squirrel502

I know this isnt really an "appearance" question, but figured some of you all might have the same issue.

So I have had my Tru-Fiber hood on my car since late Jun, and as of recently I have been noticing a dramatic decrease in both performance and MPG. Thinking that it was running rich, I took a look at my air filter to see if there was a problem...and yah, that sucker was near black with all kinds of debres on it.

So this isnt my first K&N style air filter, and in the past I could easily go a year with out a through scrubbing, but with the Ram Air taking all the stuff in the air and depositing it directly onto the filter, it is not suprising that it is getting dirty so fast.

The question....
Since the ram air does not provide any benifit to an existing CAI setup, is there a way to plug the hood to lessen the total amount of crap from collecting onto the filter? Wondering if any of you have done this, and if so...what did you do/use?

5150PONY

I think there are companies selling the sleeve (or cover) that you can wrap over you air filter.

Blacksmoke

Maybe there is some sort of netting made of wire that you could cut and put under the hood to cover the ram air hole.

Some kind of netting that had very very very very small holes that would work as
a filter for the air going through the hood.
I'd check hardware stores or lowes or home depot etc.

Nuke

I'd be leary to reduce the airflow into the engine bay solely because of the heat soak issues these engines have. Any air flow is a benefit.

I agree with Blacksmoke regarding some sort of screen material to keep the "chunkies" out. Get a piece of window screen material, cut to fit and figure out a way to secure it and see if that reduces the CAI cleaning frequency.