The 2.3L Quad4 engine is pretty scatty for a little factory four cylinder but it's still a little factory four cylinder. What this means to the performance minded folks out there is that there is room for improvement! the first thing I wanted to do for my engine was to let it have all the air it wants. With more air your engine uses the gas more efficiently and thus gets better economy AND better power!
Off to Canadian Tire to order a K&N stock-replacement air filter. In most cars this would be a 46 second drop-in modification. On my 1990 grand am it's about 10 minutes of 4-letter words. Swaping the filter is a simple task BUT the filter box is in a cramped little space. I actually have to unhook the wiring harnes to the rad fan to get my filters in and out. After some further inspection (read: exploratory surgery) I found that the air intake system wasn't quite as bad as it could have been. The air for my grand am seemed to travel through a 3" hose from god knows where in the fender, down about two feet into the filter box and then through the mandingo elbow into the throttle body. (Stock intake setup). Once I got about 8lbs of plastic sheilding and crap out of the way (from underneath the car) I could see that the intake hose that went up into the fender had a rip in it right next to the filter box. I took advantage of this rip to break the end of the hose off and remove it from the side of the filter box. Now I've got a great stubby little intake system that gets nice cold air from up under the front of the car but is still protected from water/snow/rodents by all the plastic plates around it. (My intake setup) For next summer I'm already planning an under-car scoop for a nice ram-air effect. But for the winter I'll play it safe.