What is a good after market air intake?

Just curious to see what people have done to there 996's as far as aftermarket air intakes go, and what performance gains (if any) did you get?

I have the EuroCup GT twin intake carbon fibre y pipe http://www.porscheshop.co.uk/acatalog/porsche_996_engine_induction.html In my research that seemed to be reasonably favorably reviewed.  Having said that there is considerable debate about whether they really do anything other than help to make the sound a bit meatier

Yeh I remember when I first got my license the first thing we did as a mod was a pod filter on our cars and custom piped it to get the best cold air flow but whether it made a difference or not we could never tell. But now thinking about it logically with Porsches being a rear mounted motor I think that any air modification that increases the air intake flow would have to make a big impact. After doing my custom exhaust and running straight pipes into performance mufflers I noticed a difference in the torque through out the revs so now I'm just thinking if it would be worth chasing an air intake

They can also foul up your maf and give you all sorts of problems. In this regard stock is best at keeping all the unwanted particles out of your engine.

The "butt dyno" is notoriously inaccurate. You've spent money, time and energy changing stuff so it must be better. It sounds better, so it must be faster. You're enjoying your car. All the ingredients are there for a massive dose of confirmation bias (you see what you want/expect to see). This is not to argue against modding your car; far from it. A car that sounds like a sports car is an improvement over a car that complies with legislation is too quiet . But to make performance claims you really need to be doing some impartial back to back measurement of the results on the same day. And JimTT is spot on - oiled "performance" filters can indeed cause problems for MAF sensors.

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I couldn't agree with you more, I'm only going off how I feel the car goes after I did the exhaust but unless statistics are put to paper I guess my feeling are off the "but dyno" haha But that's why I asked if anyone has a proven air filter set up that has increased there power.

there's a whole episode of 'mighty car mods' where they're close to being scientific on Pod Filters vs Stock Filters vs Panel Filters vs Cold Air Induction and there is no noticeable difference +1 to what JustJames said over oiling the oiled filters is what destroys the hot wire MAF sensors. If you don't put too much oil on there you should be fine personally I think you're better off chasing power gains somewhere else (engineers in white coats put a lot of effort into R&D on the intake), but different intakes look nice

996's sound like sewing machines from factory, so the exhaust is a good mod to at least make the whole experience nicer- so long as the air intake doesn't detract power i'd do it for the same reason

I have to say, Porsche generally have good airboxes/intakes what ever you want to call them. They usually pull air from a lower pressure area which is generally cooler. Having played around with different intakes on my car with different sensors ect. I can say is the air boxes aren't restrictive to the amount of air your engine can suck. An oiled filter is a no for a MAF. The oil will make it to the hot wire filament and can cause serious damage to the sensor and even send your computer into LIMP mode. If you don't have a MAF or any form of airflow measure on the intake, then an oiled filter is fine. A Pod filter won't do you any good if your engine is stock which isn't pulling more air than factory specs. It'll do worse as it doesn't help airflow. It just allows more heat into the combustion chamber which isn't a good thing. The reason people upgrade to pod filters is when they pass the volumetric efficiency of the airbox.  like me for argument sake. IMO i'd leave the factory airbox alone. Safer for your MAF, you won't gain much out of it. 5hp is not a "gain" you'd never feel it.

Just to add, visually, looking at the 996 airbox. the inlet and the biggest restriction point is just on the bend of the square tube. The maf IICR is a 3" A 3" MAF can flow 60lb/min (it's just the sensor that determines how much it can actually read). the smallest part of the airbox will flow more then enough not to cause a restriction. To get more power from an NA isn't that easy and not cheap. After doing your exhaust (bigger is not always better), your next thing is to look at an aftermarket tune. If your pockets are deep enough, you want to look at intake manifolds & camshafts to change your power curve.