Sports air filters do they really work?

Hi all, I have a X 1500 engine with 34 dmtr weber carb. Well as the engine temperature reaches quite high, I was looking into creating more room for the engine to cool by installing a more sporty type carb air filter. I know there are those K&N ones that are quite pricey, or if someone could suggest an alternative. But what I really want to know is do these really make any difference at all are a waste of money. Also, the 2 rubber air type pipes that attach to the underside of the air filter housing, if i was to install one of those sporty type filters, what happens to those pipes and where do they go.

If anyone else has got any suggestions on cooling the engine bay, as I am sure i suffer from fuel eveaporation after a long run.

Thank you so much. Jimmy.

They do work, but how much you gain depends on the standard set up, also the more tired your engine the less the potential gains (and in most cases these are less than advertised) Ford used to do a triple carb option for the 3l Capris but the standard filter supplied by ford strangled the engine so much that it flowed not much more than single carb would on a K&N filter. The pipes are usually just breathers for the engine or fuel system and these can be exhausted to the atmosphere (depends how environmentally friendly you are) or fed into a catch tank.

Shame on you - those pipes are more important than most realise. The oil vapour helps to lubricate everything on the induction side of the engine. It may not sound like much but it can really help. It also means that the crankcase pressure is as low as possible for a healthy engine which all helps with performance.

Most sports filters that replace the housing don't use them because it costs too much to provide options for every different model and fitting. If you don't feed them back into the filter than you do need to vent them through a separate filter and that will need cleaning or replacing regularly unless you like mayonnaise dribbling down from it. A catch tank is a better option for a proper performance setup but just collects creamy sludge at an alarming rate on a road car...

As for the performance gain - there isn't necessarily much of an improvement. The X1/9 seems to respond well to the change, not necessarily for any peak performance gain but definitely for driveability.