doesn't this seem a little counter productive though? gains should be had by allowing more air to the engine, if you increase the number of filtering particles then you are thereby restricting even more airflow...how it "works better" would then be relative; sure you'd be filtering more, but it would be at the cost of a little performance.

 

GUYS it finally came in!!! Of course as soon as I left work it started pouring so i couldn't even put it in and try it. It looks exactly like the OEM except its a K&N.
Tomorrow I am going to ICS Performance in Stamford, CT to dyno the car before and after the K&N! They will be helping me out in all the mods I plan on doing. I will post the results!

somapusher post a picture of your stock filter and i'll tell you

 

Send an email to K&N to find out. They have a website. According to their website, they don't have a filter available for the 2.3L engine, but it's better to ask them than assume it's not available

 

So, I took out those "silencing baffles." It does seems a bit louder. As far as performance goes, im not sure there is any. I thought I noticed a small gain at around 60 mph; this might just be in my head though.

 

Any pics?

 

yes pics please! did you notice it made it faster at all or just louder?

 

Little mods like that (<10HP) are hard to tell how big your gains are. The point is that as we mod more and more those little mods make more and more power. For instance - putting headers on a car running stock boost might gain 20HP, but putting headers on a car running higher boost (via pulley) they might show 30HP gains. That the great thing about modding - its the synergy. The combined gains from individual mods are greater than the sum of their individual values.

Post some pics of your lid so others can follow suit if they wish to do so! Congrats on the first "de-silenced" c230K!

 

check it... it got a little scuffed up in the process. Anyone thought of getting crazy and laying down some kinda of resin or something the make the surface super smooth?

 

Nice! What did you use? (i.e. Rotozip, dremel, etc...?)

Also for smoothing it down, wouldn't a high-grade sandpaper work to smooth it down? The cover is plastic, so I'd think that would work.

 

I removed the baffles with a razor blade. The plastic is kinda rigid/brittle when flexed so the pieces just snap off if you push them. It seems like the surface is somewhat different than the deeper layers of the plastic. I tried sanding it some, but really only made it more coarse. Thats part of the reason I was thinking about a coating of some kind.

Any thoughts about all that room where the baffles are? How is that volume affecting this concept of "ram air" in the box?

 

oh SNAP dude you beat me too it!!
I was going to do that this afternoon too. How did the engine sound change??

 

so i opened up the air box where my filter is and holy crap was it dirty in there, for those of you guys that replaced your air filters with K&N, when you first opened it up did you see a lot of dust, debris, and bugs that settled to the bottom of the box and stuck inside your old filter??? i blew and picked some bugs out of my filter and had to clean out the box because there was so much stuff in there it was disgusting. i'm seriously considering gettin a K&N filter now too, just waiting on CT's dyno results before and after with the filters

 

good luck, because...
I just put in the 2 K&N air filters (332181), removed MB resonator, and added AMG C32 exhaust. Sound is awesome ! I love it... car has a slightly noticeable torquiness to it. My 2 brothers both drove it, and noticed the same thing. Sub-total increase in HP DYNO this time around 2 (air filters) & 7 (AMG exhaust) = 9 HP.

Carlos

Saprissa@aol.com

 

nice. what exhaust should I do?

 

I will be free next week so I might get around to removing my baffles as well. I am glad you did it and took pics so now people know how to do it. Use several grades of sandpaper increasing in grit up to 2000 then use a rubbing compound if you want to get the top of that box smooth as can be.

I have another idea after taking those baffles off. Some of us supercharged guys used to use a material called "reflectix" as insulation for our airboxes to keep the air charge cool. We saw some gains at the track so it worked for sure. I bet we could just line the INSIDE top of our box with that reflectix material and keep the intake air even cooler.

 

how did removing the baffles change the sound or performance?

 

Yeah, we want to know, damn it!!

 

YEAH damn it?!?!!!!!!!!!!11?!!?!

 

Geez, calm down guys. I kinda went over this in another reply. I didn't really notice much of a performance gain; maybe a little boost at around 60 mph. The sc is a bit more noticeable without the baffles. Try it, then you'll know exactly how it is.

 

haha. i have a problem with my aux cable. i am getting an electrical hum from the s/c interfering on the aux channel.

 

Are you sure the noise is from the sc? Usually that interference comes from things like the alternator.

 

woah, (knock on wood), but I've never had interference problems. do you guys have the standard sound system or h/k? could it be the source of the audio (e.g. mp3 player) taking the interference and NOT the aux?

 

usually 'alternator whine' occurs with the installation of aftermarket stereo parts, it's rare that a car will ship out with this happening, i know i never had any alternator whine until i installed XM, but i got rid of it with a ground loop isolator

 

the only "after market" part which was really an OEM part I added was the Aux Cable, it probably is an alternator hum but IDK. I can actually switch to Aux Input and without anything connected to it, turn the stereo up and listen to my car's engine speed over the speakers hahaha, it's fun for about 2 minutes until the hum drives you crazy! :p

 

Nothing is connected to the cable?