The opening of the airfilter "bucket" seems to be awfully close to the front of the car as seen in the pic. I had it off a while ago and cleaned it and noticed when putting it back that in it's base there is a sort of indentation. This indentation fits into the bucket so it goes into only one place.... supposedly. But I find that it's still possible to shift it so it points more to one of the holes (there's 2 of them) that are in the wall infront. Maybe it doesn't sit as good in it's base like this but whatever. And I'm not sure how it was positioned before I took it off.
It just seems that when it's in the "right"(?) position it's just too darn close, leaving very little air-space, I can barely fit a finger in between. Is it the same on all cars with this setup??

 

Here's another closer look.....

 

not sure if it was right but thats how mine was before i took it off for a cold air induction

 

yes it is the only way it fits. there is a notch in the bottom of the canister that only lets it sit one way on the lower bracket

 

Yeah that sucks for air flow. On mine I flattened the notch on the bottom of the can so it would sit flat, moved the charcoal can over a little, then pointed the air nozzle as much as possible towards the fender opening and tightened it down. That and a K&N gotta help a little.
At that point if you really want to get fancy you can get some 3" dryer hose from home depot, fit one end in the air cleaner opening, route thru the fender and down to some cold air in front.

 

Firebirds were terrible from the factory. Why not just take a Dremel to the housing itself, and cut some large windows into the canister? Then the air filter will get maximum air with the stock canister.

 

LOL - That's exactly what I did with mine!

Now I've got a CAI under "development", more later on that....