[Kevin M]

More is indeed more power to be true. But this particular method, to me at least, isn't worth the cost in terms of hotter intake air, and more importantly the squirrely MAF readings caused by changing the intake tract. 5 "free" horsepower would be great- 5 hp that may very well have the effect of shortening your engine life? Not worth it to me.

That is a seperate matter entirely from discussing the merit and efficiency of the stock plastic intake parts. Fact is, they are borderline awful. But, the ECU is expecting the MAf reading to be true to the calibrations based on that suckiness. Plus, you can't change the efficiency all THAT much, especially on a turbocharged motor.

Also remember, the supposed power gains of changing an intake come from tweaking the MAF signal. This is something far better achieved by tweaking the other side of the fueling equation through ECU remapping.

As for the fact that I linked an i-club thread, I did so because I wrote most of the pertinent posts in it, and it saves me the trouble of repeating myself. My views are formed after absorbing quite a bit of first and secondhand knowledge from several sources, most prominently Shiv, Nate, and my own understanding of how electronic engine management works. It's been backed up by dynomometer testing. When I finish my swap, I plan to find a way to conduct yet another semi-scientific test of various intakes to see how much difference the theoretical efficiency difference makes, when taking proper tuning into account.