Stock Airbox Mod

djlin said:

Alright for those of us that don't want to shell out hundreds for an aftermarket intake yet has anyone taken the time to look into modding the stock airbox? This has been done to numerous airboxes which people have claimed benefits.

Such as cutting out any unnecessary fins shaving interior of the box. Removing any silencers. Adding K&N drop in filter.

Just some thoughts and wanted to get the ball rolling for this topic. If I have some time I may crack mine open and see if there's anything that can be done.

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djlin said:

Alright for those of us that don't want to shell out hundreds for an aftermarket intake yet has anyone taken the time to look into modding the stock airbox? This has been done to numerous airboxes which people have claimed benefits.

Such as cutting out any unnecessary fins shaving interior of the box. Removing any silencers. Adding K&N drop in filter.

Just some thoughts and wanted to get the ball rolling for this topic. If I have some time I may crack mine open and see if there's anything that can be done.

Click to expand...

jdmk20akid said:

It's funny that you ask this, I have purchased all of the OEM Air box pieces so that I can make my own and modify it. I have a few ideas already, and I've already removed the air striaghtner. I'll definitely post pics when I get started on it again. I recently got married and went on our honeymoon, but now that I'm back ai'll be able to focus on it and make some progress. I'll post pics as I work on it!

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Brapdon said:

This is something I have been thinking about doing as well. On the RSX forum people would call this the ice box mod. Removing any of the vents inside the intake to create a free flowing intake. Also insulating the box with heat reflective tape and such.

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Night Fury said:

I really like your idea , as long as there is not mechanical actuators in the box or in the way to the combustion chamber. The reason I’m telling this, is because, I did the mod before in another car, just by removing a plastic net out the stock air box, getting CEL, next day I found out the air intake manifold’s actuator was broken due air pressure, this was replaced right away, but there was a chance it was caused due my mod. I’m not entirely knowledgeable with this engine but I will take a look as well.

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wassen said:

This is an interesting topic. I have just gone through a session myself with the inlet box and beleive to have found some of its weakneses. I have concentrated on the inlet air "scoup" that acutally looks like a very good solution at first glance. However there are some improvements to be made.

Step1
Cutting out the rubber "finn" (couldnt find a better word for it). I think the picture below describes itself what I have done, I believe that this finn is there to prevent a flush of rain/water entering the airbox. In my opinion how the airbox is designed and how the air enters I dont see any real threat to removing this finn when it comes to water entering. It would not appear that cutting out this finn should make any huge change in flow at first but when you close th hood this intake channel is very narrow and opening it up will increase the inlet airflow to the airbox.

Moving on to the next mod
Step 2
Here we will look at the the first part of the inlet from the grill area. I will start by appologising for not taking better pictures of this but I think that you will get the point.
Below you first see how it looks like from the top view when the hood is open. The red arrow point to where we will look and do the mod.

On this second picture we see the actual modification that is done. Below the hard plastic cover there is a black metall plate that is restricting air to enter the air tunnel. By simply removing the clips that hold down the plastic cover and reaching the back metal plate with a form of "clamp tool" you can bend up the plate so that it does not restrict airflow. In the picture you can see before and after.

I dont expect that these two mods will do any dramatic airflow changes but it will for sure improve. This can be very important for those (like myself) that will perform future tuning and keep the oem intake box.
Feel free to comment

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djlin said:

Alright for those of us that don't want to shell out hundreds for an aftermarket intake yet has anyone taken the time to look into modding the stock airbox? This has been done to numerous airboxes which people have claimed benefits.

Such as cutting out any unnecessary fins shaving interior of the box. Removing any silencers. Adding K&N drop in filter.

Just some thoughts and wanted to get the ball rolling for this topic. If I have some time I may crack mine open and see if there's anything that can be done.

Alright... I finally had the time to crack open the stock air box.. I also installed the K&N air filter in the process. Please see below and the immediate possible restriction that I saw that could possibly be improved.


First after you crack open the top here's what we have with the drop in filter and the space.

Here's the MAF opening where it connects to the rubber 3" hose.

Here's the drop in filter removed. Not too much to do here pretty open..

Here's the first possible area where it can be modified. Would it be ok to cut this open so that there's an open flow to the 3" instead of this blocked out cylindrical tube or is that to prevent too high of a air flow reading and would throw a CEL? Otherwise maybe trim along the flap?

Here's another view of the area I wanted to dremel out. Thoughts?

Here's the drop in.. I was actually easily able to stick a 3" cone filter in this area which you could probably mod the stock box and have a cut out so you could fit the 3" however the only issue is having a plastic adapter for the MAF then sticking the cone filter in.

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Jrose29 said:

While looking into all these items might seem like a good idea...... ask yourself. Are you a better engineer then the team of engineers and resources at Honda's disposal. Probably not. The OEM box is most likely optimized within its package. If you want a better intake, start with a clean slate or aftermarket unit.

And yeah to reinforce the comments above...... DO NOT TOUCH that tube shape leading up to the MAF. It is there to calm and direct the airflow to get an accurate reading.

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