some intake questions

I just bought an intake adapter and filter off of ebay.. it is the one that just goes right onto the MAF. I left the stock air box bottom on with the thinking that it will act as a heat shield and allow the old air box intake hose to provide colder air to it.. is this a good idea? I need to find a way to hold it down i can hear it rattle under hard acceleration. also this thing is loud. Since this is a cheap filter is this part of the problem? would a k&N help. as you approach redline with this filter on the sound changes a good bit too is this normal? its real real deep and throaty then it gets much higher pitched.

The bottom of the intake wouldn't act like much of a heat shield but would serve as a nice safeguard if your filter ever fell off (it would catch it and maybe hold it partially on until you had a chance to stop and put it back on). And what do you mean by needing to find a way to hold it down? Are you talking about the filter or the bottom of the stock intake box? The stock intake box bolts down with like 3 or 4 hex bolts so it shouldn't be going anywhere or rattling. Also the filter shouldn't have anything to do with how loud the intake is...all intakes are going to be louder than the stock airbox (the box mutes much of the sound). I have a frankencar intake with a k&n filter on it and it sounds real deep and throaty as well....reminds me of an old Camaro or my dad's '72 vette. And as for the sound changing...it's always higher pitched when you're under full throttle...so to me it sounds like you're in good shape.

it makes a big difference in weather i found out.. it was rainny those two says and made a big diff it sounds much different on non humid hot days. i mean the filter actually rattles against the bottom of the filter box. its not a bad thing but it would be nice to hold it down a little.