air filter box not sealing = car stalling, wrecked ego

[LegacyLover]

this is my first post and I feel like an idiot for having to ask this (considering I redid my GTO and have a Eng degree) but I am stuck. yesterday I bought a K&N air filter for my 98 GT 4EAT and put it in this morning. didn't seem hard, just pop off the clips, lift the top back, take out the old one and put in the K&N. heck, the kid at the oil change place took the old one out to show me the dirt so should be no problem. well, after installing the K&N and turning on the car, it rev'd up to ~ 2k RPM then stalls. going back to the filterbox, I noticed the bottom end of the lid was not sealing. i tried to reseat the lid but feel I am forcing it. So I reinstall the old one to see if it is the new filter and try to mind the lower end of the airbox. Restarting the car, same thing happens. Only now I left the hood open and can hear air whooshing in. Then it starts to rain hard (a June miracle for No. Cal. but figures to happen the only morning I am having car issues in the 3 years I've had it). So I come back to it this evening, try inserting each one again with the same result, and finally take the 5 minutes to remove the whole filter box. Before doing that I matched up the old & new filters to check on size and they are same area (though the K&N is thinner). With the box out I see that with the new K&N or the old paper filter that whenever I get the metal clips to engage the teeth at the bottom of the base pop out of the holes in the lid that keep that end tight, presumably letting too much air enter in and snuffing out the engine. Can someone shed light on what I am doing wrong or if something is amiss with my filter box? I have a pretty urgent need to use the car tomorrow (Saturday). Thanks!

[Reason]

This is an easy one...I had the same problem last weekend. I took off the MAF adapter and my cone filter to throw on my stock box to make a custom CAI. Well, I throw in my K&N filter, and yes it's tricky to get it to fit but it does. Place the filter in the air box, pull the filter up from the bottom of the box. I want to get those 3 tabs in place. The K&N filter rubber surrounding is thicker than the stock filter. Once you get those tabs positioned you can force the filter in its right place and lock down the metal clips. Done? haha...thats what I thought. I went to start my car it ran for a few seconds and dies, tried it again. Maybe I didn't hook up the box right? nope its fine, but I hear the same whooshing noise. Thinking sounds like I air leak. Than I figure out sounds like a vacuum line is disconnected. I realized I unhooked the large hose right after the MAF sensor. I hooked it back up and was ready to go. If it's not the same line you may have another line disconnected or torn or something of that sorts. I hope this helps and let us know whats up!!

[Pwise2326]

Exactly. Biggest thing is to first off hook those 3 tabs at the bottom, if your having trouble seeing it, try to feel it, you'll know when theyre all "engaged". Then pull down the top of the box, you'll have to muscle it in a bit and pull to the passenger side with a good amount of effort to clear the lip and pop it down before you get the metal clips on it. Like shane said, check all your vacuum lines and breather hoses, and you should be set to go.

[jey]

I realized I unhooked the large hose right after the MAF sensor.

Yeah I accidentally knocked that one off when I was doing the snorkus removal. It causes the engine to start up and then stumble to a stall after only a couple seconds. Definitely check that one.

[LegacyLover]

Thanks for the tips. I took off the box again and pressed down hard while keeping my other hand on the three tabs to make sure they stayed engaged. I did notice the beginnings of cracking in the lid's openings though so will have to either get a replacement lid, replacement box, or go with one of the aftermarket units. I also realized I hadn't reconnected that lower vacuum hose either.

BTW, since it was mentioned above, what is the snorkus? I've skimmed through other posts where it was the topic or mentioned but couldn't ID exactly what is was/is. Is it that bent, closed-end plastic tube coming off the connector to the air filter box?

[Pwise2326]

Nope, thats just an elbow piece used for harmonic balancing aka keeping the intake as quiet as possible because it is a "family sedan" not an aggressive sounding sport sedan. The snorkus is the first part of the harmonic balancing/intake silencing system. It is a black plastic box that is tucked up in the front part of the fender in front of the passenger tire. The inlet is the black plastic flatish tube that comes out in front of the air box and curves in towards the box. The air enters there, flows through a series of tediously designed chambers and exits through a tube on top of the snorkus into the airbox...then into your engine. To take it out, you need to jack the passenger side of the car up, remove the front tire, then carefully remove the plastic pop rivets and screws in the fender/wheel well lining closest to the front of the car. You may want to remove the airbox as well to unscrew the white plastic piece that the end of the snorkus fits onto. Once you have the wheel well opened, by removing a couple screws on the inside of the fender (in the engine bay) you should be able to pull the snorkus right out, and its an ugly little bugger. Put the bottom part of your airbox back in, and if you have it, use some aluminumesque air duct (as in HVAC) tape to seal the opening in the box to the opening in the fender. You can then tape off the big hole where the inlet of the snorkus came out or go down to your local subaru dealership and buy the RS fender plug, I'll find the part number for ya, its pretty cheap and looks nicer, but tape works. Replace all the screws and pop rivets into the fender lining and put back on the tire, and there ya go...homemade cold air intake. Now your car will not only breathe less restrictively, but will only suck cold air out of your fender. Only things that may annoy you will be the slight harmonic drone at idle because you upset the harmonic balancing created by turbulence against the "flexible straw-like" section of the tubing between the airbox and the intake plenum. Sounds like your blowing on the edge of a bottle. Its not a big deal though, and you'll get used to it, especially the first time you hear it when you really open up your throttle through the gears.

[LegacyLover]

thanks for the info. if I am remembering what I read before about it, the mod doesn't necessarily increase power or mileage but would boost low end torque. is that correct? if so, I am surprised it doesn't increase power because one of the big desirables on GTOs is Ram Air where the hood scoops were made functional to deliver an air stream right into the air cleaner. RA engines had higher horsepower but some of the boost was from the higher compression & hotter cam that went with the option.

my GT has 123k on it but runs real strong. i had to replace the headgaskets 10k ago and the all cylinders measured out at identical compression. a few months back I had the front struts replaced and put on WRX rims/tires (after blowing the tire (hence the classified ad)...now the car is running so good it has diminished by desire for a new GT turbo. So I am ready to put a few more $s into additional perfromance but can't go full bore with something like a turbo because we are buying a house. Can you point me to some other performance boosts I might do to squeeze out a few more HP for < $500 total? thanks in advance.

[Wiscon_Mark]

There's a place that will regrind your cams to open up the valves more (PM Perdue, he knows more about it than I do). He said they do it for 60 dollars plus shipping (you won't be able to use your car for a while though :!: )
New Headers and Exhaust will do a little bit (although you're getting pricey there)
Piggyback your ECU...don't know much about that one, but you can get a little extra out of that.
I'm sure I don't need to give you a what to avoid on eBay list, do I? :wink:
I'm missing something....others can give you a few tips.
Good Luck!

[jey]

From what I know ram air doesn't even really become a noticable effect until you reach high speeds, like 100 mph. The advantage of drawing cold air from the fender outweighs ram air.

[Tokio]

www.deltacams.com (http://www.deltacams.com) :-D

[Wiscon_Mark]

www.deltacams.com :-D

That's what Perdue was talking about!
Unfortunately I wrote this before :oops: checking the link and the site isn't up yet.

Did you get this mod done Jesse? Is it a good kick in the pants?