that rubber boot you talk about is the same as the standard bend in the standard setup, its there because i done away with that adaptor plate on the back of the air box as it opens it up from about 58mm to 75mm, the main restriction in the intake! so why keep the adaptor unless you want to cut the guts out of it. and the other reason i went with that was so i could mount the pod easily inside of the box, its strong enough to carry the weight of the pod.

the 2 pipes almost but up against eachother inside of the bend so it not like the air has to travel far before its gets into the next pipe. i dont think its a problem at all...

if you got it ceramic coated will this help with the heat soak????