i was talking to this guy the other day and he told me that k&n filters are the worst to run....he said that foam filters are the best? is that true? oh and im thinking about running the turbo xs front mount intercooler, it says that i have to run the turbo xs intake....but i have seen other guys running greddy intakes. i wanted to get a greddy intake but will i lose hp by doing it that way?

 

people dont have too many problems with the short ram its usually the CAI that gives them problems like i have

 

I just cleaned my Perrin Foam Panel Filter the other day and it took at least a few hours. I used average dish soap and hot water (at the recommendation of a friend). I soaked it first for about 30 min in the soapy water (as it floats in water) and that kinda didn't do too much. There was a fair amount of black sludge on the filter and I had run it for ~9 months. It took alot of soapy hot water rinses to clean it and even then there was still some black stains in the yellow foam that I couldn't get out. I basically kept washing & rinsing until the water was clear. I re-oiled the foam with some engine oil, wiped of the excess and cleaned out the airbox. I removed my stock silencer years ago so I tend to get bits of crap in the airbox.

I originally went with the foam filter because it can pack up with more crap and still maintain good flow characteristics. It also is a money-saver too but I don't think my filter could handle more than 3 or 4 washes before the foam craps out like an old dish sponge. We'll see though...

 

Im not positive but I dont think oiling your filter with motor oil is a very good idea. Motor oil is for lubeing the engine and filter oil is for catching particles. I had a Unifilter rampod (I took it out and replaced it with the factory airbox after reading a lot of negative feedback from this site and Cobb) and they reccomended useing mineral terpentine to clean the foam filter. I dont know that this is what you should use to clean yours but its what they recomend for theirs.

 

Thanks for the advice.
I'll ask the guys at Perrin and see what they recommend for oil & cleaning solution.

 

No problem. There is also a foam filter wash you can get. Calling Perrin sounds like a good idea.

Good luck.

 

The only filter I will go with is STI dry type because Perrin & K&N required filter oil to trap the dirt and the oil will harm your A/F meter. Trust me, I been through all that before I brought my pricey STI filter.

 

is there a difference between the sti pricey one vs the regular wrx oem one?

 

I like the K&Ns.

BTW. I've used foam filters before and found some oil specifically made for foam filters at a dirt bike shop. I wouldn't use engine oil to oil a foam filter.

 

The STi one made of different paper element than WRX factory one. It actually give more flow(rigth amount of flow) to it. What I mean by that is because I tried the Blitz panel filter and it just flow way too much. It will lean out the cylinder, then it will have incomplete combustion which is bad unless you have some kind of A/F correction device like HKS AFR, S-AFC to adjust the A/F mixture. If you just want something that you can bolt on and have some kind of gains, then STI is a way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Since you mentioned that you wanted an FMIC, you'll have to get a short ram intake. Greddy's okay but not the best from what I've researched. HKS Racing Suction and Blitz LM are the two best from what I've researched, and if you're rich and resourceful you can try to source the ARC Box Intake (it's perfect if you plan to go off-road or to a really dusty/dirty place).
If you don't go with the FMIC, then stick to the stock intake. The stock paper filter is pretty good, but if you want a foam element I say go for the Green panel filter. The K&N is nice because it's reusable, but it won't put out much performance gains. Also, if you do buy a filter that needs oiling, it's not necessarily a death sentence for you engine. If you're careful and apply the correct oil in the prescribed amounts while taking your time, you will have no problems. Most problems to do with the oil tend to be from over-oiling the filter, or otherwise not applying it carefully enough.

 

Foam is always better than cotton, always.

 

Stay with stock filter you won't get any real performance gains anyways with a drop in. Save your money and get a blitz sus intake when you're ready to get a fmic.