Intake Silencer removal

This was the first thing I did to my car. An intake silencer is just was it sounds like. It's a part of the air intake that silences the intake. It does this by depressurizing the air going into the engine. This consequently will drop the power of the engine. Removing so will only benefit the car. The only downside, and it's ever so slight, is a slight whistle when accelerating. I like it, but I could see how it'd be annoying to some. There are no other downsides to removing it. I didn't document removing it originally so for the rest of this post, it's a write-up someone else did on the Saturn Ion forums (original write up by ionredline0260 on http://www.ionforums.net/).

Just finished doing this to my ion, Noticed a gain in throttle response and it's MUCH louder than it is stock, I would make a HP claim but with out dyno numbers to back it up I won't, but this mod definitely doesn't hurt. Now this mod won't give you the same gains as a proper CAI, so I would still recommend getting a real one eventually but until you get around to it this doesn't hurt. Plus who doesn't love free mods?

First off, start by taking off the fender wheel well liner and locating the MASSIVE intake silencer/bong looking device. Now before you rip that sucka out of there, take off the 8mm bolt holding it on, and locate the 2 plastic clips around the top. The plastic clips are kind of a bitch to get off but just pull on them with some pliers.

You could stop here and enjoy the change in sound and mild added performance but I went a bit further.
My ion didn't come with fog lights, and I don't plan on getting them any time soon. And since the intake silencer is gone now, the engine is pulling air directly from the fender. The fog light mounting plastic blocks most of the direct airflow into the fender wheel well. Lets fix that.

Since that piece is gone the engine will receive quite a bit more airflow into the wheel well area, more cold air..more horse power!!!11!!one!!!won!!!!1!
You go take it a step farther and cut off that other plastic piece but I believe it's to channel air towards the radiator, probably wouldn't hurt to cut it off but I don't think it would make that much of a difference.

Here's a shot from the airbox down to were it's now getting nice, cold air.
Careful, it's so much airflow it could suck your hand in..