without a heat shield you will notice that you lose some power as the car warms up and the engine bay heats up. You will need some sort of reflective insulation to keep the heat out. If you area really worried, you could wrap the crossover pipe with an exhaust wrap.

I decided to gut the airbox,because there is already a premade heat shield for the filter.
Just need to wrap the airbox and the air tube to keep the temps down......
Right????

Where is the best place to get the wrap and what kind should I use?????

Also....Is there a dramatic difference when the MAF is removed??
Don't want to do anything that may eventually cause SC damage

there is a noticable difference with the MAF screen removed.. it may idle rough for a day.. but should be fine.. some people don't have any luck with MAF screen removed, but I"ve done it on 2 cars and they worr beautifully with it off.. There is a 5+- HP difference it seems as I can feel the difference thru seat of the pants feel..

if you are SCed it will make a difference, if you are NA it probably wont. for the heat shield, Reflectex or something like it. Look at a home improvement store in the ducting or insulation department. It should look like thick aluminum foil.

This is still a debated topic (MAF screen removal). You might think it'* less important on the L67 that'* just going to churn the air up anyway, but it'* still important to get a good MAF reading before the air enters the 'churner'.

The trick to removal in an L27, L36, or L67 is to get the air as laminar as possible first. This usually means deleting the accordian tube from the airbox to the TB, and replacing it with a smooth-walled pipe with the fewest 'joints' possible, and a cone filter of some type.

If you want to keep the engine compartment looking stock, why not buy an intake and route it into a gutted air box? I had this set up for a while.. I got a civic intake (3" pipe, oil filter) off ebay for about 40 bucks. Then i cut the pipe to desired length, and routed it into my gutted air box.
The air box will give you a thermal barrier and stock apperance and you'll have a nice flowing intake.

That'* a great solution. I've heard this suggested before, and I'm certain a couple have tried it. I know Drifter is considering this and planning to put his stock accordian tube over the pipe to hide it.

Do you have any pics of that setup? With or without shoes?

Yes I am still considering it.. just with a new house.. I really don't want to spend any money as much as possible for the first 3-4 months just so I know the average house expense.

I"m plannin on goin to a muffler shop.. askin for 3" or 3.5" tube.. mandrel bent to the desire angle and cut right there and then.. I think it maybe cheaper then rice pipes that way.. ( maybe.. haven't called Dave yet ).. then I'll need to figure out which K&N filter will be suit my needs, part # and cost.. then look for cheap alternative to coupler.. then lastly.. get some heat shield taping or insulation.. and cover the interior of the airbox.. I may consider puttin back the half a$$ ram air setup I had before as it did make a difference.. but took it off cause of hwy 401 being so dirty.. and now coming from the boonies and lots of truck carryin and kickin up dirt ( and all the development happening around ) I don't want to duct all the dirt and crap into the airbox and dirtyin the air filter more then I have to *Should've seen how dirty the airbox was and the ducting only after a year in service.. it was nasty *

LOL nope. Sorry no pics of me scaling my enginebay barefoot with a civic rice pipe.