Now I'm seriously considering grabbing the dremel and going to town on them. I find it interesting that Lexus went through the trouble of changing the airbox for the Fsport.

 

Cut a hole in the front as well.

 

LOL, fine!


question, what did you all use to get rid of the fins exactly? any particular technique? I have my airbox out now and I'm trying to figure out the best way to attack it.

 

I cuted the hole like isf and broken rid by pliers.

 

Hah, thats funny, i just put down the dremel and grabbed the pliers... looks like i'm on the right track.

cutting the hole was the easy part

 

If you have access to an Oscillating tool like this, then it'll help.

 

I actually don't own one of those (though I'm really wishing I did)... I've gotten most of the fins off with pliers, but now i need to smooth it all out. Fair warning to anyone considering this, this is a giant pain in the ***, lol.


I'm kind of wishing I just cut the hole and called it a day, but there's no going back now.

 

a dremel is 100% the wrong tool for this job.

How smooth was the inside of the box when you were done? mine is really rough and I can probably get it smoother with a lot of sanding, just curious how much it matters.

 

Here's what I've got so far.

I did the top and the bottom, fins are gone, I did some light sanding to smooth it out, it would need a LOT more to be very smooth.


Going to do some more sanding in a bit.

 

ok, I got it to where it wasn't rough to the touch with 1000grit sandpaper and called it a day. Put it all back together and went for a drive.

It does sound a pinch louder which is nice, though not an overwhelming difference.

The other interesting thing is intake temps actually dropped from about 15-20 above ambient average, to about 5-10. At times even being the same or within a degree or 2 of ambient on the highway.

This could be because I replaced the torn up weather stripping between the airbox and the scoop which may have been letting warm air into the scoop. Either that or the oem scoop picks up slightly warmer air than the air coming through the headlight opening into the new hole.

I didn't bother running any piping from the new hole (2.5" round) and there doesn't seem to be any reason to after my testing.

 

I decided to put a grill in the 2.5" hole since I didn't pipe it. Just to keep anything big/small animals out of the airbox. I was going to use some RTV around the edge, but it fit so snuggly in place I didn't bother. I aimed the louvers to pull from the bottom.

It looks nicer than just a 2.5" hole in the front of the airbox. I'll snap a pic next time I pop the hood.