When I picked up my RS my boss, who is knowledgeable about cars and is constantly modding his own, told me I should put a cold air intake on it. He said it would be a nice cheap way to pick up some more power and maybe even improve mpg. However my other friend who is knowledgeable in cars told me a cold air intake for my subaru would just be throwing money away. Since I don't know anything I thought I'd poke around the forums and see if I could find any info. In this http://mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php/16511-First-Modifications-FAQ it talks about different intakes and says that a cold air intake might be useful but it is also talking about STI's and WRX which I do not have but have heard my car is very similar too. Help please!
well a intake will help on alot of cars on a subaru it can do more harm them good. it can cause lean conditions that as im sure you will know can cause your motor to go out on you. also i personally am very agenst a cai being i had one myself and if u live anywhere that you have the chance of encountering alot of standing water there is a chance you can suck that water into ur motor and hydro lock it as i had happen to me. luckly i was moving very slowly and it did no damage you could not be as lucky. if u want to make power your best option is to sell that 2.5rs after you have saved some money and buy a wrx,sti,or lgt. just my .02
IF this isn't an option (as it's not for most people) ... What year is your RS? I have an RS, basically, what I did instead of a CAI was put a new header and exhaust on it. It doesn't make much power, JasonO is right in that the RS won't make much and if you really want to GO FASTAR you should get something with a turbo. But we really would need to know what year RS you have, and if anything has been done to it before giving you advice about what you should put on your car. There are a few guys here who have made some nice numbers with their GC RS cars But I am assuming you do not have a GC.
if you do have a gc you can also go the route of using your torque box along with a 45degree bend and a intake filter. helps keep ur torque where you want it and a slightly higher end. it becomes more prominent with more supporting mods especially headers and cat...but if you're expecting big gains intake alone wont yield you much if anything.
Dont waste your money on bolt ons for n/a subarus, the ONLY thing that is okay to spend money on is a borla knockoff header, it probably wont add any power, but will give you more rubles.
anyone have any sort of data on doing N/A modding to the 2.5rs? someone must have done it once or twice..
when i had my n/a 2.5 rs. all i had was a short ram intake from ebay and OBX EL headers with knock-off brand axle back. didnt add that much power, but you could feel the headers kick in at high RPM other then that i didnt do much, just save my money and just did a ej20 swap way more power
It's a 2002. There is nothing on it upgraded that's why I was poking around because I thought it would be fun to put a little more into it. So let me get this straight since I'm not positive what everything everyone was saying. The cold air intake is a bad idea because living in minnesota there are a lot of large puddles and also it wouldn't really do anything extra for me. And it also seems that everyone is saying that no matter what I put in I'm really not going to get anything very good as a result on this car? Is that correct?
This may interest you if you intend to buy a K&N filter, or any K&N part. You can pull a UTI ID number by doing a quick google search. Or just make one up. They're 6 digit numeric and the good CS folks at K&N don't check them. Ordered a couple for my friends and I earlier today. The jig may be up soon though... http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2717501
Had a 2.5rs once. Everytime I saw a wrx or sti made me not want my car. So finally got a 02 wrx. Don't even bother putting anything in a na 2.5rs. Swap or get wrx or sti. If you haven't driven one? Drive one turbo, it'll bring you to a whole new world.
I would look into joining 2.5rs.com its another forum for 2.5 rs's. I had a 2000 2.5rs witha CAI and had to watch out for water......but i thought it was ok. It was a cheepo off ebay. i sold the rs and picke dup my current ride <<<<<
As a fellow 02 RS owner, there isn't a really cheap way to make power with our engines. Like people said, adding a CAI would just make it easier to hydro-lock the motor here in Minnesota. A good flowing drop in filter should be more than enough. Throw on a Borla replica UEL header and a catback to get the Subbie Rumble. Then turn your attention to suspension and aesthetic mods. Hope to see you around. Always good to see other Bugeye RS owners
With a stock ECU tune, I suggest staying with the stock intake. I've done some data logging toying around with mine, and I've run into greater losses than benefits modifying the intake. The only time I ended up with gains was when I was running an ECU tune geared for a modified intake (I-Speed SRS-20). I ran the I-Speed SRS-10 tune and the stock intake made the most power. If I toyed with anything, I made less in the midrange. If the stock airbox is removed, the air/fuel ratio becomes uneven under 3000 rpm too. My guess is this is because the stock plenum is half the size it should be for the motor size, and I think it requires the air box as a secondary plenum (inline resonator) to help even out the flow. That's just a guess though. The filter itself is not a bottleneck. You won't see any difference in power switching to a K&N. Heck, nothing on the intake is a bottleneck for the stock rpm range and flow levels. The heads, cams, intake manifold, and throttle body flow 240cfm at 28" H2O (1psi pressure). The intake is sized plenty well for this flow level, and you will need to modify the various parts of the system to actually require more. The car responds well to ECU improvements, exhaust upgrades (headers, a good one, read: TWE), cams, and head work. These are the kinds of things you should be focusing on if you really want to mod the 2.5L platform.
