The ridiculous function of this was for the sake of making the emissions people happy.
It serves no purpose other then to get your car to Normal Operating Temperature faster so it can be 'most efficient'.
There is a theory that it was also there to keep the Throttle body linkage from freezing up if it was a damp day and you lived in antarctica.

Many of us eliminated it.. Dead of winter, there is no negative affect and I bet the car doesn't take more then a minute longer to reach full operating temperature. Not woth gambling an AMM over.
If you take it out, It will leave the Air box door open. Thats very bad if you still have the Silver pipe running to the exhaust manifold.
Gotta hold that door closed if you keep the hose intact to fool the emission guys.
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