Talk about reviving a dead thread...last post prior to yours was 2008. IIRC 3 of those 5 posters don't even own their X's anymore.

As for the intakes...they've been all debated both for & against. Personally, the 3.0 isn't meant for speed, and little mods like that are going to be nothing more than a waste of money as well as a disappointment in mere marginal gains. The only way to get some serious gains on our humble little straight 6's is something like an ESS kit....but the $5k proce tag scares most off.

Ah well. Not like I'm planning to drive it like I stole it. Killed my pickup truck, van, and Subaru outback that way hehehe. I suppose it's fast enough as-is.

I've been told by a local indy shop that installing headers on my 3.0 after removing the front cats can get me 20 more horses. We don't have emissions testing here in SC, so removing the cats is legal. Is my indy just feeding me a pile of horse droppings?
:dunno:

Maybe with removed cats, a catback exhaust, bigger intake, Dinan throttle body and software tune for it, you might gain 10 ponies or more.

NA motor performance mods are always more expensive and yield very little gains until you start doing cams and the like. I mean even an engineered catback like Eisenmann I think might advertise a gain of 6-7 hp? And thats over 1k just for the exhaust.

Not to mention the o2 sensor spacers you'll have to install to keep the CEL away, IMO I wouldn't remove the cats.

Maybe with removed cats, a catback exhaust, bigger intake, Dinan throttle body and software tune for it, you might gain 10 ponies or more.

NA motor performance mods are always more expensive and yield very little gains until you start doing cams and the like. I mean even an engineered catback like Eisenmann I think might advertise a gain of 6-7 hp? And thats over 1k just for the exhaust.

Not to mention the o2 sensor spacers you'll have to install to keep the CEL away, IMO I wouldn't remove the cats.