jaak said:
Also makes me wonder, what if the front of the air box was pulled off as well as the resonator and tube to the front.
What performance change might there be?
How would it sound?
If the resonator (silencer) was removed, you would probably hear more intake noise.
As far as the effectiveness of the intake..... Try this - Locate the temperature sensor for the outside temperature display on the info screen. Relocate it to the inside of the airbox. Compare intake air temp to outside air temp. You probably won't find 5 degrees F difference between outside (ambient) ait temp and that which is entering the throttle body; as long as the car was in motion.
Check the service manual to see if there are temperature sensors for the computer in the intake tube and throttle body.
If you find multiple temperature sensors in the intake path, then it is likely that the computer is already compensating for the difference between ambient temp and the temperature of the air entering the throttle body.
Changing to a "Cold Air Intake" system (CAI) may be an exercise that is only pleasing to the mind and ear; not to the computer and overall performance.
The only way to know for sure is to make changes at dyno time, and to reset the computer before making the change, then check performance again after a few hundred muiles (again, at the dyno).
I just went through 2 years of discussions on this on another forum, concerning another vehicle. FWIW, Mopar Performance Parts scrapped it's CAI only weeks before it was to hit the market, due to no noticable increase in performance, combined with the computer's ability to "learn" and derate performance back to the level in which it's measured data falls back into the relm for it's lookup tables and anticipated measurements.
This isn't ectched in stone; merely food for thought.