Yeah

I took out both metal plates and the heat shield for the scoop too.
I cut the back out but it looked ugly so I just took the whole shield off and then electric taped the wiper washer hose to heat protect it.
At first I was worried about water coming in through the vents on the filter and coming in the scoop on the turbo and manifold.
But I looked at other EVOs and thought back to my EVO 8 which I took the scoop shield off too so if that big of a hole was ok then the holes on the X should be fine if they are open.
More air and cooler engine bay.

I also have seen people with X that took off both the plastic and metal vents replaceing them with chicken wire.
Looked pretty sweet.

 

How sure are you that your alterations will actually help the airflow? These things are rarely as simple as "bigger = more"; have you done any testing or found anything that you can share with us to show that these mods help the airflow?

[In contrast to a lot of my posts that read like the above, in this case I'm really looking for evidence and not just asking a rhetorical question.]

 

The only way I can think of to get a correct idea of a difference in temp is if some one removed all metal plates and scoop heat shield then with cobb app or thermometer sensor logged the temp difference with and with out shielding.
But from a common sence point of view.

Sample A: Opening the vents to let out more hot engine bay air = your in a small room with no AC on a hot day first you open the door to let the hot air out the room.

Sample B: opening the vents and opening the hood scoop = your in a small room with no ac on a hot day first you open the door and then you place a good size fan at the other end of the room facing the door with it on high pushing the hot air out and the air that is not push out is moving around the room making it cooler.

Not forgeting the side air vents on the car letting rear engine air out while the scoop air is pushing into the engine bay and the front vents letting air out that is pushed in from the front the car + the excess air from the scoop air pushing on top the engine and behinde it on the turbo - manifold.

A closed engine bay would act more like a oven trapping in hot air that moves very little over a open engine bay with constant air coming in moving the air around making it cooler and letting the hot air out.

In short moving air is cooler then still air on a hot day thus more air and faster moving air would be cooler and giving the hot air a place to go help even more with the vents.

Short example merc have the vent at the wiper area of the hood letting air into the front flowing over the engine and pushing the hot air out the vents at the wipers keeping a constant flow of cool air in and hot air out.

But if any one could temp test that is the only way to truely know.

Sorry so long thats just my theory for better cooling the engine bay.