I think that big thing under the air filter, that has the shape of a "u" and is like a tube, is a silencer... What happens if I take that off. I have it off of my car and it seems to run the same, I guess a little louder.

i think you are talking about the tude for the original air filter. if it is off and you already have some other type of air intake, you are ok.

ok your talking about the U pipe and the resonator for the intake, If you take that off you car will sound a little louder and you might get a pony out of it. Then maybe replace your stock filter with a K&N one(about 40$), but for all that work, id just buy a whole new intake. I got an AEM short ram for around 65$

yea, that whole box on the side of ex's is the resonator/air filter. it just gets a bit louder without it on

yeah, i removed mine, capped the intake pipe, and replaced the paper filter with a k&n square replacement unit. it's a little deeper if i step on it, and it was a cheap improvement.

and i can bloody well change my distributer cap without a bunch of extra monkeying around now! :P