not too sure if this subeject has been covered or not....

but i was replacing the air filter on my car today, and got to looking at where the actual air filter is located. i noticed that the air filter is pretty "closed up" so to say. like there are plasic peices that route around to the front of the car before the air filter itself, and to the side of the wheel well. to me it seems....like the air would be really restricted from those peices with TINY openings for air.... can i get rid of those extra peices? they just seem so unnecessary to be honest.

im not looking to gain any horsepower or anything from it, i just believe that the car might breathe a tad bit better if i removed them, and maybe cut open the other end of the air filter housing that connects to those "unnecessary" peices. the part with the clamps.

i might do this today unless someone tells me what those other pieces of plastic are for, and if they serve any great purpose lol.

 

Without a picture, I can't be 100% sure what you're talking about. But it'd be cheaper and much easier to buy/build a CAI.

 

well right now the camera is dead so i cant get any pics yet lol. but the only way i can explain it is where the air filter housing is, there is a piece of plastic that connects to the air filter housing (the piece that has the 2 clamps on it) that piece is shaped somewhat like a T, and branches off in 2 different directions, one way towards the wheel well and the other way behind the head lights.

needless to say i already did it. i removed both plastic pieces from it. and used a hack saw to cut open the piece with the two clamps. so now you can see the entire square air filter. ill get some pics of the pieces i removed and what i hacked off when i can.

 

sorry for the late reply. i kind of forgot about this thread and i lost the charger to my digital camera like a week ago. but now that i found it and remembered this thread. heres some pictures of what i did.

first thing is first. i replaced the standard paper filter with a spectre "performance" filter. i quote performance because i read about k&n suing them for false advertising about false performance gains and what not. but then again i read good things about them. and it was only 19.99 compared to the 40+ dollars for the k&n. and they are both made from almost the same material. both reusable. except the spectre requires an actual cleaning kit to clean.

http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/y...k/DSCN0731.jpg

^this pic is what i cut off. the circular hole on the right is what went into the driver side wheel well or whatever. where as the square part connected to the small square piece in the next picture.

http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/y...k/DSCN0735.jpg

^that square piece went towards the front and curved 90 degrees upwards to another small circular opening.

http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/y...k/DSCN0730.jpg

^basically the finished product. it looks dirty in the picture, but i assure you the filter is brand spankin new with like 300 miles on it lol

i wasnt looking to get any HP from it. just hoping the car would breathe easier. ive noticed a slight throttle response. a little bit better gas mileage because the paper filter was incredibly dirty.

what i thought was cool was while driving you can definitely hear the sucking of the intake when accelerating, even at normal speeds. and you can hear a high pitched whistling noise that sounds somewhat of a BOV right after pushing the clutch in to shift gears. which is pretty cool lol. and when shifting out of first gear you can hear a hard "PWOOSSSHHH" from the intake which literally sounds like a BOV.

yeah, its a little ghetto, but totally worth it in my opinion. what do you guys think?

 

You have removed the inlet chamber, a chamber designed to slow down the air charge for better cleaning - slower air flow, more air gets filtered better - and remove actual water from the air.

The inlet at the wheelwell is to get cooler air into the engine as air is cooler anywhere except the engine compartment.

All in all, you have noticed an increase in the Seat-Of-the-Pants meter and this is always a good thing, just clean the filter more often.

 

looks like you just turned it into a hot air intake. you are now getting air from the engine compartment instead of from beneath the car where the air is cooler. i would be surprised if you get any kind of increase in power instead i would expect a loss.

 

If you were to do some math (pi x r2), I think you'd find that the sum of those 2 original intake openings is greater than the inlet diameter of the throttle body and tube.
The way it was wasn't "really restricted".

 

okay so basically i did something bad here lol. is it really that big of a deal though? i mean, it is winter here and the temps are pretty low. heck ive seen people remove the airbox completely and slap a cone filter on it lol. but i see where a cone filter would be more benificial because with a cone filter you are able to suck in air from all directions.

if you guys firmly believe that it would make a difference, my buddy is parting out his 4th gen and i could pick up his airbox for probably free or a few bucks. or heck i could duct tape my airbox back together! lol.

 

If your buddy is giving you his air box, I'd pick it up and at the very least hang on to it. You may have a change of mind, or may want to install it whenever you go to sell the car (a buyer would likely say....man, what a hack job). The only two drawbacks I see of what you did is you're now sucking in hotter engine compartment heat, and your filter will probably get dirtier faster since it's exposed.

 

i doubt he will just give me it. if anything i could toss him 10 bucks for it.

and i did think about when i go to sell the car because it does look pretty tacky lol. and how it would most likely give the person the thought that i dogged the car to death. which isnt the case at all. i really do baby the car everywhere i go considering its my daily.

i thought i was getting a throttle response, but maybe my high hopes are making me see things? the last thing i want is a performance loss. i did like the audible noises coming from the intake though. omg my car sounds so fast! its a 3.4 -.-

from what you guys are saying, it sounds like a bad idea to do this. i may just rig my airbox back together and see if i notice any difference. then pick up my buddies airbox next time i talk to him.