I know there are millions of threads on which intake to get lol... But what about which intake not to get?? Right now i just have a cone filter on the stock intake but i wanna upgrade soon and im leaning towards the K&N air intake system

 

K&N makes a quality system with a nice heatshield.

 

My ETS intake has been working great for me.

 

I've been doing a pretty extensive research and came to learn quite a lot about intakes. If the mods you have on your car are as listed in your signature, then you're not too far from stock.
Here it goes:
K&N CAI intake and UICP - 300-350 dollars. Adds 20-22 hp on top of stock w/out a tune. Lasts awhile and requires medium care, yet this applies to most intakes in this list. My personal favorite
Cosworth CAI - 330-380 dollars. Adds 15-18 hp on top of stock without a tune.
ETS CAI - 250-270 dollars. I would pick this over Cossie any day because it adds a bit more power and has the same basic qualities. You're looking at 17-19 hp on top of stock. It comes with a K&N come filter
AEM CAI- 280-320 dollars. This is a closed element intake. Adds about the same amt of hp as the ETS. Consider this one if you're looking for a closed element intake.
AMS CAI - 500+ dollars. I have no clue why you would ever pay so much money for a CAI, unless you're tuning your car to be over 500 whp. This is a highly tunable intake and its the main choice of people looking for serious gains. I prefer the listings above because I don't see any reason to run this on a DD evo x when there are so many great alternatives.
COBB CAI- 150 dollars. Adds 15-18 hp over stock. This intake uses the stock MAF pipe (it's really just a cone for your MAF pipe. I hear it doesn't add the power advertised unless tuned using AP, but that doesn't make sense because it acts like a drop in, and drop ins add power.

Long story short, there are plenty of brands to choose from (let's not forget HKS, AP, injen, aFe, Perrin, etc...) it's really a matter of preference. You'll find people going with either intake, and you will find yourself leaning towards either one of these.

The only bad intakes I can think of are the eBay ones (unofficial intakes on eBay, not name brands listed above). The rest of them are great performance pieces. Just do the research and find the one that suits you.

 

Thanks guys

 

Just a quick FYI, the Cosworth intake is a polished K&N intake with no UICP and blue filter dye instead of red; the Takata intake is a polished AFE intake with the AFE DryflowS filter.

 

That I didn't know, really good FYI

 

Good info. If you have any questions regarding our intakes, let me know!

Michael

 

Just make sure what you purchase has a quality heat shield. Or a CAI.

 

I'm borrowing the thread, I'm using the stock intake, 460 bhp atm. Have a dropin filter from HKS tho. I'm a bit skeptical that I will gain a lot by shifting into a CAI. Thoughts?

Edit: I think I rather put my hard earned cash on cams

 

Unless you get a tune along with your CAI then no, the power difference will be negligible to none at all (in case of k&n drop in for instance, the drop in caused a higher hp increase than the 69 series intake by something like .6 of a hp. May seem little, but proves the point).

Assuming you have a stock Evo X (and a GSR at that), I would go with an ETS CAI, a test pipe, a cbe, 3.5 (or 4) inch ETS fmic and ETS piping and a tune. You should get easy 100 whp from these mods

 

People need to stop throwing about the "CAI" word; very few intakes for the Evo X are true CAI systems. We don't drive Hondas. The stock intake is a CAI system, but most aftermarket intakes for the X are "short-ram" which if anything would be HAI

 

First time I used that word in a sentence on this forum and people are already noticing jkding, Yeah, your right. Most after market intakes are short-ram. I'm used to driving honda's that's why CAI is printed in the brain.

 

I don't have a stock GSR, that's why I ask :P 460 bhp as I told you before ..
The question is: When or if ever; the stock intake system needs to be replaced?

 

Oops, sorry about that.

You don't need to replace the intake unless you're running 500 whp+. Otherwise you should stick to your cone filter or get a drop in panel filter like the evo x fq 360 and even the fq 400. It really all matters on the tune, the intake is there for sound. A drop in can get you similar hp gains as an aftermarket intake (better than calling it CAI, HAI or SR lol). You could change your intake for some ear candy tho. The BOV and the turbo sound so good your ears will be orgasming