thats because ppp maps are off the shelf and have heavy safety margins,2 subarus same mods/year maps and figures would be different ,what suits one might not suit the other.

 

with mappers stocking and recommending performance filters,are they doing this just to make a few quid or because they are genuinely better filters? ill probably get a cosworth filter as i want all the possible gains there are to be had,just dont want to waste hard earnt cash.

 

not having a dig at your sport but from what i gather you are talking from experience with n/a performance mods. any factory n/a car with any bolt on mods you would be lucky to see any gains.

the whole uprated filter/pump/3 port /7s plugs are SUPPORTIVE mods that help the turbo/engine achieve figures it should.

i spent 7 hours porting my headers a few weeks ago did i gain a fantastic amount of bhp probably not......
did i gain better spool up/drive ability...... yes

 

the top 5 most reputable mappers i believe dont sell parts but will get you them if you ask.

but if you ask them what they would recommend what works

the same items always come up.

 

 

Completely agree, my mods extend as far as Prodrive backbox and uprated brakes. I am talking about my experience with filters. As Ive said before I am more than happy to entertain the notion that they can give you some gains from cars such as yours considering what you're saying, after all Ive had no experience to enable me to say otherwise. I think its been quite a useful thread as they are normally only ever discussed without highlighting the type of car/engine that they are to be fitted to.

If I had a 300+bhp car I would most likely pay the difference as its not a massive leap up in £ for a Cosworth one considering how much has probably been spent on it already, at least you get piece of mind that you have fitted something that will give you gains if they are there to be had. For me they are a waste of time.

 

A panel filter is a panel filter, irrespective of who makes it or what colour it is. If one has better or worse filtration than other, you will never ever experience that whilst driving the car because the difference will only be something which shows up as a difference on paper under a scientific or laboratory experiment! In other words, buy the panel filter you like the look of, they are all the same. Me, I use a k&n.

Greg

 

cosworth for me, has one of the best filtration rates and flows 10% more than oe.

 

One of the performance car magazines did a panel filter comparison with the OE, STI and K&N a while ago.

They used the same car but changed the filters over they put them on the rollers. I think the resuts produced showed the OE gave the least BHP, then the STi then the K7N.

I'll try and dig it out

 

trouble is they never test gains vs filtration.

 

cosworth is looking the way to go so far!

 

On a car around 335 bhp we tested four panel filters and repeated the experiment next day.
The total difference was under 2 bhp on both days.
The HKS green foam produced "most" power.
The O/E cardboard and K+N tied and the STi disposable, the most expensive produced "least" power.
Now remember the difference was under 2 bhp.

I then did some filtration trials and surprise surprise the results were in reverse order.
The HKS let bits through the size of sand grains.
K+N and O/E were very good and STi was even better.

I now run O/E but accept it needs changing before the service interval or on a car that will be kept, the K+N because it is easy to clean and reoil with the kit available.

 

so basically anything other than oe is just a waste of money!

 

Not necesarily. There is certainly a case for a reuseable providing it filters properly if you are going to keep the car a long time but if you see adverts telling you that 8, 10, 12, 15 bhp was added to a Subaru from a change of panel filter you can draw your own conclusions.

 

i can see that,but oe filters at 15 quid......then the hassle to keep pissing about cleaning a reusable one...cant see the point unless there were decent gains to be had,think ill just replace oe filters every 7500 miles,seems less hassle tbh!

 

To be honest it sounds like the way to go. As Ive said from my experience with my cars being non turbos there is no difference. I was prepared to listen and accept someone elses experience with a 300 bhp turbo car but sounds like its another case of perceived improvement as well...a bit like HDMI cables that cost £75, they must be better than ones costing £10. Marketing can be very clever.

 

ive come to think there are bugger all gains to be had by spending the extra!

 

Suspected for a while, confirmed with harveys post. Good thread.

 

cheers for the info guys!