Lots of people I talk to about LS1 F-bodies say that one ofthe best mods you can do for the car is to remove or change the air box lid because it is free, better throttle response, and you can do it in less than 5 minutes. Now time for the stupid question...would removing the air filter lid on the Neon make a difference at all?

 

If you have an exhaust on your car it will change the tone,cause it is sucking and pushing more air through.IMO it gives it a little pep but nothing great.It caused mine to use a little more gas.

 

i did the air box top removal on mine when i first got it and didnt notice a difference. if you want to stay cheap, i would remove the box top, and go to autozone, (dont now if you have one near you) and get a small intake filter by spectre. part number 8168. you will also need the spectre 3 inch long by 3 inch diameter tube that has three rubber grommets with plugs on it. the filter is 15 bucks and the tube is 6 bucks. next you will need an adapter 2.5 inch to 3 inch to fit from your throttle boddy stock tube to the 3 inch tube. when everything is connected, the new filter rests on the same place as the stock air filter. you can even reclose the lid if you want to. there will be better throttle response and you will feel a slight difference. oh i almost forgot. unplug the ambient air temp sensor from the stock 90 plastic elbow, remove the elbow and plug the sensor into one of the holes in the spector tubing. this was the first mod i did to my car. really cheap too. i have since made a custum cai from an intercooler piping kit which will make more of a difference but cost a little more. good luck to you.

 

When my friend had his neon he removed the air box cover and installed an autozone filter. it made his car a little louder, but nothing like a full cold air does.

 

What you are describing is not the same thing...the lid is the entire intake setup on the 98+ fbodies and changing it out removes an air silencer, gives a larger/straighter path directly into the throttle body, and has a larger area to pull air into the lid.

What you need to do to really see any gain is to do a CAI.