[Kirk]

Here are some photos of the air inlet vents covered with screen mesh on my 2000 Boxster S. I did some searches to see if others had done this, but came up empty handed. So I thought I’d at least share what I’ve done. I just worked and formed some screen material ($18 for a big roll at Home Depot, galvanized steel) directly over the side vent louvers. Since the louvers are a part of the mounting of the cover it would have required some significant modification of the mounting to install the vents without the louvers in place.

I know this might be too restrictive, but I like the look and I’ve got the air box desnorkeled and a K&N air filter in the stock air box, so maybe that will make up for it a little. I also hope to put a ram air style scoop on the inlet later to again help compensate for any restriction from the wire mesh.

I’m not driving my Boxster right now (broken foot), so any impact on performance won’t be evaluated for another two months. If there is an impact, then I’ll just take the louvers out and modify the side vent to mount without them. I doubt the wire mesh will be any less restrictive than the louvers on the air inlet side as those louvers block the bottom third of the opening.

Meanwhile I’ve used the same screen mesh on the front bumper grills and it looks pretty good. I removed the radiator shrouds first and thoroughly cleaned the radiators and straightened bent fins as much as possible. This fine mesh will certainly keep the front radiators much cleaner, but again I’ll have to wait a bit to see what impact it has on engine temperature.