I pulled the air intake housing and main tube (with the mass airflow sensor) yesterday in order to remove some insulation. I decided to clean up the assembly while I was at it, but the flexible cloth tube that connects the main air filter housing to the wheel well fell apart. It crumbled away – probably the result of years of exposure to heat. So I'm now exploring options and am wondering if anyone has any advice.

* The stock air filter housing runs about $250-$275. That's option 1.

* I could use duct tape (or something else) to fashion a new coupling between the air filter housing and the side wall. Cost: ~$5. That's option 2.

* I could discard the original filter housing, get an aftermarket filter and hack it onto the end of the stock MAF/tube. Cost: maybe $60 to $70, with incidentals. That's option 3.

* Just reinstall the filter housing without the coupling and draw air from the engine compartment. Cost: $0. That's option 4.

Does any of this make sense? Here are some considerations:

* I live in a very hot environment, where temps are regularly 100F+. It's also very sandy/dusty. This means it's probably wise to have a good filter that doesn't allow in a ton of debris.

* Would taking option 3 or 4 negatively impact performance in a high-heat environment because I'm drawing air from the engine compartment versus the wheel well? Would the dust situation be worse?

* In researching this, I've seen some great mods–including by people on this forum–where people have deleted the air intake housing and replaced the main cold air intake pipe with turbo couplings. In purely practical terms, is there any benefit to replacing the stock air intake main pipe? It seems the same to me at first glance.

* I've removed some tired old insulation from the air intake housing/hose, which I assume was there to shield it from engine heat. Is there any real practical benefit to having this stuff? I can't see any, but I'm not an expert. A picture of this stuff is attached – sorry for the crap quality. The piece on top slides over the intake tube and snaps to itself. The bottom cubic thing surrounds the intake housing.

Thanks in advance for the help and apologies for rambling on. I'm tentatively leaning toward option 3.

 

Replacing the intake tube with turbo couplings and pipe would help because the factory piece is not smooth. All those ridges and the two "boxes" (actually kinda like intake mufflers) create a lot of turbulence in the intake and make flow a lot worse. I got more of an increase from the intake pipe itself than I did from the K&N pod filter alone. Obviously, use a pod at your own risk because they will allow in more particulates, but it sounds like you already know that and don't plan to use one. There are companies who make paper pod filters if you wanted to try one of those, or you can stIck with the factory filter box.

Personally, I wouldn't even worry about that piece that disintegrated. You won't notice any power difference running without it. Hack yourself a bigger hole in the side of your intake box so you've got a hole the diameter of the intake pipe and you might actually notice an improvement because that is such a bottle neck.

 

Thanks for the input. I think I'll just run it without the broken coupling (drawing air right from the front of the engine compartment) for a while and see how that goes as a first step. It won't cost anything, at the very least.

I could see doing a pod-style filter, as long as it will function properly in the environment I'm in. I'll do some research on that question.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what that bulb-like apparatus that hangs off the main intake hose does?

 

I used some electrical tape when mine started to go. Gorilla tape would work also. It looks as good as new and you can't even tell the tape is there. Yours may be too gone to do this with now but I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

Those bulb like things act like intake mufflers. Without them there's a very small amount of intake noise, but it's barely even noticable.