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Oh, I had actually never thought of just replacing the filter.
If you were looking to add HP it defeats the purpose of Cold air intake anyway. The point of CAI is to get the filter as far from the engine as possible. The filter can work as a heat exchanger rather effectively. So moving the filter away from the engine(towards an air port on your car(AWAY FROM WATER)) means the filter will only get as warm as the air temperature and therefore not pre-heat the air leading to less available HP. It's the same reason tunres avoid TMIC(Top-Mounted Inter-Coolers(which ought to be Pre-Cooler)) because it "soaks" in the heat emitted from the engine and defeats some of the effectiveness of the intercooler.
What the above website did suggest is the airbox itself is likely the problem.
I can agree there. The stock piping for my Del Sol was much narrower than the carbon fiber tube that leads directly to a decent gap in the engine bay that is protected from water by the front bumper, hood, and the plastic in the wheel well(that keeps mud from being thrown all over the inside of your bumper). The new filter has a much larger surface than the old box, much finer thread count(pumped water across both for testing), and much less restrictive piping.
Changing just the air filter is not worth it, that seems somewhat apparent(it can't possibly be much bigger if it goes in the same box and its still going to heat soak)
So yeah I would look for a full CAI drop in, although I am not in any way sure of how this will influece your MPG. More air might boost, but the air is not going to recieve any pre-heating.
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