Are the Air Intake Vents both open?

I was looking at my 07 base cayman air intake vents the other day and realized that the passenger side vent was OPEN and the Driver's side vent was completely closed by this black plastic cover (On inside). Is this normal? How I thought one is suppose to suck air in and one is suppose to blow air out. Maybe I just dont know much about air intakes.

Yes, that's normal - the driver's side is the intake for the motor's air induction system. The passenger side let's in air to cool things down, but also has a fan that turns on when temps get too high and sucks in air that evacuates through the bottom of the engine compartment. The black cover on the driver's side is often referred to around the Cayman Club as the "snorkel" and many folks have de-snorked" their cars in the hopes of getting more air, more directly, and thus more horsepower... During Croctoberfest festivities last October, a group of CC members were at Imagine Auto in Kansas City, and a car was run on the dyno, then de-snorked, and then run on the dyno under exactly the same conditions... the result was + 1 HP. If you're interested in doing this to your car, there are a number of DIY articles in the articles section, and numerous threads too, if you search for them. brad

I couldn't have put it better my self

Makes Sense! Thanks a lot for the clarification. So do you think it's a good idea to "de-snork"?

Oh boy, I wouldn't ask that question if I were you!

obviously it is a pretty good HP gain 1 at the wheels is probably 10 or 11 at the crank, but i havent heard any body say if it sounds a lot better

K-man states 13hp at the wheels not the crank in his very long thread.

what do you mean 10 at the crank? i dont get what the crank is

A couple more questions. So will it void the warranty if I "de-snork"? Where can I order the metal mesh grill to go in place of the Black snorks? It looks really cool.

i dont think it voids the warrenty. you can make the mesh grill in 5 min. just buy some chicken wire and black spray paint. then just cut it out in the shape you want where do you live, i have some left overs if ur in socal

I live in Sacramento......thanks for the offer. ;-) Why would you spray paint it black? (Just curious) Do some people de-snork the other vent too? (Passenger side) I was also hoping I could actually buy some kind of pre-made grill that fits in place of the snork of the cayman . Good quality wiring that wont rust too. I dont want to have to cut things out and go through trial and error. Im sure its not that hard but I never really moded any cars before. Do you have any idea of some place that sells them pre-made?

- i paint it black so it blends in and you cant see it - the other side is already "de-snorkled" (short answer) - cutting the wire to fix is really easy! im 17 i cant mod for sh^t but i was able to do this, so anyone can ( exept take off the vent, i let my dealer break it off so he replaced it:banana: ) - you should be more worried about breaking the clips then the gaurd. i doubt the chicken wire will rust - you can cut the chicken wire with a pair of sissors trust me youll do just fine, if your still uncomf, post something in your zone maybe someone in here lives close and can do it for you

? More like as much as 1.2 HP, insignificant when comparing 2 dyno runs.

I'll end up desnorking mine just to gain a few decibells of intake growl. I did the same thing to my '76 oldsmobile when I was 17. Back then, you just flipped the air cleaner cover upside down to achieve the same thing..... Actually, that probably cost a few hp back then as the engine would then be sucking hot air.

I "de-snorked" a month after receiving the CS....Butt dyno cannot make out any noticeable HP gains.........But.BOY-- the sound is unmissable...A more deeper boom when crossing 3500 rpm....LOVE it..... Will put the restrictor plate back in again when it goes for service (just in case of warranty issues).

Can you get the true effect of de-snorking on a dyno? There is no air getting shoved in (i.e. no wind, standing still versus getting the airflow at speeds).

The dyno at Imagine Auto has a huge fan in front of the car that gives the car plenty of wind - probably close to 40-50 mph. A good "car" dyno (as opposed to a motor dyno) will have this, if for no other reason than the car won't overheat - having the radiators cooling, is really way more important than any sort of "ram-air" effect through the intake on the side. To me, the supposed "measurement" at the crank for these tests is a bunch of hooey - if the mod yields +1 horsepower at the wheels, that's what you get, no matter what fudge-factor... oops, sorry - drivetrain loss factor you measure it by - it's still +1 HP when it's all said and done. These runs were done within minutes of each other, with K-Man S doing the the de-snork his own self. There wasn't even a mesh screen in the way, so it was wide open. Now, +1 HP isn't the kind of figure that makes me want to get up and lift a finger to change something... not worth the time and effort. For those that want to do it for the difference in sound, or minimal increase in HP, or whatever, I say "go for it.... more power to ya!" What this shows me though, is that the engineers at Porsche knew what they were doing with this - since changing it really makes no difference. brad

Reading your post is timely for me. I am collecting my car on Monday and the first thing I thought I was going to do was to cut up some chicken wire. But now I'd just leave it as it is.....

K-Man S - I hear ya... there's a lot of variables involved when you have a series of modifications that, taken by themselves or as a group, could have an effect on the results. I might be wrong, but I recall that your before/after de-snork dyno runs were on different days... that may have had an effect on the results, or not. In my opinion (and it's just that) the only test I've seen or read about of this mod being tested under such controlled conditions, is the one on CaymanW's car - the car was dyno'd before any mods, then dyno'd after the mods, showing an expected horsepower increase from the flash and evo intake - so whether it had time to "learn" the mods, it still showed a horsepower increase within an expected range. Then the car was de-snorked and immediately dyno'd again showing the 1 HP increase. In the great scheme of things, none of this is earth-shattering. brad

Mother knows best I'm not about to second guess some of the best automotive engineers in the world for a 1 horsepower gain. My bet is that the Porshce boys weighed the 1 horsepower gain and the serious damage that could be done if the engine injested some water and chose to walk away from the 1 horsepower. Mother knows best . . .

I will desnork mine shortly after I get it, just to experience the intake growl if for nothing else. I am not questioning K-Man S' results, but I am sort of a skeptic on quick and easy horsepower gains, and for the most part believe that Porsche wouldn't leave such a gain untapped. But then again, I also believe that they weren't exactly trying to squeeze every bit of performance they could out of the Cayman and even went as far as to rig the fight (by giving it taller gearing than the Carrera ). So you just never know. PCA Technical Adviser Scott Slauson is not a believer in desnorking, that's for sure. In a PCA Tech Q&A a member wrote in a question asking: To which Scott replied: