355 air intake system questions

I have a few questions about my 98' 355.
The K&N air filters and the stock MAF are fine, but the 3" and 4" tubes connecting them seem a little small. I figure the engine needs around 510 CFM at full go.

I’m thinking about modifying this plumbing coming off the air filter boxes into a setup much like you would find on a 360. I would be using two MAF units, one in each tube. I plan to use a 4" tube on each side. This would cut the velocity through the MAF in half. I can’t get any data on how the 355 MAF would perform with the reduced flow. From what little data I have seen, they don’t look very linear. In fact at low flow rates they look flat. So I’m taking a look at the 360 MAF.

Before I head down this road, I have a few questions:

1. Just for my information. What the heck is the white stuff under the screen in the bottom of the air boxes for?

2. Is the little square resonator really needed?

3. What is the Bosch part number for the twin MAF units on a 360? Are they the same as the single unit on a 355?

4. I will be crafting a module to combine the signals from the twin MAFs into something my stock 355 ECU can understand. With a little more effort I can use this new module to re-map the output of the MAF to trick the ECU. Is there any advantage to this?

5. And here’s the big one. Will this have any impact on the performance or a waste of time?