Intake box behind bumper. Do I need it?

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Tue May 12, 2009 3:23 pm

Hey guys,

So I'm finally changing out my bumper! After fiddling around for a good couple of hours, sucking rust and all kinds of dust into my lungs, I got the old bumper off and finally got to see the extent of the damage my car recieved last year in a fender bender. Nothing major: the horn housing is cracked in two and a couple brackets slightly bent. But the one thing that really got me laughing was the intake box that sits behind the bumper has completely come detatched from the body of the car. Both brackets that hold it are snapped and the only thing that held it in place was the bottom of the bumper.

My question is: Do I really need it? My guess is no since it barely was attached but I would just like to make sure. Any help would be great, guys!

03blackrt · Post by **03blackrt** » Tue May 12, 2009 3:34 pm

It's just a resonator for the intake. You don't need it. Removing it will make the intake louder, that's all.

sneakers O'toole · Post by **sneakers O'toole** » Tue May 12, 2009 3:37 pm

sounds like the resonator box. nah, you don't need it, all it does is quiet the intake noise and restrict the flow a little. take it and punt it across the street

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Tue May 12, 2009 3:38 pm

nope dont need it

excon · Post by **excon** » Tue May 12, 2009 4:51 pm

sneakers O'toole wrote:all it does is quiet the intake noise and restrict the flow a little.

a little? ok... try and see where the air comes into that resonator box... find a hole in it... anywhere.... yeah there are one or two little slits in it. That's all. It restricts flow a lot.

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Tue May 12, 2009 6:16 pm

Hahaha! Well then I guess it's a good thing I didn't put it in! Thanks everyone!

sneakers O'toole · Post by **sneakers O'toole** » Tue May 12, 2009 7:51 pm

excon wrote:
sneakers O'toole wrote:all it does is quiet the intake noise and restrict the flow a little.
a little? ok... try and see where the air comes into that resonator box... find a hole in it... anywhere.... yeah there are one or two little slits in it. That's all. It restricts flow a lot.

sorry

, my memory may be a little fuzzy. i took mine out about 4 years ago, 3 days after i got the car when i installed a CAI...but yes, from a performance standpoint its useless.

Post by **racer12306** » Tue May 12, 2009 8:17 pm

sneakers O'toole wrote:
excon wrote:
sneakers O'toole wrote:all it does is quiet the intake noise and restrict the flow a little.
a little? ok... try and see where the air comes into that resonator box... find a hole in it... anywhere.... yeah there are one or two little slits in it. That's all. It restricts flow a lot.
sorry , my memory may be a little fuzzy. i took mine out about 4 years ago, 3 days after i got the car when i installed a CAI...but yes, from a performance standpoint its useless.

But then the question is.....

How much air do you really need? If the car needed more air, they would have made the hole bigger.

sneakers O'toole · Post by **sneakers O'toole** » Tue May 12, 2009 9:12 pm

racer12306 wrote:
sneakers O'toole wrote:
excon wrote: a little? ok... try and see where the air comes into that resonator box... find a hole in it... anywhere.... yeah there are one or two little slits in it. That's all. It restricts flow a lot.
sorry , my memory may be a little fuzzy. i took mine out about 4 years ago, 3 days after i got the car when i installed a CAI...but yes, from a performance standpoint its useless.
But then the question is.....

How much air do you really need? If the car needed more air, they would have made the hole bigger.

very true if your keeping the car basically stock you wouldn't need anymore airflow than that. i'm just sayin, do enough to the car and it'll need more airflow eventually.

OB · Post by OB » Tue May 12, 2009 9:22 pm

There is nothing you can do with the intake system to get MORE air into the engine. You have to change displacement, valve timing, or use forced induction to make that happen. You can change the way air gets into the cylinders, but not create more volume. Flow and volume are two different things.

Same thing as the exhaust. Adding a header and high-flow muffler won't cause the engine to produce MORE exhaust. They will only help the pre-existing exhaust exit more efficiently.

sneakers O'toole · Post by **sneakers O'toole** » Tue May 12, 2009 9:24 pm

well yeah, that's what i meant by airflow.

