Well, I talked to the local Mazda service technician and he said that it would not harm anything to remove the air duct. He said it was actually a good idea to remove the air duct if I were to install a cold air intake or short ram intake. Although, he did saythe air ductwould keep the battery a little cooler which prolongs the life a little.The technicianalso said that 90% of today's carsdon't haveair cooling ducts.In conclusion, I have decided to remove the airduct but I'm going to keep the battery cover intact.

 

Let me get this straight, you're going to remove the air ductthat provides colder air to the battery for longer life, and leave the cover on so the hot air that does get in and surrounds the engine will overheat your battery?
Did you think this through?
Why is it so necessary for you to remove the air duct in the first place?
If it's convenience, just remove that stupid little triangular piece of plastic that supposedly hold it in and grind off the tabs on the air duct itself... like this:

 

No, you misunderstood me. I'm installing a short ram air intake and to get the most air into the intake I will be removing the batter air duct. The inlet where the battery air duct usually goes will provide my short ram air intake a nice steadystream of air. If I keep the battery air duct intact then the short ram will not get a good flow which sort of defeats the purpose. As for the battery cover, I realized I said that I would be keeping that on but I did not mean to say that.I will be removing that cover.
Now, I'm kind of confused why you cut off the side mount from your battery cover when I can see that you still have the stock air intake box intact. What was the reasoning for this besides maybe getting some of that plastic out of there?

 

Because I found that mount to be completely erroneous and it makes access to things, i.e. duct or light bulb removal, much easier.I get no additional rattling w/o it and it cleans up the engine compartment a little bit.
I am no longer running the stock box. I am running an MS CAI. This is an older picture that I had for the purposes of a write-up I did. Hence the circles and arrows.

 

virgin, where did you get the K&N battery duct, or it's just a sticker?
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The Legend Condominium Cosy Beach

 

'Came w/the K&N panel filter I used to run with before the CAI.