Yet another newb

[IoWn2]

I bought a sunlight silver '06 3s touring 5-door new and soon after that my wife claimed it as her own and left me with my pick-up truck. I just traded in the truck for a black '10 3s grand touring 5-door with every option. I could not be any happier!! Well. . .of course, there's always room for improvement. Which leads me to my first question as a revolution member: Should I get an aftermarket air intake? I've read that anything other than factory is not good for the engine because "it was designed that way for a reason." Is it necessary to get it tuned on a dyno after something as simple as an intake? I also plan on MagnaFlow cat-back at some point and assume I should definitely get it tuned after that. Thanks for the outlet!! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Melfqw]

Welcome to the forum!

As for your questions...
Performance-wise, an aftermarket air intake is probably the most popular/easiest thing to do (brands include Simota, Corksport, Injen, K&N, and Cobb). The factory ones are designed to give you power yes, but also be quiet. The only thing an aftermarket intake does is increase the size of the tubing on your intake over stock. It sounds much louder(good loud) and makes your engine bay look good.

Exhausts are also quite popular, and magnaflow is a popular brand.(Some go with corksport, or if they are looking for a sound slightly closer to stock sound then those two racingbeat is a good system)

As far as a dyno goes, dynoing a stock car would help with performance. It wouldn't be required to do one after an intake and exhaust, but it won't hurt.

Great choice for a car too! Hope you enjoy it.

[JP0317]

Welcome!
2010 hatch here too in black

As Melfqw said, getting and installing an intake is quite possibly the easiest mod next to installing mud flaps.
Check out the threads for opinions on what guys here think is better than another and why.

Exhaust-I currently am running a speed3 axleback exhaust on mine. Great sound and another simple low cost (depending on who you get the exhaust from) mod. Racing beat and corksport seem to be the most recently talked about around here lately. Again look into the threads for more discussion about brands.

Dyno-Uh no, not necessary really if you're just doing the intake and exhaust. If you're talking about seriously moding your 3 then yea, look into a dyno, but otherwise for a DD N/A car IMO it seems like a waste of money. That money would be better put towards a RSB or other suspension upgrades.

[IoWn2]

Thanks for the feedback! Sorry about the question, searched the forums and found plenty of info.