I am thinking about removing the airbox and opening up the top
between the securing straps to get more airflow. Any opinions on
the value of this? I do not want to completely remove the top
and just secure the filter with tiewraps in order to insure the
perimeter sealing of the filter.

I wish this snow would go back to Canada, I want to take a drive

 

You'd still be pulling in hot engine bay air, though there would be a slight gain in HP before everything heats up. To take full advantage of this configuration, you might want to consider opening up the fog light panels by coring holes in them. I installed a Halltech Stinger and then opened up the lower radiator cover to bring in outside air directly at the filter.

 

I dont understand why everyone says you would be pulling in hot engine bay air....air is not flowing from the back to the front....since the air cleaner is way in front of everything I would think it would take some serious redirection of airflow to get hot engine bay air up to the air cleaner.......that used to be a problem when the carb set directly on top of the engine.....my car is stock....but I did open up the aircleaner cover....the stock air cleaner will pass more air than the stock 350 will ever need...however when you open it up it makes more noise.....

 

This is a 110v conversion (based on the '04 Z06 lid)...

 

You would understand if you saw the reams of data I extracted from a "CarChip" data logger. With it, you can log engine intake air temperature, coolant temperature, engine speed, time, fuel trim, etc. I logged air intake temps with the Halltech intake filter but no other mods to bring in cold air. Then I did my CAI mod to bring in outside air, right behind the filter.
The results were enlightening, to say the least. Without my CAI mod, the intake air soared past 140 degrees F after the car slowed down for some stop & go traffic on an 80 degree day during Summer. At that intake air temperature, the ECU has cut back horsepower by at least 10. Next, I ran the data logger over the same driving distance, during the same time of day, and during the same ambient temperature. The air intake temeperature never exceeded 104 and that was very brief, since as soon as my C5 started moving again, the temperature plummeted to 80F or so. Without CAI, the air intake temps never dropped back to outside air temps, even after a 20 minute drive on the highway,

Now, an enclosed-style CAI is even better for keeping the air intake temps low, but the many plastic and rubber components, as well as electronic circuit boards in the engine bay will never benefit from the cooling effect of bringing the outside air into the engine bay, as is the case with C5 Z06s and their opened-up front end.

The stock airbox attempts to keep air cooler by keeping air velocity high (along with a higher negative pressure), which does help at low to mid engine speeds, but dyno results show that the best combination is greater exposed intake filter surface area along with cold outside air.

Dave