Thanks for the great pics GoRacer and for the comments from everyone else. I'm still not sure exactly what I'm going to do but I have a lot more info now than I did when I started. I'll keep researching the topic until I decide which would be best for my needs (basically a semi-daily driven street car for now).

 

hehe, just helpin a fellow rotorhead

 

Yes I agree a lot of information has been seen in this thread and from what I have gathered some kind of heat shield or cold air ducting for an apexi intake system would work quite well. My plan is to go this route and try and make my own. Has anyone fabricated something like this? If so please share it with all of us it will be much appreciated.

 

Buy a K&N drop in ($50.00) and run a couple of 18" long 1 and 1/2" diameter fiberglass reinforced thin wall metal flexible tubes ($30.00)(commonly used to convey manifold heat on older GM V8's to the intake snorkel to control a bi-metal choke "plate") from the bottom of your stock airbox. Seal with JB Weld and a PVC drain flange available at any hardware store. Snake them down rearward and terminate them at the openings of the large plastic "tray" with zip ties. Everyone knows that the coldest air is right above the ground. Save your hard earned money for other stuff. The emissions ****'s won't have a clue, and you'll have more than double the volume than before to work with...

 

I have a pettit and it is so ugly that I am embarassed of it sometimes. The filters got sucked inwards a little bit due to the really stong air pull that my beast of a machine is producing. I do think it is the best performing intake though. I would take the m2 intake over the apexi any day. I would take just about anything m2 makes over apexi besides the pfc and rx6.

 

I think the smartest thing you can do is keep ur eyes open in the parts section or partstrader! I just found a 'like new' M2 unit for less than a brand new Apexi. About 4 months ago I researched this whole thing and what I came up w/ is this. Filter vs filter the Apexi is the best thing out. However unit vs unit.....COLD AIR is ALWAYS better!
If you look at just about ANY high performance vehicle i.e. sportbikes,cars,boats even they predominantly have a ducted air supply. Another words they're trying to keep hot air OUT of their intake. Can we do our own experiments? sure but why spend the $$$ in experimenting on a dyno w/ different set-ups when their are plenty of other ppl who have done it already. We're not talking about the importance of 'tuning' for ur specific car here like the whole PFC issue. We're talking cold air vs hot air and in all my yrs in reading and listening to ppl who know their ****......COLD air always wins!

Those of you who have/had the M2, does the duct come down far enough so it actually funnels the air INTO the box? Or does it just sit flush w/ the frame rail sucking in the air? Reason why I ask(i didnt get my box yet) is this, IF it funnels the air into the box how the hell can you question what unit gets more air? The size of the interior of the M2 has no meaning if its getting a ram air effect.
On the other hand, the open air intake not only sucks in HOT air but it doesnt even come close to getting the ram air effect either. Plus Ive read somewhere hot air = detonation. Can someone w/ more experience say if thats true?

IMO, in a perfect world someone shld come out w/ a sealed cold ram air box that utilizes the Apexi filter. Hey maybe Ill get busy on that idea!

 

Just do the stock airbox mod. Cheap and VERY effective. Look at it this way, the only bad thing that anyone has to say about the stock box is that there is the possibility of hot air reversion, meaning you can actually suck hot air from the intercooler back thru the stock ductwork.
Opening up the airbox, as I have done and as RonKMiller suggests, is a good easy fix for this. And done right, you can't even tell there is a mod....beautiful! Maybe it is just me, but I will take form and function over looks anyday, and I just think that ALL of the aftermarket intake systems are more 'show' than 'go', and some DEFINITELY do nothing but suck hot air from the engine bay.
Save your bucks for other things, do the airbox mod first, try it out, you WILL notice a difference. Hell, then if you don't like it, you can plunk down some big cash for one of the uh...."desireable" (cough, cough) intakes...........oh yeah, then you can display that Apexi or HKS or M2 sticker with pride!