Confused! Airbox and CIA with monaro headlamps in VT Commodore??

[timmyj23]

I am generally knowledgable when it comes to cars n commodores, but I am wanting to fit a HSV cold air intake into my VT commodore which has monaro headlamps in it and am told that only some airboxes will fit behind the lamps as they are bigger.

Firstly, is the airbox different to the CAI?

Is it only the monaro CAI that will fit with monaro headlamps?

Is the airbox a totally different part, or is it just given a different name to the intake??

Is their upgrades for airboxes?

Help me, i'm going around in circles!!!!!!

[JezzaB]

Dont you just hate a spelling error in the title. The CIA jokes are just gonna start rollin in.

[Dutch]

Well first off, the airbox is a seperate part to the intake. Think of the intake as a funnel to get air into the airbox.
CAI stands for Cold Air Induction, therefore it's a generic term describing any form of intake that gets the cold air from outside of the engine bay into the airbox.
There is really only one kind of airbox upgrade as such. It's the airbox from the series 2 VY HSV's. They plugged up the two round holes at the front and cut an opening at the bottom RH corner of the airbox. As the top half isn't changed, those that want it only need buy the bottom half (although from memory they cost $370+) The more common (and cheaper) airbox upgrade is the "two hole mod" which quite simply is, pulling out the pipe that leads to the smaller of the two front intake holes, thus utilising the "two holes". Now bearing in mind, the monaro cold air intake (MCAI) is essentially a copy of the HSV one, those that do the two hole mod, will then usually cut a second hole into the MCAI and connect the two with a short pipe. However, the HSV is the better intake and personally I wouldn't butcher it with a second hole. The advantage of the HSV intake over the MCAI is the HSV one is sealed at the top, with a small flap that can slide open, thus sealing it against hot air comming in. Also It"s made from a stronger plastic.
Finally, there shouldn't be a problem fitting the HSV CAI together with the monaro lights as the MCAI was based on the HSV intake.
Hope this helps.