I've seen all of these cold-air intakes on ebay and read about all the different ones on the forum. Are they all basically the same as far as how much hp gain I'll get out of it? If they are all the same...my problem is solved and I'll go with a cheap one....if not...what's the difference?

 

search before u post!

 

some of the cheap ones have smaller piping or bad filters, go with a good brand like aem or injen, little bit more expensive but it is the best quality and you know it will fit right and everything

 

Thanks for the help. I did search. All of the posts I've found are about specific air-intakes. That's not what my question was. I want to know if there is a difference between the $29.99 one on ebay and the $200 one on ebay that look the same and maybe one has an actual K&N cone filter or it's the big flat panel that sits in the front of the car behind the bumper. Read the original post next time before you get all high and mighty.

 

So I read in a post that you can get water in your engine with these things. IS that a true statement? That seems to be the only thing wrong with them that I've read.
By the way...thank you for the kind reply.

 

you can get water in the engine if its completely submerged unless you have a bypass valve which is like $40 extra, basicly its a foam filter that goes in the middle of the pipe higher up so if the cone filter gets submerged it takes in air from the bypass valve instead of sucking water into your engine

 

i would say in your case with a manual transmission, an aem would be the best. Even though some of the ones on ebay look the same, the aem is better. It pulls in air from outside the engine bay which gives you colder air. The ones on ebay are pretty cheap material and don't do as much as say an aem or injen. Also most of the ones on ebay are short ram and since you have the option of getting a cai, I'd go with the aem. Its a little more pricey, but well worth it in gains and sound. Thats my 2 cents.

 

I can't stress enough that bypass valaves do not fit existing CAI's for the Lancer without cutting the intake piping and custom fitting. Moving out of general. We've already got plenty of threads just like this one.