[Verdugo]

Here's some pics for reference...I actually did this myself! I feel so proud!

First off, Ivan chopped off the very bottom of my intake silencer before, but we didn't remove it. Here's what it looks like when you're under your car looking up at it. Notice how Ivan had just cut the bottom of the plastic box off. On the left is the bolt in the fender well that holds the intake silencer in place. There's one more bolt in your engine bay, but otherwise, that's it.

After finally getting it out, here's what it looks like.

And here's what we did to it...Shinigami did most of the cutting with a hacksaw since he's got the muscle. I decided to just cut the big ugly kidney bottom part off, then reinstalled the top part so that the snorkle and airbox still had something to connect to.

 

[PhreeZe]

Dude that was a b*tch. Haha I dont think it was worth it. Oh well. Atleast I got my system in! Dude you should of took pictures of my system. And Ivan, if your reading, thanks alot!

 

[pace]

Armin,
You may as well go the whole way and toss the snorkel and what's left of the resonator. Its just excess weight at this point.

-Pace

 

[Verdugo]

Armin,
You may as well go the whole way and toss the snorkel and what's left of the resonator. Its just excess weight at this point.

-Pace

Perhaps but I'll be putting my Blitz SUS back in anyway so this was mainly just done so I knew how to do it myself, let alone the fact that I'm not very mechanically inclined anyway, so it's a feat for me!

 

[pace]

Very cool.

-Pace

 

[supermarkus]

Armin,
You may as well go the whole way and toss the snorkel and what's left of the resonator. Its just excess weight at this point.

-Pace

Like a half pound of plastic is gonna kill is ETs.

 

[thechickencow]

Verdugo, thats awesome where you refer to Shingami as "the muscle". I'm picturing you weighing in at a hefty 125lbs, and him weighing 300lbs. Too bad I don't have some muscle to do all my dirty work for me.

 

[Verdugo]

Verdugo, thats awesome where you refer to Shingami as "the muscle". I'm picturing you weighing in at a hefty 125lbs, and him weighing 300lbs. Too bad I don't have some muscle to do all my dirty work for me.

LOL no I'm pretty sure I weigh more than my cousin...I'm just more fat than muscle and he's vice versa

 

[PhreeZe]

LOL no I'm pretty sure I weigh more than my cousin...I'm just more fat than muscle and he's vice versa

He may have more mucsle but he is lazy as hell! Haha he slept through almost the whole installation of the my subs and the intake cut.

 

[pace]

Like a half pound of plastic is gonna kill is ETs.

Would you like to enlighten me as to the point of retaining something on your vehicle whose sole function is to add weight? People look for much more creative ways to loose a few ounces from their WRX, and besides I'll wager that the resonator and snorkel together weigh more than 'half a pound'.

The silencer hack renders it ineffective for its original intended function. My point was, that given that situation it may as well be removed entirely.

Since he has an SUS anyway, its moot.

-Pace

 

[supermarkus]

Would you like to enlighten me as to the point of retaining something on your vehicle whose sole function is to add weight? --chop-
The silencer hack renders it ineffective for its original intended function.
-chop-
-Pace

In my case, I want to retain as close to stock appearance as I can in my engine bay to avoid hassles at my dealership. Recall that my car sustained engine damage as a result of my cousin's accident with it. I've already had some additional warranty work done on the engine and my service manager has noted all of the aftermarket mods I've done including various gauge sensors, and warned me about the use of such accessories yadda, yadda, yadda. So function 1 of the hacked silencer elbow is to help me retain stock look until my warranty ends.

Function 2: Note the design of the intake tract and you'll see that the resonator ALSO acts as a collector for things heavier than air like dirt and water droplets, not just as a silencer. Evindence I have for this function is that once, during a typical Seattle "sprinkle", I took off the snorkel to see if I was taking in water. Sure enough, the snorkel was wet up into the resonator and the rest of the intake tract was drier. I won't say completely dry because the neck of the air box side still had a very small amount of water in it, but not coated like the snorkel. Since the resonator already had a hole punched into it, I figured, "why not make that hole just a little bit bigger". Now I still get air directed down into the fender well via the snorkel, I retain the debris diverting properties of the intake tract and I get slightly more induction sound for the "gee whiz" factor. And my air filter hasn't gotten water on it since I did the hack.
Call it a poor man's CAI if you will. My engine bay looks stock, don't sound stock, and doesn't raise eyebrows when I take her in for warranty work. Are those good enough points for you?