OB · Post by OB » Tue May 12, 2009 9:25 pm

sneakers O'toole wrote:well yeah, that's what i meant by airflow.

I was responding to the "it'll need more air..." portion of your statement.

sneakers O'toole · Post by **sneakers O'toole** » Tue May 12, 2009 9:33 pm

*edited for clarity*

excon · Post by **excon** » Wed May 13, 2009 8:28 am

I just don't like the thought of my engine gasping for air while running 100 miles and only being able to breathe through a straw.

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed May 13, 2009 9:40 am

The stock air intake system is more than adequate for a stock engine. Unless there is measureable vacuum in the filter box, there is enough flow. The factory inlet on my 4.0 liter Cherokee is about the same as the factory inlet on the neon.

Post by **racer12306** » Wed May 13, 2009 5:48 pm

excon wrote:I just don't like the thought of my engine gasping for air while running 100 miles and only being able to breathe through a straw.

But it isn't gasping for air.

Its funny how people think that an engineering team hasn't thought of how much air does this engine need.

mastershake · Post by **mastershake** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:18 am

occasional demons wrote:The stock air intake system is more than adequate for a stock engine. Unless there is measureable vacuum in the filter box, there is enough flow.

+1000

No vacuum, no problem!! I've tried to explain this soooo many times on other forums, it seems like this is the only place where people seem to get it though!! lol

IMO it would be a good mod to get more "intake sound". Is it annoyingly louder??

Post by **racer12306** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:29 am

Well, even at that there only seems to be a few of us who do actually get it.

It not annoying. Just a deep sound. I get the sound because I have a big hole in my airbox where my catch can sits.

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:36 am

My intake is quite loud past half throttle.

mastershake · Post by **mastershake** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:20 am

occasional demons wrote:My intake is quite loud past half throttle.

Is that with OEM airbox and resonator gone?

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:09 pm

You could say that...

viewtopic.php?t=40921

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 6:25 pm

Wow. I'm surprised this was brought back...

Now that the resonator box has been out for some time I have noticed that the intake is considerably louder. Not fart-can loud, but deeper and more noticable than with the resonator.

moorepower1 · Post by **moorepower1** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:06 pm

So what some of you are saying is that cai's are a waste of money? Engineers make the air box that way because most people don't want the noise. Under normal conditions the air box provides adequate air intake volume, but at high rpm's it restricts the flow causing a drop in power, otherwise all these claims about the biggest gain in power you can do to a Neon , or any other newer car for that matter is a bunch of b.s. Gut the box and you will get 98% of a cai!

esfan · Post by **esfan** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:38 pm

^from what i heard is stock neon already set up a CAI. some saying said the resonator has a function of avoid water entering the air box but i don't think so. remove the resonator don't increase HP, it just bring some unnecesarily lost HP back maybe. and the sound is good also.

Post by **occasional demons** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:46 pm

I wouldn't say the higher end "CAI"s are a total waste of $. They are actually tuned to cancel out sound waves at WOT. The theory(?) is the the sound waves are causing the air restriction. Think of the sound pressure level subwoofers create. You can feel the pulses hit you. The idea of the tuned intakes is that sound pressure is pushing outward, hindering the air movement inward.
So the tubing is designed to minimize the effect.
But as I have said before, this will only work at WOT, as there is a thing called a throttle plate throwing off the "tune" when it is not full open. The sound waves will bounce off of it.
Perhaps "Sound Tuned Air Intake" would have been a better term, but it is all in the marketing. The temp of the air really isn't as big of a factor as they sell it to be. Especially on cars that have the IM directly behind the radiator. That cooler air coming in doesn't stand a chance.

Go drive you car at WOT for 5 minutes and touch the IM runners and tell me how cold they are. At WOT there should be enough air volume to keep 'em cold right?

Disclaimer:
Just don't crash your car or burn your fingers.

moorepower1 · Post by **moorepower1** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:44 pm

each 10 degree f is going to make 1% gain in h.p.