mesh on intake manifold??

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by WeeYari

^ ignore what Scott had said. He was in error when looking at your picture. What you have shown will have nothing to do with the MAF.

Exactly. For some reason I was picturing it on the other side of the MAF.

It would be easy to remove as you would just have to snip the four metal tabs where it is bonded to the rubber. A replacement gasket is only about $6, so it would not be an expensive experiment to try eliminating it.

To scientifically see its effect, you could watch the MAF data (relative to throttle position and RPM) with a scan tool. If you see an increase in the MAF parameter (which measures air flow in 100 grams/second increments) for the same RPM/Throttle position, then the effect of removing it is positive. If the MAF value decreases, then the turbulence do indeed effect the air intake and the effect of removing it is negative.