O, great, three threads in less than an hour. First both of you need to slow down. He does not have an air leak, he may have to much fuel.
Let's start at the begining. OP did it suddenly start running bad or what was your reason for removing the air lid?
What ever reason you need to find out why it now runs better with lid off.
Is your air filter clean?
ANYTIME you change the amount of air into or out of the engine you must rejet. Even removing the snorkel is good for one size, lid 1 or 2, better filter 2 more good pipe = 8 -10 over stock.
AZ0121 needs to start reading/searching before just ripping stuff off.