the screen is there to smooth the air...
If you intend on getting an aftermarket CAI, I would advise against removing the MAF screen...UNLESS you're also gettin a tune in roughly the same time frame.
Experiments with my car at a shop.... with several different CAIs showed a SIGNIFIGANT loss in HP with this mod. Pre tune My car went from 336rwhp to 289rwhp.. This was with no MAF screen, aftermarket CAI, and no tune. This was the worst case senerio, but there was no less that a 20rwhp
loss on any of the experiements.
With the stock paper filter and housing.... I GAINED rwhp by removing the MAF screen, pre tune. I now have the Volant CAI, no MAF screen and my nitrous tune.. the velocity stack that came with the aftermarket CAI helped smooth the air out and make up for the MAF screen's absence.
Everyone is different, but my tuner told me he wished I'd kept mine.... but he's freakin awesome... so he made it work

arty: