cold air intake..
 

have been told a cold air intake will cause loss of power....is this true?

Only if you do a river crossing with a Cold Air Intake. :)

Otherwise they are great.

Pretty sure the car comes standard with a cold air intake.
Do you mean pod filter.
If its a non enclosed pod filter then its likely to draw in hot air from the engine bay and therefore, yes, less power.

The stock air box in the late model wrx's, lib's, foz's are very well designed and efficient and based on reading and my own experience. An aftermarket CAI depending on design may also create varying degrees of difficulty in tuning as well. My tuner confirmed this to me on two different occasions.

I do believe that CAI may in some cases be needed once you upgrade to a large turbo however. It also makes some great noise if nothing else.

hyperflow make a great kit for '08', on average (depending on other mods) can make 10-20kw atw with the correct tune

[url]http://www.hyperflow.com.au/index.php?widget=products&section=-cold-air-intakes-cai&id=hycai-my08ck[/url]

does come in polished as well

You do love Hyperflow don't you Daniel-San! haha :D

[QUOTE=SL33P3R;470302]hyperflow make a great kit for '08', on average (depending on other mods) can make 10-20kw atw with the correct tune

[URL]http://www.hyperflow.com.au/index.php?widget=products&section=-cold-air-intakes-cai&id=hycai-my08ck[/URL]

does come in polished as well[/QUOTE]

Personal opinion is that you'd make that same type power gain from putting a performance filter in the standard box and tuning it.... 10-20kw atw is bullspit unless you completely remap the ECU with more boost etc, plus on late model car's you may find that the ECU will start to compensate if you allow too much airflow and thus give you no gain for your investment... Many people assume their car gets faster with a CAI due to it being noisier (and it does sound good) however there are limited gains in a late model vehicle from fitting additional or aftermarket parts and not tuning the ECU to suit.

good stuff at reasonable prices. process west make some good kits too, just depends on year of vehicle

[QUOTE=PROTOTYPE;470310]Personal opinion is that you'd make that same type power gain from putting a performance filter in the standard box and tuning it.... 10-20kw atw is bullspit unless you completely remap the ECU with more boost etc, plus on late model car's you may find that the ECU will start to compensate if you allow too much airflow and thus give you no gain for your investment... Many people assume their car gets faster with a CAI due to it being noisier (and it does sound good) however there are limited gains in a late model vehicle from fitting additional or aftermarket parts and not tuning the ECU to suit.[/QUOTE]

we have had 2 08 STI's with the same mods except CAI, 30kw difference.
TBE, extractors, ECUTek and CAI, ~225kw ATW

like i said, its the tuning that makes the difference, not just the CAI, if you stuck a CAI on a car without tuning it it wouldn't make that much extra power and you'd be risking doing damage due to the change in flow etc... you're talking about a car with a Full Exhaust, Extractors and Tuning.... Not just fitting a CAI like this thread originally requested