Man that dead air tip really clicked for me too once I actually tried it.

Oh man, you hit it right on the head. I tried a virtual brand "Italian place" last month and got a sad, rubbery meatball sub that felt like it was sitting under a heat lamp for an hour. Real restaurants just care more about the final product, no question.

Tells you more about the person saying it than the actual situation, like most buzzwords do.

100 bucks says half the time those aftermarket intakes pull in air that's 20 degrees hotter than stock at idle. I've seen datalogs where the IATs spike like crazy sitting at a light. The factory one just works right every time.

Man I read about this exact thing in an old safety bulletin from the PNW logging council. They recommended taking a drawknife or just a sharpened file and peeling a 2 inch wide strip clean down the middle of your hinge face before the final cut. Apparently conifers are the worst for hiding cracks under thick bark but oaks can do it too. Another guy I used to climb with would also take his saw and cut a shallow 1 inch deep relief slot across the hinge line to peek underneath. Seems like extra work but beats having a 60 footer go sideways on you.