This is the "guts" that I removed from my airbox:

You'll get to know your car better that way.

oh boy...i broke all the plastic inside the hole. not around the box like you did. i hear the whine more now though. i need a digital camera bad. pretty much, i made that restricted hole alot bigger so the plastic that is inside is all broken out and i have alot of space inside there. i did this before you showed me the pic

From our point of view, the airbox does 2 things. It hampers air flow, and it dampens sound. If you tore the part with the hole, and made the hole bigger, I'll assume you have better airflow...... assuming you also did the front part of the arbox as well. If you aren't hearing much sound, maybe the side of the airbox that gets gutted, is still dampening the sound, since some of the internal junk is still in there, and acting like a muffler. Just a guess.

Sam

oh no, im getting th noise now. i took a hammer and knocked all that crap out and put it in the garbage. its whineing/howling now. i can really feel 240hp now, lol! i was wondering if i could just skip the rice pipe and put the cone filter where the black rubber bending thing go like PDad did?

Glad to see it worked out for ya steven. As for the cone filter, I assume most people might not add it without the rice pipe because of the warmth at that location. the rice pipe brings the filter closer to the front of the car, and away from the engine'* heat. thus...the term CAI (Cold Air Intake)

I'll leave this to the pros here too, since I'm only assuming at this point.

oh...the rubber bendy thing is one of the flaws in our stock intake as well.. the ridges hamper air flow.

I forget the brand of rubber coupler the guys are using, but it is a nice smooth rubber coupler for the rice pipe, and it is very flexible because the engine doesn't sit still under the hood...it kinda hops a little, so, we have to have some flex.

Steve...Rice it!!!! You'll really whine then

If you're 96 is same as my 97.. the front don't need to be enlarged as the oval shape is the exact size of the oval openin on the frame.

Thats not a bad idea bout slappin the cone intake there.. maybe even put it from inside of the rear box with rice pipe to extend filter further towards the front.. heat wrap the snot out of the box.. and get rid of that accordian tubing..
Now that I think of it.. maybe use the flex end on the accordian tube on the TB end and the box End so when the engine flex, those 2 joints will still soak up the movement.. but too much of it left or ribs.. you'll get turbulance there.. too lil and it'll pop right out

too later. i noticed that after i saw the pics of mos and L27'* intales. i did have the oval opening and i still cut it up. it whines nice though and have some pull