Did a bit of a mod a while ago hoping to use more of the air filter surface, without having to spend any money and retaining the stock look of the bike. Well, it worked! Instead of using that tiny patch where the snorkel meets the filter it uses the whole surface now. This is after about 1000km of dusty dirt trails What i did was draw some inspiration from rallymotodevelopments.co.uk which had this mod as a for sale item, but the site has been down for quite a few months now. You can see here, i cut around some of the plastic to increase the volume of air coming in, leaving some for structural rigidity all while keeping the stock appearance when the side cover is on. Next up, cut up some aluminium mesh that was laying around (payed $20 for a huge sheet 6 years ago) so it fit nicely inside the outer cover, all while leaving those posts alone that push the filter away from the cover (but didn't really do anything in the first place...) The result is the filter sits about an inch from the outer cover (because of the mesh being held away by those little fins), allowing most, if not all of the filter surface to be used. Added bonus's are that it's a little more throatier on acceleration, more air is going into the engine and there's the peace of mind that the filter has more contact pressure with the inner cover, making a better sealing surface. Also, it's a good alternative to the EHS filter.
I recently did a similar mod with an additional deflector plate to help disperse the incoming air. It seems to have worked as intended however I am concerned the deflector plate may be pressing up against the breather hose and blocking it off. Before: After: Mods:
You should be able to remove just the snorkel tube (3 small Philips head screws on the Husky, assuming SWM box is same)- then you'll be looking right at the deflector plate and can poke your finger in to see the standoff distance. Just a reminder: for those of you who have it breathing so freely you're going to want to be especially mindful of putting a bead of grease around the outside edge of the filter element to avoid crap passing through around the edges.