Air flow management experiment:

Sorry, no pictures yet. I've been playing around with my air intake and air box to see if I can make it performa a little more efficiently at the expense of a bit of mileage.

1)I removed half of the stock airbox. The front half that covers the air filter has been completely taken out and removed from the car altogether.

2)I fastened the filter in its place with an elastic heavy duty rubber band (the kind w/hooks on either end).

3)The car responds quicker. There is no longer any lag time from when you push the gas pedal and when the car starts to move. The OEM setup had an irritating delay.

4)Currently hot air flows through to the manifold from the face of the filter, which is roughly 5 times the size of the surface area of the tube that originally pulled air through to the engine block.

5)Over time, hot air causes carbon build-up in the engine block. Not a good thing.

6)Tomorrow morning I will be replacing the stock air box and later I plan to pull out the K&N drop in filter and put a cone filter at the end of the tube. We'll see what happens $30 later. Wish me luck.

7)I've been addicted to this mod and have researched a bit on this topic. I don't have the forum URL on hand, but after reading a performance comparison of:
a. an engine with short ram intake w/ cone filter vs
b. one with a drop in performance filter, the latter won.

The air box actually does protect the engine from being fed hot air. Having an exposed cone filter probably results in no performance gain. It does look cooler though!

I also read somewhere that the Rav4 surprisingly has a very efficient system. Maybe minor modifications aren't the best idea. I still want turbo.

PAGE 1: Exterior pics and Misc.
PAGE 2: Interiors: gauge lights, neons, LED's.
PAGE 3: EGR hood deflector pics
PAGE 4: Headlight and Foglight bulb upgrades
PAGE 5: Undercar Neons
PAGE 6: Future modifications
PAGE 7: More exterior photos
PAGE 8: Remote engine start alarm
PAGE 9: Carbon fiber pieces
PAGE 10: Air flow management experiment
PAGE 11: Koni struts/shocks
PAGE 12: Photoshop edited pictures
PAGE 13: Scion inspired interior lights
PAGE 14: Custom diamond plated stomp pads
PAGE 15: New horn! Can you hear me now?
PAGE 16: More carbon fiber
PAGE 17: Cold Air Intake (CAI)
PAGE 18: HID's (High Intensity Discharge) headlamps
PAGE 19: Vent Visors
PAGE 20: H&R Springs
PAGE 21: Talking car mod
PAGE 22: Rally Cross Event in Tracy, California
PAGE 23: Carbon Fiber mudflap garnish
PAGE 24: Carbon Fiber emblem backing
PAGE 25: Brake light cover
PAGE 26: Radar Detector
PAGE 27: GPS Navigator