I’ll start off with the COBB AccessPort: I intentionally waited 2.5 years to make sure my car was reliable enough to even bother with tuning, plus I had my warranty still in effect as protection for potential issues from previous owner or a manufacturer defect…Luckily, it was well maintained and plenty reliable so I finally pulled the trigger on this COBB AP. Wowza. Drove on OTS 91 Stage 1 for two weeks (before installing the COBB SF Intake) and it drives now like it always should have from the factory; my favorite part being that the tune refuses to introduce turbo to your power-band until it’s a safe time to do so. Not to mention, you can monitor your car’s realtime health on 6 extra gauges, in addition to the 3 gauges you already have on the middle dash screen if you use that screen. Should have bought this sooner.
Moving onto the COBB SF Intake: Keep in mind this is the new and improved version of COBB’s Big SF Intake sold years previously. Installing this was a pain in the butt for sure, took me about 6 hours to complete solo with pieced-together YouTube videos that never show the important parts of the install and COBB’s direct instructions that didn’t nearly have enough pictures to guide me quite as I may have liked BUT now that I’ve done it once, I feel like I could complete that in 3 hours because I know where everything is lol. With that being said, still TOTALLY WORTH IT and came with a few perks that I didn’t expect too. Obviously it was going to have more torque and a little more horsepower from the OTS 91 Stage 1+ tune using the new intake, but it also runs at a much cooler temperature than the stock air intake ever did. It literally cools itself quite a bit while you drive (so long as you did all the hose clamps tight and tube routing properly), and it’s temp readings stay around 84-91 degrees even with it being 85-90 degrees outside some hot, humid days which the stock unit could never stay under 15-20 above the ambient temperature no matter what…the COBB SF Intake does start off more hot, but only because it’s mostly metal now instead of stock plastic, because your car has been sitting in the sun. As soon as you get moving down the road, it starts cooling itself rapidly and eases the anxiety of seeing some crazy intake temp level that stock intake never started on lol. Oh yeah and it also sounds awesome; a nice induction noise filled with air and turbo noise (starts around 3.2K RPM) and then has a subtle stock BPV “whoosh” after it if you revved high enough. I have a Remark muffler delete axle-back exhaust and can still hear this bad boy. Take note though, the Big SF version sold years ago was a bit louder BUT had terrible heat soak issues that clearly were resolved with this new model. Very pleased overall and the suffering I endured trying to build the air box enclosure and install the intake tubing in the right order so I could still tighten everything up right was soooooo worth it and I feel great that all my AP’s readings look normal and I can safely enjoy more torque, turbo noises, and air noises while driving spiritedly on a tune specifically designed for the parts that I installed. Lastly, it looks super cool and clean in the engine bay and is a great way to getting started filling your engine bay more fun stuff down the road if you so choose.
Overall, I’m stoked after getting everything set up on this COBB Stage 1+ Power Package. Get it on sale when you can (which they run from time to time, especially on Subimods) and it is money well spent. Again, should have done this sooner, would have gotten to enjoy these benefits earlier on a WRX with less mileage lol. I was so pleased in fact that now I have a COBB Turbo Inlet and a COBB LF BPV on the way to sweeten up the intake sounds, and more importantly, to improve overall reliability of those parts as an entire system as I continue to get high quality and compatible mods to improve power, reliability, and daily drive-ability factor.
We pay too much for these cars not to enjoy them properly lol, just send it bro or broette!
