Issue while trying to de-snorkel

[Overdrive]

Yeah, I don't know if this is an early car idea (built July of 97, so it's not a super early one) that they got rid of later, but most folks seem to just have an open hole straight to the snorkel from what I've seen in a lot of removal process pictures. This piece is actually a whole large piece of plastic. It curves around to the right and goes straight back...almost seems to be like a ramp for the air, so it goes off to the right, around to the left, back toward the camera, hits the inside curve of this plastic, and then finally gets pulled in by the snorkel. I'm wondering if anyone else with an early car may have run into this when de-snorkeling...I'm kinda miffed, and hoping there's a way to get this thing out without being destructive.