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These guys have made me wonder about my plans for my 5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAIxeQUSg-Q&feature=relmfu
Made me think if anything other than 'more noise', is changing the intake on my stock NB8A worthwhile?
My first plan with the car was to improve intake & exhaust by changing both in the hope of gaining a power increase.
Anyone got any thoughts?
Cheers

Very interesting video. I would really love to have access to a car dyno where I can have first hand experiments in which I could try a few different pods, the stock airbox with factory panel and a K&N air panel, and various intake chambers like the ARC chamber and Mania's cold air intake.

The only difference you will notice from an intake and muffler is noise. The noise will then make you think you are going faster, which is all that matters i suppose.

People (usually sellers) will swear black and blue you will gain x amount of HP but the fact of the matter is, you won't gain enough to realise that extra kick in the back. Especially on an NA 4 cyl.

Best NA modification for the price is probably diff gears.

In my opinion I think changing the stock setup for an aftermarket one will have differences in the engines behaviour and drivability rather than its power.

The setup I had in my NA6 was a 2 1/4” from the cat back through a 2 ½” turbo muffler (style of muffler in no way a fake turbo or imitation item) exhaust.
With my inlet I changed the Plastic inlet pipe, from the throttle body to the air flow meter with a custom 3 inch steel version.
A 3A racing pod on the other side of the afm that had a cold air feed from the front of the car.
I don’t honestly know if it changed my power as I never had it on a dyno.
But it did feel as if it differed my power band. 3500-5500 seemed more even and equal in my opinion.

Just a pod filter, with no reasonable effort made to actually get colder/more air into the engine, will of course make very little difference in power. I don't think this is really news. But it will sound better, and a sports car should sound good.

As above.

The Pod filter itself won't help with making power.


However, because it's more compact than a panel, you can more easily route cold air to it, which should make a little more power. (again, probably not enough to feel)



I would expect that if somebody tested a Mania style intake, then a stock airbox with the same ducting to the firewall, the results would be about the same.

deanb90 wrote:The only difference you will notice from an intake and muffler is noise. The noise will then make you think you are going faster, which is all that matters i suppose.

People (usually sellers) will swear black and blue you will gain x amount of HP but the fact of the matter is, you won't gain enough to realise that extra kick in the back. Especially on an NA 4 cyl.

Best NA modification for the price is probably diff gears.

Not sure about the pod but have had about 8 Mx's do before and afters on the dyno after a good steel cat. and exhaust and the gains have been in the 5-10 RWKW .range.

Peter.

I have a K&N intake kit on my NB. They claim a small HP increase which may or may not be there as I cant feel it but I did notice a big difference in how willing the car was to rev. With the stock intake sytem it felt like it was choking above 5500RPM and would take an age to rev out, now it feels far more willing to get to the redline.

I hope an exhaust system can give the same again.

I have a Mania CAI, custom 2.25 exhaust and hi flow cat. The car definately feels more alive and the sound for me is perfect. If i had it dynoed before and after the changes and it had lost for 2hp for example, i would never go back to stock. I can understand people who race their cars being concerned about gaining or losing power, but for people like me who drive normally on the streets a 2hp loss would not be felt. For me with cars it's all about the noise which enhances the driving pleasure.

Thanks to everyone who answered my post. This is such an awesome forum.

The comment about changing my open diff sounds like good advice. As do the documented gains from a full exhaust change.

Also, I realized the video I posted does not take into account the fact that Pods, CAI and the like, do appear to free up the engine somewhat with people saying the 'feel' and 'response' are improved.

Cheers again for some great insights