Alright so I took a look at the intake silencing Bobzilla described... Wow, there's a lot there!
So, this is essentially where it pulls air from. The small gap between the headlight and the core support. That black box by the battery with the phillips head screw on it is the end of the air intake tract.
The little rectangle at left was what was pictured behind the headlight, and that series of tubes made its way under the battery and to the bottom of the air box/filter housing. There was a huge silencer in the drivers front fender well, and another TUBE-BRANCH up near the throttle body. In order to extract it, the battery and battery tray were removed, so some cleaning ensued.
Battery and tray removed. General gunk visible, as is the slithering air intake silencing device (bottom and right of picture, going into the airbox at the pink dot). Removing the 10mm bolt by the battery tray got most of the intake snake out, with another 2 in the fenderwell to take out the silencer box. All in all it was probably 2lbs of stuff removed.
Cleaned with Simple Green, a brush and water. I took some black paint and brushed it over some of the scabbier bits in an effort to prolong the inevitable rust.
This is the silencer up near the throttle body. Hyundai Kia calls it the TUBE-BRANCH.
I removed the TUBE-BRANCH and put it on the shelf for safe keeping. The remaining hole was capped off with a windshield washer fluid bottle lid and hit with some black paint for stealth points.
Then the whole assembly was reinstalled and the battery was put back in. Check out the sweet paint on that hold down!
That was fun. Total investment: $0. Looks the same under the hood and now makes wicked racecar BWAHHH noises when at WOT. Seems to be a little happier revving, although as described it's not a high-rpm monster. That being said I was taking an on-ramp in 2nd and quickly found the rev limiter around 6500 which was a first for me, so that was fun.
Basically, this might have all been useless save for liking the cool sound it makes, and that's fine. Butt and Ear dyno approve of it - the intake sound is pretty awesome. Plus, it still takes a stock air filter and the air filter is still pretty well protected from the elements. The bottom of the airbox has a hole in it that gets "fresh" air from the drivers wheel well/behind the headlight.
It was a great distraction for Saturday, and it makes the car feel a little sportier for $0. I'm happy.