss wont set a check engine when you modify the ecu

 

I agree completely... older WRXs and other turbo'd vehicles have similar (and more apparent) problems with intakes.

just because you dont SEE any damage doesn't mean it's not there or wont be there. installing a CAI isn't like hitting your car with a sledge where you can SEE and feel the damage. Infact a CAI will actualy slightly improve your performance by making your car run slightly lean. what you dont see is the damage that causes.
Its like the story of the guy with the WRX who's waste gate got stuck open. it was just boosting all the time. he didn't think anything was wrong because it was running better than it ever had.... that is untill the 3rd piston melted and he needed to rebuild his engine.

it's hard to get good information you need to find unbias parties. venders will tell you it's good because they want to make a sell, parts makers will tell you it's good becaues they make that part, people in forums who have that part will tell you it's good because they have it on there car.
I typicaly try to find hard PROOF that something works before I buy it. if they can't give me a dyno graph for their part on my car I can't justify giving them my money. I put an HKS exhaust on my car and it was only after I saw an actual dyno graph at a shop near me.

a good suggestion would be to just look for "NAY SAYERS" and see what BAD things people are saying about them. you can find bad info about anything. but once you find it find out who's saying it and why... as for me I'm saying it because I've read books and I'm an engineering student, and to me using my knowledge in this area a CAI doesn't make sense, and a rampod will help but only on a larger motor/turbo and after some tuning.

 

This is exactly the kind of input I was looking for. Everyone knows that asking vendors questions about performance parts is like talking to a room full of "yes men".
No I do not have an a/f gauge or knocklink but am definatly planning to add at least the a/f and possiably an egt in the future.
As for the setup itself, the mbc is an 80 dollar solution to a big engine management question. Everyone says uteck or excede, but I'm leanig more towards a reflashed ecu. Again the intake problem surfaces. Instaed of countless hours on a dyno tuning for a cai, I think I may just take it off and cut my losses. It pains me to do so but my cars overall health and longevity are more important than a shiny addition under the hood.
Thanks again gentleman.


Now if anyone can convince me to keep it I'm listening.

 

One of the reasons the computer in our cars can't make up for it as stated by Shiv is the large dia of the intake pipe from the CAI's and the MAF sensor just isn't designed for a larger pipe. IT's simply designed for the stock pipe.

Donohue