I've read a lot about the effects of cold air intakes in terms of HP gain and fuel consumption...etc. However, there is an important question that I need to ask before I spend money on an intake system:

Q1. Will I benefit from it if I live in an EXTREMELY HOT and dusty climate? Summer temps in Dubai average 105 F Plus! High humidity as well as frequent dust storms here are the norm.

Q2. Is there an intake system designed to provide reasonable HP increases in these conditions? If so which one do I go for? I don't care for anything other than an increase in performance.

Q3. What if I combine the Intake with a BORLA exhaust system which I plan to buy soon, will I benefit then?

Appreciate the advice!

 

As most of the post show, the intakes gains are minimal, with your extreme conditions I would just maybe go with K&N replacement filters to catch that dust your mentioning, otherwise you'll be changing paper filter's quite often. But the intake will mostly just give some sound difference and maybe a HP or 2 for you.

 

1. Most people show little to no gains in "normal" conditions (75-90 degrees), so I think the extra heat will hurt the performance more. One of the bigest problems with intakes is heat-soak, the hotter the air that enters the motor, the worse the performance.

2. I think the best intake for you would be the K&N filters in the OEM air box, or the Stillen intake (I'm not sure if it is for sale yet, its listed on there page, but I have not seen any posts on the forum about it). If the Stillen Intake is made for our cars it looks like it will have the best heat sheild.



3. Intake and exhaust should work well together, the more air coming into the motor, the more air that needs to come out.

I would also clean my air filter at every oil change (every 3k miles) because of all the sand that is probably getting stuck in the filter.

 

Stillen intake has been availalbe for a while and although it does have the heat shields it is proven to loose power. I definitely would not buy it.

 

That's what I thought. I probably won't buy one, 2-4HP is not worth the money!

I will try the K&N filter. Even though the dealer hear services the car every 5000km (roughly 3400 Miles). So probably the K&N filter will be useless as well.

I honestly don't thing there is an intake out there usful for me. I guess i'm going to go for the Borla + headers?

 

You will benefit from it because you will be pulling in more air then stock. However because it's hot air your gains are going to be even more minimal then a intake would normally yield you in the first place.

The intake you would want if you were to get one (although i'd say stock is your best bet) would be one that pulls in air from the coldest location possible.

Intake and exhaust are the most common bolt ons so they will help. However don't expect gains to be very high

If it were me, I'd keep the stock intake and get a drop in filter (not k&n, i don't trust their filtering compared to other filters) and an exhaust.

 

Your conditions sounds like a Turbo or Supercharger in the future setup will work best to overcome the heat.

The only way bolt-ons might give you an overall noticeable gain is if you wait on a good selection of parts and ECU-tune options and go all out with a full Intake/Race Header/Exhaust/Cams/Pulleys + ECU tune. All of the above (after said parts are in production) should maybe yield you some noticeable in HP.

Otherwise if you are looking at just intake+exhaust and only for power, not sound, I would just wait on it for now.

If you are very anxious the only setup I can think of for you that can be achieved in the near future and yield some noticeable power would be:

JWT Pop Charger+Berk HFC+Borla/or/Greddy Ti-C Exhaust+ECU reflash when it's out.

All those mods may yield you some 20-15 HP to the wheels.

 

^ I agree. K&N filters will probably work best in your situation. Exhaust would also help for your motors as your wants on HP gains.