Engine cold air intake question

I used to have an ebay short ram, and I switched back to the stock airbox, but I took out the resonator box, cut the stock intake pipe short (a 2001 Prizm) and ran a 90 degree elbow down the hole where the resonator box used to be. If there was a hp change it wasn't that noticable, but there were a couple things I definitely noticed. First my car idled smoother, and second, the MAF sensor has pretty much been clean since I switched back to the stock airbox. I'm thinking a little bit of the oil from the K&N filter would get sucked in and build up on my sensor (I cleaned it about once every 4 months), but its speculation. Eventually my check engine light came on, and since I've switched back everything has been fine. I dunno, I think a short ram is more of a hassle than anything. It gives you a nicer sound, but thats about it IMO.

well I've been testing out the difference between CAI and SRI and really there isn't that much of a difference when you already at speed, but the CAI from a dead start actaully got the car going faster. It gave it more torque compared to the SRI. The way I tested was stop at this certain intersection and floor it from there and see how fast the car is when I cross this other intersection and the CAI got about 2-3 mph faster. It's probably because it creates a better velocity or something for the air with the CAI's piping.

fastrolla96

it's prolly like the intake mod with the super wide gasket....
more air already filteres stored in the pipe rather than having to forcefully filter more stuff

it's all speaculation

all I use is a K&N oem style filter