Please correct me if my logic is off.

 

[Nexus6]

Heres what I did and I agree with supermarkus, I am also trying to keep it stock looking as much as possible under the hood..

 

[pace]

..

Function 2: Note the design of the intake tract and you'll see that the resonator ALSO acts as a collector for things heavier than air like dirt and water droplets, not just as a silencer. Evindence I have for this function is that once, during a typical Seattle "sprinkle", I took off the snorkel to see if I was taking in water. Sure enough, the snorkel was wet up into the resonator and the rest of the intake tract was drier. I won't say completely dry because the neck of the air box side still had a very small amount of water in it, but not coated like the snorkel. Since the resonator already had a hole punched into it, I figured, "why not make that hole just a little bit bigger". Now I still get air directed down into the fender well via the snorkel, I retain the debris diverting properties of the intake tract and I get slightly more induction sound for the "gee whiz" factor. And my air filter hasn't gotten water on it since I did the hack.
Call it a poor man's CAI if you will. My engine bay looks stock, don't sound stock, and doesn't raise eyebrows when I take her in for warranty work. Are those good enough points for you?

Please correct me if my logic is off.

Your logic is sound, however he has hacked his silencer which therefore renders it pretty ineffective in the function you describe. Hence my earlier comments. If you pull the entire silencer and snorkel you will note that the airbox intake is located very high up. In practical terms, your entire motor would have to be submerged for you to injest water and hydro-lock. Your air filter is in place to catch foreign particles.

I would agree that retaining the stock look would be a motivation for keeping it in place. I did the same thing for a couple of dealer visits, before I figured 'what the heck!' and removed it.

-Pace

 

[supermarkus]

Your logic is sound, however he has hacked his silencer which therefore renders it pretty ineffective in the function you describe.

Actually, no, it's NOT ineffective as I stated above. My before and after hack inspections of the induction path, after heavy rain each time, lead me to conclude that the only function I've lost is the silencing one. The "debris collecting" function, for lack of a better term, is retained. My hypothesis is that incoming air and moisture is directed downwards initially, anything heavier than air is retained in the fender well area, then the air is drawn up into the airbox. With the resonator poirtion removed, water isn't given a clear path to the airbox anymore, which is probably why I haven't found water in the airbox portion of the elbow. But I'm not blind to the fact that water vapor will freely find it's way into the airbox. It's the dirt and larger drops of water I was concerned about. If I haven't made myself clear on this please let me know.
Before hack: Water was found in my snorkel, resonator, and in the airbox portion of the silencer elbow.

After the hack: Water was found in the snorkel, fender liner, but not in the mouth of the airbox portion of the silencer elbow.

Of course, this wasn't a controlled, scientific study. But I suppose I can try to conduct one when the rainy season hits since I have an intact resonator on standby in the garage. However, there is always that saying, "Never repeat a successful experiment." I'm pretty content with the conclusion I reached about the hack.

 

[pace]

That's an interesting observation. I noted debris in my silencer when it was in place. However, with it entirely removed my airbox still stays completely free of large foreign material.

Maybe the stock silencer is just a poor design in its original configuration...

-Pace

 

[junaitari]

And to think, I put mine back in because I thought I lost some throttle response....

Of course that could have been because of the huge wad of foam tape that got sucked into my airbox..

I may take it out again and hack it.

Thanks for the pics Verdgo!!

Thanks for the other info Supermarkus and Pace!!

BTW: How much is a new silencer? Anyone know?

 

[pace]

I think Shiv dynoed and found a slight power loss with the silencer hack.

I did it for sound and weight loss. I also like my engine bay to be as clutter-free and minimalist as possible.

-Pace

 

[junaitari]

I think my loss was mostly the foam tape stuck in the airbox. I did, however, love the sound. I may take it out again.

 

[supermarkus]

I think Shiv dynoed and found a slight power loss with the silencer hack.

I did it for sound and weight loss. I also like my engine bay to be as clutter-free and minimalist as possible.

-Pace

Yikes! Maybe I'll throw the spare on and see if it helps out. Without an ECU reset of course.

 

[Subdued]

All show and no go?

Is this mod all show and no go or not? I am always interested in inexpensive mods that will give me worthwhile performance, but there seems to be no consensus on this one. Has anyone tried this one on the dyno? I wouldn't mind a little turbo noise if it was accompanied by some power gains.