it's easy to hide my spending from my wife. it's a rounding error to her spending, so it barely comes up

 

This is absolutely true and precisely the reason why our Werks1 intake looks VERY similar to the OEM unit. One VERY important thing to remember about intakes is that power gains can't really be tested on a dyno. Keep in mind that when Porsche designs their factory airboxes, the aerodynamics of the vehicle play a huge role in the design. The factory airbox is designed to essentially pressurize when the vehicle is moving. This insures that the airbox is being fed a constant stream of fresh outside air when you need it most, not when you're standing still. Removing the airbox entirely is just a bad idea, since you're now letting outside air enter the engine bay and heat up, negating the entire design of the system.

Although our Werks1 box looks very similar to the OEM box, it's the internal design that really makes it work. Internal volume is larger, and the ITG foam filters we use are much more efficient then then most cotton or gauze filters. I don't want to contradict what I said earlier about dyno testing, but our airbox did in fact produce 10 whp on the dyno, without factoring in the pressure generated by the vehicle moving. Those gains might very well increase while driving, but unfortunately that's very hard to reliably test.

I do agree with Dan 100%. If you don't want to spend the money on our box, which I agree is quite expensive, at the very least get yourself a good drop in filter like BMC or K&N. $269 will get you a great pair of BMC filters. You'll find that these will work much better then the systems that eliminate the factory airbox altogether.

 

Tom (From Champion).... I guess "cold air" was probably the wrong title for this thread.... perhaps "High Flow" would have been more appropriate?


Okay, I think I understand that its all cold air the way the factory box is designed... so I need some higher flow air filters that would hopefully allow the engine to breathe easier and thus give a few more ponies and sound from the exhaust.

Only problem is, I cant seem to find the BMC replacement filters for the stock airbox anywhere... can you point me in the right direction?

 

More ponnies...Good luck with that.

 

Adias, if more ponies aren't the end result... then what's the point? Is this just a waste of money?

Seriously, I hate that I'm so naive about cars... but that's why I'm here, I'm coming to you guys as the experts to hopefully guide me in the right direction.

 

We have the bmc filters in stock. Please send me a pm and I"ll take care of you.

 

I doubt that a different intake/filter will give you more power. Have you already exceeded the car potential?

 

The car is fast enough.. buy more ammo.. you may need it...

 

I would not call anyone here an expert. The engineers at Porsche or the engineers on ALMS and Rolex teams are the experts.

I will only reply to posts with an answer based off my experience. I am not here to pull the wool over anyones eyes or give out false info.

So as far as cold air intakes go on a 997....you already have one and a really good one at that. In my opinion if you look at some of the better top tier tuners like Ruf or Manthey or example they use the stock air box with cars producing much higher HP than our stock cars. You are not going to find any real power with any other intake. However other intakes like the Evo or the Champion will give you more intake sound/noise. I use BMC air filters in my stock intake only because I can take them out twice a year and clean them.

I hope this helps.

 

Mdrums and ADias have both given good advice, from different angles.

The bottom line is that there is no such thing as a simple, inexpensive, bolt-on power adder for the 911. If you eliminate one or more of those descriptors, you will find some - but nothing is all three. Everyone has their opinion, mine is that with so many years of development, the Porsche engineers are the ones with any real tricks up their sleeves and most of those come from internal changes (not "bolt on").

To ADias' point, despite not having many options to make more power, the stock 911 (even the base model) generally has capabilities far exceeding 90% of its owners. On the street, people often search for more power as a way to "improve" the car. On the track where the car really shines, people generally find their own skills come up lacking before the car's capabilities.

So I would ask you this - WHY do you want more power? Is it for street or track? If its street, where will you use it and how? If its track, have you already conquered the car? If you can't definitively answer these my personal recommendation would be to save your money for now.

 

The airbox and filters on the 997/997S.2 are VERY well designed and very efficient. You already have a proper cold-air solution, 2 large-capacity air filters and intake piping that can flow all the air required. This intake simply isn't restrictive in any way and changing it will only have 2 possible outcomes. 1) You're poorer by the cost of an intake and your car is no faster or 2) You're poorer by the cost of an intake and your car is slower. On the Gen-2 intakes are NOT the way to go - spend the money elsewhere.

This is in marked contrast to Gen-1 cars. The airbox design was fundamentally a carry-over from the 996 (with detail differences) and was marginal at best. The main restriction was the lack of filter area - there simply isn't enough area for a paper filter to supply all the air the engine can demand. A oiled, cotton/gauze filter can flow much more air per unit area, so replacing the paper filter in the Gen-1 airbox with a BMC-F1 could give results way above what you'd expect.

In the Gen-2 airbox, the 2 large, barrel-shaped, paper filters can already flow enough air to supply the engine so mods in this area are unnecessary.

 

Hi Ian,

Did you try the Pipercross filter in your gen.1 997? I'm on this now and was wondering how it is compared to the BMC.

 

adias is right. put in BMC filter panel if you feel an urge to do something. i felt same way when i got my car.

really truly best 'mod' for you right now is to get PCA membership and sign on for DE sessions or auto-x with your local club until the end of this season, I tend to think it will be an eye opener for you.

as of power - wait a bit with all this, you`ll get there, it is not that difficult to do, to swap cats to 200cell, flash ECU, you will get there. run some events first and get a feel of a stock car, then after that you`ll decide yourself if you`ll want to continue rebuilding it or not.

 

I have the Evo unit, sounds cool, extra power...not likely. Save your money.

 

+1 that about sums it up!