I have an 03 mach 1 and in my engine bay there is this black air box (milk jug) looking thing and i dont know what it is. I have heard that this is just an air silencer but i am not for sure. However, if it is just an air silencer or something like that then i want to remove it. Does anyone have any idea what this is? and what it does? and will it do any damage if i remove it? here if a pic of what i am talking about (you might have to click on url) <a href="http://s644.photobucket.com/albums/uu169/kennedy179/?action=view¤t=untitled333.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu169/kennedy179/untitled333.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
not sure, but this forum uses img tags, not HTML, so you might want to change your link to an tag example: gets you this
The "milk jug" circled isn't the air silencer. The air silencer is connected to the air filter box (below and to the left of the red circle) inside the fenderwell. IMO not worth the effort. You'll probably get more gain by waxing your car and reducing drag.
You can take them off, but it doesnt do much.They have a plug, (I dont remember who sells it) that plugs the hole. My gfs dad had it on his before switching to a C&L. your best bet is just pull the air silencer and get a drop in K&N.
That chamber isn't hurting airflow and may well help overall. It's a resonance chamber and may be there for noice reduction but also to re-tune the dynamics of the intake to help prevent standing pressure waves from forming in the inlet duct near the MAF at certain RPM points that may lead to erroneous readings. I'd leave it.
I admit I theorized about the tuning issue. On my 02 GT, before the blower, I experienced a some detonation at ~4000RPM at WOT when running a K&N FIPK. I did some rough calculations and determined that there was a good chance of getting a standing wave forming in the intake duct at that RPM given the length of the K&N piping. The only way to get rid of it would have been to add a damping "mass" (a chamber) or shorten or lengthen the duct. I decided to ditch the K&N and went for a JLT instead and the detonation problem disappeared. This was with a fairly aggressive tune (a fair amount of timing, running leaner than stock too...) Aftermarket stuff is too primitive and cheap to worry about stuff like this. Hell, they don't even care about engine movement (why they seem to all lack the bellows giving flexibility to the OE setup) or fitment (the JLT rubbed on everything from the throttle body to the MAF...) It's very possible the only reason Ford put that there was to quell intake noise on the Mach from getting out the shaker intake. With the GT setup, you have this rubber silencer reaching into the fenderwell. The Mach takes inlet noise and feeds it directly to the hood scoop. The added volume of the add-on is probably more about an OE manufacturer tuning the audio frequencies emitted to make them acceptable to the majority of owners rather than tuning out undesireable standing waves. Lots of cars have such resonance chambers in their intake ducting to quell intake noise.
