DIY Intake Silencer (aka Snorkus) Removal

Alex and I removed the silencer on my 04 WRX on the 10th and here is a little wirteup about it.

What Removing Your Silencer Does
-Makes your car louder, that’s the only reason i did it, so i can hear my turbo better. Some people claim to hear they’re stock bpv better, but i have yet to notice a difference in that sense.

-Some people claim a few hundred rpm quicker spool up time for the turbo, this would tend to imply that with quicker spool up, you're getting more boost earlier, making you go faster/having more hp. But its argued on whether this is true or not. I personally just did it for sound.

The Process


First let us get familiar with the parts involved.

This is your entire intake/exhaust system.


now see where it says outside air in the top middle, the air flows through the ram air scoop. The ram air scoop feeds into your intake silencer. The silencer (aka snorkus) at a somewhat v shape at the top and then a bulbous shape at the bottom. This pciture below shows a removed snorkus from a GC8 with the ram-air still attached to it, note the snorkus tends to change shape a little bit in newer models, but it looks almost the same.



after the air from the ram-air goes into the silencer, the air goes down into the main chamber of the silencer and then goes back up through the other pipe at the top of its v shaped head. this pipe leads to your airbox and from there you can follow that map on your own...

What this install requires you to do is to remove the ram air scoop, removing the fender liner, reach up and unscrew the silencer

Pre-Install Notes
When people take out their silencer they may opt to put a cold air intake or a shortram intake while going ahead and removing their airbox to do so. Alex and I did not do this, for I did not have an intake to install. Rather we just hacked the top part of the silencer and molded a piece of plastic to the bottom to make the v at the top more like a u, circulating the air from the ram-air scoop directly to the airbox.


Installing


Step 1: Removing The Ram-Air Scoop
See those 2 screws? Unscrew them and pull the scoop out, see where it goes into the passenger side fender area, that’s where it connects to the silencer, just pull away from the fender, don’t worry, you wont brake anything.


Step 2: Removing the top silencer scew
This is quite easy, you see that new hole you have there, yes, that’s part of your silencer. What you need to do now is take out that nut right next to it, keep this if you plan on finishing the way Alex and I did, otherwise its useless.


Step 3: Jack the car up:
Now get the jack from you trunk, the lever thingy should be attached under the floorboard that’s over your spare tire. Place the head of the jack between the two notches you see right under the side skirt on the front passenger side. Turn the wheel so tires are pointing towards the left and put the handbrake/parking brake on. Now lift the car up high enough so that you can comfortable slide under the car and have a bit of room to work. If you have a better jack USE IT. But the stock one suffices.



Step 4: Remove the Fender Liner:
Ok first off look at this picture to see the fender liner.


First remove that plastic clip (it clips onto a metal flap, just make sure its not clipped on to the flap). Then proceed to remove all the thumbscrews in that region, note the picture only shows you one so you know what it looks like. The best way to get these out is to use a screwdriver to get the heads to popout, then use a flat head screwdriver to wedge the entire screw(with its plastic washer too) out a bit, and carefully, but forcefully wedging the screw out with pliers….the smaller thumbscrews are easy. Now there are a few more screws under the car that you must remove (I believe it was 5) if you took out the screws next to and behind the passenger front wheel first, the liner should be a bit loose now so you can shake it a bit and find the right screws to pull out. They are all on the passenger front side, one is at the lip, one is further towards the center of the car but next to the fender, and there are 3 more to remove.

Step 5: Removing the actual silencer:
Look up. Can you see it? After taking out those evil thumbscrews, this part isn’t too bad. Reach up in the newly revealed space and remove the other nut that holds the silencer in place. It looks much like the top nut you took out earlier in step 2. Once you have it removed, from the engine bay, push the silencer first away from the car, then down. Finish by pulling down on it from the bottom of the car.
Note: Removing best works with two people when one person pushes down on it and one person pulls down on it.

Optional Step: Forging a U pipe out of the silencer:
Basically saw off the part of the silencer that looks like a box, file down so the new opening is flat, and hot glue a flat piece of plastic (like a hard lid top) cut down not too much bigger than the size of the hole. [b[It is very important that this is sealed right and should be a strong piece of plastic/ seal or the plastic might get sucked through or the ram air scoop will be useless because the air isnt fully going to the airbox.

Step 6: Put everything back!

Step 7: Test it out (on a stretch/highway)!

For any question or comments, you can e-mail/IM Alex or me. If you plan to do this mod, you may possibly get one of us to help you do it or possibly just ask for some sort of phone support.