I had been running a custom CAI with an S2000 stock paper cone filter for years. I recently decided to just get an AFE Pro Dry S filter and see how it fits in a short ram setup. I just threw the heat shield together with sheet metal I had laying around. I feel better with it it up high like this. It's Trifecta tuned and a quick run just before showed long term fuel trims dropped with short term between -7 and 7 mostly. I don't remember what I was getting before. I'll get a new tune one day. Seems more responsive, but could be new filter and/or placebo.

 

Funny how things change just by moving it a little. I would guess your new filter is probably more efficient/better flowing.

 

Out of curiosity, does that heat shield actually work? I'm doing S257 swap but the zzp short ram didn't come with a heat shield

 

The heat shields help for a while but eventually they get heat soak if you're running your car long enough. A quick fix for that would be ceramic coating the heat shield (high temp paint).

 

Can you glue either a piece of weather strip or a rubber vacuum hose split to the top of your heat shield?

 

I'll work on a more permanent solution. It's so easy for air to go around it and the metal is thin. I used high temp paint when I made a heat shield for my BMW.

You mean to seal it off against the hood? I thought about that because that's what I did on my BMW. The thing is, my BMW heat shield nearly completely encloses the filter. The last place it was open was up top. The hood on the Cobalt has a lot of reinforcement in that area and that makes it hard to seal off. I'll consider it if I can get the filter walled off from the rest of the engine bay.