Back to back, there was only around 3hp difference thats on the dyno with bonnet up and dyno fan on), BUT an intake temp difference of over 10 degrees with the pod (which was in place of the factory air box) with bonnet down, on the street. That 10+ degrees difference will impede performance by at least 3 hp.

Ive seem more on a dyno but anyway.
But its not like the air under the bonnet stays stagnet. Isnt that why the factory intake takes air from the top of the radiator in alot've cars?
Temperatures aside, what about the amounts of air each type of filter take in?
Have you got anything on that?

Dyno is only a tuning tool, it does not take into account the effects of heat soak with the bonnet down, stuck in day to day traffic with minimal air flow, remember, your driving a street car, so you need to account for all the external factors associated.

You can make 200hp on a dyno. Put the same vehicle in a hot environment on the street, and watch it drop 10% quite quickly.

Hotter the intake air, the less timing the ecu will command.

Underbonnet temps can be well over 60 degrees. A pod filter under the bonnet will take in this 60 degree air. A factory intake will always provide a cooler air temp, and cold air intake moreso.

The factory intake takes air from the top of the radiator, this is a positive pressure location, and the air is cold, as it is effectively infront of the radiator.
Any underbonnet pod is getting hot air from the engine bay, air that has already passed through the radiator. Hot air is less dense, less dense = less oxygen content = less power.

The air filter will only take in what the engine demands. Easiest way to check, is with a vacuum gauge right before the throttle body.

It prooves that there is no restriction in the standard panel, even when very dirty, so that shows there is no reason whatsoever, apart from turbo etc to upgrade/sidegrade..

Also with some cars, not nessercarily falcons, the spinning effect on the air caused by the pod is not accounted for by the IAT sensor, f**k up your A/F ratios.

simple solution, put the pod in the factory airbox. piece of piss. The noise is nice, even if you only gain 1 hp for instance.

gasman, how does the 1521a go? it was one I was looking at for the au, and would be nice to hear some feedback on it from you.

Performance mods wise I would say +1 for diff gears. best BFYB mod I reckon. If you keep it within ford factory ratio's its as simple as changing the speed sender wiring off the apropriate model onto your own (for instance xr6 3.45 ratio- get the speed sender off an xr6 of your model).

Or grab an adjustable corrector from shiftkits.com

You can change the cam but its still going to have a dog of a first gear.

Grimketel, as without performing the mod you wont entirely understand an explanation i'd happily let you come up and i'll take you for a drive to show you first hand if you'd like.

An afternoon in the car, half a tank of fuel is alot less of an investment and more leisurely then buying, fitting and finding out the hard way.

But unless you have a manual or hi stalled auto, its a dog, idle quality.. like it's only firing on 5cylinders, everyone comments on it "wow your car isnt running well, checked the leads?" haha

Runs perfect up high, where its meant to of course and compared to a standard cam, kills it up high, but the down low is phenomenally catastrophic, with a standard converter.

With the high stall alone, no ecu or boost, it was miles, repeat miles above a stock ford.
One mod that isnt suggested or rooted for enough, is a high stall 1521a combo.
(Sorry i also had a ported and polished head and pacemaker extractors).

Pulls, at idle, like a train on lpg and on petrol.. wow, pulls like no tomorrow..

I bought mine hi stalled, killed the transmission, had the standard converter fitted.
Totally wrong combo, the wadecam website states it needs to be paired with hi stall or manual trans, which is true, it states it should be ecu'd and boosted one way or the other, which i agree with as its suited to unusually high revving. supercharged, ecu'd, hi stalled, with just p % p'd head and extractors i was doing 0-100 in 6.3, with only 160rwkw's as an educated guess from the guy i bought it from. And that was skidding through first gear! The most horrifically awesome launches money can buy!

Anyways, enough story telling, the fact that the factory filter poses absolutely no restriction on the intake whatsoever, prooves, at bare minimum, that in a NA setup, no power can be gained with a pod, your only gain will be the entertainment you get from performing the mod, telling your friends about it and if your lucky enough not to lose any power.

And thats a fact
Im sorry it will burst some peoples bubble, but its true, for an NA application.

Reading through all of this i am thinking my next performance mod will be a K&N Panel with a Wide Mouth Snorkel on the Radiator followed by a cam.

Question can you get Oil K&N Panels ? What are the differences between oiled and not oiled ?

you would need a very large stall to suit the torque curve of the 1521a

any stall 3000rpm and above in an eseries wouldnt be very streetable.... plus you will have excessive heat in the gearbox, also ive heard its hard to retain the lockup function with such a high stall speed

Don't waste your coin....$ for $ performance gain diff ratio change will eat it. Then once this is done $ for $ a cam change will be your next bet as long as you can fit yourself...if not then it could cost a bit more.

Go to the wreckers and get an xr6t snorkel, and have a look at the standard panel - as long as it isn't full of crap it will be fine. As for the argument of pod v panel; yes a pod flows more, and yes, even on a low power engine there will be a gain, but the gain is generally immeasurable to minor unless the engine is sucking enough air (i.e big revs and cam to suit or f/i). When it comes time to replace by all means buy a pod as it won't hurt, just put it in the airbox FFS.