A long time ago my mother's best friend's husband at the time worked in a speed shop and made a suggestion for better performance... and me knowing nothing about such things and having no internet, and trusting him cuz he was a family friend, went with it. He removed the air intake in the front and replaced it with a K&N filter... it looked decent at the time, but I now see pics of folks' Firebird engines and they have the original (or a dressed up version) intake. I'm not sure why the K&N was suggested but I was and am a complete newb but hoping to change this I don't remember if I noticed any change back then, but it was a long time ago. Should I go back to the air intake? I am now wanting to get back to close to the original look only dressed up/new, but don't want to affect the performance. It is the 5.7 350 engine. Thanks

 

K & N air filters flow better than stock ones and as such allow more air to pass through. Switching to K&N's will not hurt your car and you may see a gain of 1 or 2 hp.

Some guys with the original air intake cut out the bottom to allow even more air to come up from the front of the car. Since this is done to the underside of the intake no one can see it.

 

Thank you for the info!

 

did you notice a performance increase after the modification?

 

is it just the tiny fliter that mount to the front of the throttle body? cause if so then you are technically losing some hp, because you are sucking in nothing but warm air

 

Yes, that is what it is. I was afraid of that

I honestly don't remember if I saw a change, it was like 13 years ago and I think I had something else done at the same time. So I guess I will be wanting to get a new intake..