cold air intakes

[99jettaspeed]

i dont really know alot about this performance for my jetta its a 99 and was wondering what to get a cold air intake or headers and what do they both do....i want it to make my car sound louder and pick up a little faster and how much do u think they would cost?

[Mr_Diesel]

Is it the 2.0L engine? If yes, then there is not much you can do to make it fast, but you can make it a little more fun to drive. Forget the cold air intake. The factory airbox already is a "cold air intake" as it sucks the air from inside the fender. Take the airbox out and remove the sound baffles or "sound horn" as some call it, then replace the air filter with a K&N panel filter. This should give you at least 1 or 2 hp and will let a lot of the intake sound out. Any CAI that claims anything more than 1 or 2hp is a LIE.

Headers are going to be pretty pricey. If I were you I'd just get a cat back exhaust utilizing open design mufflers... You'll get more bang for your buck out of that. This should make the car much louder.

After that consider a chip... certain chips could result in a 10hp increase, but you might need to use high octane for those chips.

Neuspeed and GIAC sell chips for your car.

When you get a big chunk of money consider an aggressive cam coupled with a header and free flowing cat to complete your exhaust system.

Just throwing an intake and header at a car wont do much if anything... FIRST increase the engines capability to produce power, then open everything up... not vice versa.

Unless your car is a VR6 or 1.8T, that changes things a lot.

Welcome to dubnet! post some pictures of your 99'

[99jettaspeed]

ok well yeah mine is a 2.0L. so your saying forget the cold air intake....could u just explain again why...and i should get the K&N filter? THen whats the airbox thing your talking about cause like i said i reall dont know much sorry lol and what else could i do to make it more louder and how to increase the engines capability power? oooo yeah and i have a catback system.

[Mr_Diesel]

I just realized that my previous post was a little condescending... My apologies. I get really worked up when I think of people that have riced out their VW.

The reason the CAI is a bad idea is because it's largely... a waste. A waste of time and money... performance gains are minimal. Your money could be better spent on something more worth while like a cat back exhaust or a chip. All modern VW have excellent intake designs from the factory. Your car's intake sucks air in from the fender... This is essentially accomplishing the same thing a "CAI" would. I have never modified a Mark 4 VW's airbox... but I am certain there will be sound baffles inside the airbox.

Check out this website... this gives you some good direction on how you can modify your airbox to achieve the same result as an overpriced expensive CAI.

http://www.geocities.com/bora_we/cai.htm

That site is based on the 1.8T airbox and induction, but I am sure it's the same or very similar. About the K&N... get the "drop in panel filter" it essentially goes right in place of your OEM filter. That opens things up a bit and helps throttle response. The surface area of the mark 4 panel filter is larger than most of the cone style filters... so that's another plus.

I hope this helps... Let me know if you have any further questions :D