oil will not slow the engine down. High mile engines, that's the compression build up from the oil sleeves and rings around the pistons. You loosing a little power, but its protecting your engine.

 

I had the short ram and it was kind of sluges. I bought a long cold air intake that goes down in front [to the bumper, driver side] opened the little insert and the cone is there getting air." Man what a difference! "

 

It's all in your head. There is no HPdifference between a CAI and SRI on the 4G94 lancer engine. This has been dyno proven.
sorry to disappoint you

OP, don't waste your money on an expensive intake. Just get an MAF adapter:
click here
buy a filter. stick it together, and you're good to go

 

hey crypto am i just being paranoid coz the ecu is still in learning stage coz the car is not often sluggish.
im just gonna observe the car a lil more and let a mechanic to clean the engine, im and tb.

2nd q: whats the real-life mpg of a 02 lancer auto w/ sri?

 

There's guys on this site that have cold air intake for cheap. One guy is selling a injen in the lancer market place, will be a good buy.

 

I made my own CAI...
Cost me about $40. There is no point in buying a $200+ intake if it does the same thing as any other CAI...
Your paying that much to have the company logo on it (AEM, Injen)

 

As far as oil 10w-30 is pretty much standard. if you live in a hot city like me 5w-30 is just too thin of an oil. i run royal purpal 20w-50 from april - november and 10w-30 from december-march lol gotta keep everything lubricated due to high heat.