Is it possible for me to just take the airbox out and use the remaining intake hose with an AEM replacement filter. I wat to just pop the filter on and make sure it is fit snug. Its considerably cheaper, but it seems sorta like a bad idea.

 

A friend of mine with a ls took off the lid to the air box and bolted a k & n filter to the stock air tube. it worked fine from what he said. no power gains though from the box, maybe a small increase from the k&n, beast engine sound though. A tuner in socal also did this on his jdm itr that was featured in super street.