How much does a heatshield usually go for and is it really necessary?
How often would I have to clean the MAF?

 

Just make your own. I took some tin or you can use something a little thicker and coated it with insulation tape or duct tape and painted it with high temp paint finished off with copper pipe insulation to seal against the hood. Just have to do some measuring and trial and error with the fab.

 

K&N drop-in panel filter:
No.

Cone-filter:
If you want noise, yes. If you are expecting more horsepower, no.

 

Make your own. It is more than necessary with an intake that pretty much sucks air from the hot engine bay.

Unfortunately, our MAFs do not take well to cleaning and are costly to replace. With an oiled K&N, factory oil or not, you'll be seeing weird MAF readings and probably a MIL in a matter of a few thousand miles if it's going to cause problems.

Some people have no problems, but despite K&N's laboratory testing, many techs like myself have experienced first-hand evidence and issues supporting the opposite. I have (somewhere... files are a mess at the moment) printed proof from a PIWIS tester on a 2005 Porsche 997S that the factory-oiled K&N on the EVOMS intake caused MAF reading issues in addition to actually flowing WORSE than the stock airbox. This was one of the many issues I experienced while working on cars with aftermarket intakes or drop-in oiled filters.

 

The stock Intake is actually a CAI. If you do go aftermarket, make it CAI or a different sound is all the difference you will get. Its mistake to assume that a factory intake is less efficient than an aftermarket, especially with this car.

 

The way I see it is if you wanna try to improve the airflow into an engine, the first thing to change out is the intake tube, then a high flow MAF, then a bigger Throttle body... at this point you would then prolly need a higher flowing filter... the best way being just going larger.

 

This is the exact thinking that causes people to drop money on a "cai" or cone-filter and end up disappointed when they experience no power gain.

We're talking about a 12V V6 here. Slapping on a cone filter, intake, and larger MAF wont do squat without tuning, and, sadly, tuning does virtually squat on a 12V even with supporting modifications.

 

.....

 

Thanks for all the info guys. It seems going with the K&N is more trouble than its worth.
What intakes are you guys using/would you recommend?
and yes its a cone

 

I have had no problems with my 57i kit on my 12v for over 10,000 miles. It would be nice but I don't have a heatshield or see why it would be too necessary since air is aimed directly at the cone from the intake behind the front grille.

EDIT: I did get a code involving the MAF right after I installed it but it never came back after clearing it.