Modified stock airbox

[grass]

I ended up taking apart the airbox today to clean the air flow meter and check for dirt in the box.And started thinking about trying something different and something for free.Ended up drilling some holes on the bottom of the stock airbox. 2 Larger 2-1/4" and 3 rows of smaller holes. I had a drop in K&N in the box, and can tell you the before and after from the stock filter to the K&N wasn't comparable to drilling holes in the box. I didn't expect it too add so much intake noise, but it did and sounds great, even my girl likes it! and I'm glad she does, because it's her car, and if she didn't.. I would have lost a leg or somethin.Who knows what if any this will add for hp/tq/mpg, but the car feels better (she says), and sounds better (we say) so for free it was well worth the 15 minutes.I would compare the sound and feel of this to a CAI. Not that we have one, but from what I've read, and seen in other cars.Has anyone else done this? Good things or bad things to say about it?Nicholas

[BlueCrush]

Doesn't drilling holes in the bottom half of the air box bypass the air filter? I can't remember. Mines been in a box in my garage for so long.

[grass]

I thought it out a little. Made sure I wasn't doing anything real dumb, well from what I could tell.The air enters the box from the stock intake tube from the same location, the lower half, under the filter. I'm guessing putting holes on the upper half of the intake box would be a bad idea, because I'm pretty sure the pocket under the filter is fresh air and top half is filtered air.The lower half of the stock air box already had very small stock holes in it.. that's what gave me the idea. I just made them larger (alot) and added (a few)

[BlueCrush]

Yeah, after thinking about it, the outside air does come in from the bottom of the box. So, that is a pretty good cheap alternative.

[grass]

Yeah! $40 for the K&N and 15 minutes of your time. I'm sure it's pretty close to the CAI sound without any of the negatives: price, water, bad idle? I've read some stuff in the past about CAI kits on the Vibes messing with idle.. after removing the air box I could guess why.. that thing has 6+ small vacuum? lines, looks like emissions junk. Do the CAI kits bypass all that? I'm sure that could make things a little screwy

[tcam]

That's a really good idea. I'd be interested to see the numbers from doing that. (as in horsepower gains and such)

[grass]

Yeah I thought so! I'm sure someone has done this before.. well I would think.The next thing up for close to free is a home made ram air. I'm going to convert the second air intake to the box, move it to the lower half of the car and push air into it.I can't find the post but I ran into it the other day, and I'm sure someone did a ram air setup on this board, a real clean one! but I can't find it.

[tcam]

now that's what I call thinking outside of the box!.........literally. lol (that was pretty corny)

[grass]

No! It's jokes just like that one that make people read this site! haha.The bottom of the airbox looks like swiss cheese now hahaha.. mmm..Jokes like that!

[tcam]

lol. You should post some pictures of your airbox mod

[Jahntassa]

Yeah, pictures would be great, maybe i'll have to do it!

[micbarric]

A member of 9thgencorolla made holes in his airbox, ya'll can check it out in this thread:http://9thgencorolla.com/forum...77978

[xssiv1]

Great idea and a FREE mod. All about the free.Too much cost for the mod bug!Some pics of your would be great.

[goodvibe]

Just pulling the attachment off the intake side of the box should do the same. With those holes there, your pulling in some pretty hot air. On a base, I think that it still runs fine but if you try these things on a GT, it will hesitate when you gas it but the GT will let more air in with the butterfly at higher RPM anyway.

[djb383]

Quote, originally posted by grass »Yeah I thought so! I'm sure someone has done this before.. well I would think.The next thing up for close to free is a home made ram air. I'm going to convert the second air intake to the box, move it to the lower half of the car and push air into it.I can't find the post but I ran into it the other day, and I'm sure someone did a ram air setup on this board, a real clean one! but I can't find it.http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id ... d?id=19833

[grass]

Thanks for the links to the ram air post!I can't get the post about the drilled Corolla box to load right now, will try again after work today.Here is a picture of the box.I don't see how the air in this area is any hotter then say the front air intake hose. The box had stock holes up front and around the area i've drilled. I was pretty careful with the placement of the holes. The only thing I wory about is the filter getting dirty faster. Will keep the post updated on that, i'll check in a few weeks or so and see how it's doing.

[goodvibe]

If it's like my deceased GT was, the front intake was over the headlight in the front of the car where it would get cool air whenever moving and not so hot when still. Engine heat and air passing the through radiator are what you get now until your moving at a very good clip. The 2 or 3 very small holes that were there to begin with were drainage holes. Shouldn't be a problem but that's pretty much an appearance(sound) mod.

[shane_c]

when I had my Jetta this was a popular mod that they called swiss cheese airbox mod. If you do a search for swiss cheese at http://www.vwvortex.com you'll get lots of posts about it there too. I never tried it on my Jetta 2.0 but just removed the air snorkel and it certainly changed the sound and gave it a bit more pep.

[grass]

Shane. So why not try it on your Vibe? Have you read anything bad about doing it?Goodvibe. deceased GT? What's the deal?

[goodvibe]

Guy ran a red and removed my nose.

[shane_c]

Haven't really heard anything bad about swiss cheesing the airbox. I don't plan on doing it on my Vibe because I'm going to get a SR or CAI and want the stock airbox to remain stock so that in the event I have to bring it back to the dealer I can throw the stock intake back on so they can't give me any trouble about aftermarket parts.

[grass]

Oh yeah! think you posted in my post. Some moron did the same to our Vibe.We picked ours up used so no worry about that. But I know how dealerships can be about stuff like that, from past cars. No fun.

[wyldejackyl]

Quote, originally posted by shane_c »when I had my Jetta this was a popular mod that they called swiss cheese airbox mod. Yep, I had an 87 GLi and I did the same thing, only I removed the intake boot that's on the fender side, and also the "oven hose" that led back to the exhaust manifold. I plugged that hole with a piece of nylon and some epoxy, and was on my way. In my VR6 I just built a CAI myself (the MAF is circular so you can do this easily with rubber couplings), and located the cone filter down beneath the air dam, right behind the vent under the PS foglight. Performance gains are nominal..1-2hp if you're lucky. What I did notice though is an increase in throttle response. If you really want throttle response..get a lightened flywheel!

[LittleRedRebel01]

I just recently did that to mine also u can hear the wine alittle bit

[Salsa Guy]

Oh dear lord why? And it's 7 year old thread? Just buy a K&N Drop-in or a e-bay SRI with an AEM Dry-Flo. But either way you gain very little but some noise.