What's the advantage of a modified mass air flow on a nearly stock engine? If you improve air flow capabilities , is it wasted unless you have a ported plenum and bigger runners? Where does the 10 h.p. increase come from that manufacturers claim? Thanks for your help !

 

If its marketed in the magazines, do NOT buy it.

Take your MAF sensor, remove the screens yourself. You should get about 5 hp on the L98. I would not touch the heat sink fins inside, its too easy to F up the sensor element.

 

The answer depends on who you ask. If you the ask the guys at tpis they will swear up and down that a ported stock maff will give you some horsepower without any adverse affects. If you ask the guys at fast chip they will tell you to leave the screens in because the screens provide some type of air flow enhacement between the maff and the t-body. To the fast chip guys advantage, the guys at granatelli motorsports who developed and produced the only high performance aftermarket maff for tpi cars also agree that the screens behind the maff provide some kind of air stability. The granatelli guys left the rear screen on their maff and put a twist on their design as well. The rear screen has honey comb pattern to it as suppose to the chain link fence design that the stock maff's come with.


So what do you think I did? At first I replaced my maff with a unit from tpis. It was fully ported and had the screens removed. It lasted about two years. I have also heard from other tpi guys that the longevity of the ported maffs if also reduced. So what is in the car right now? I have stock maff with the front screen removed and it's been working fine. My car has custom chip from fast chip. The guys at fast chip told me to leave the maff alone. Hope this helps.

 

vader86

How come you don't trust the products marketed in the mags?
Just curious.

 

You can get more airflow with a ported MASS air system.

Will it benefit you?

Depends if your motor is demanding more air than a stock form MAF can deliver.

We ran our Ported MAFs to low 10s, which is around 600hp motors. That is a LOT of motor.

The porting will slightly effect the idle BLMs, but its not even worth concerning yourself with - which is what the other tuning guys are referring to.

As for magazines, remember they get paid to advertise products, which are usually products they are writing about. THey are not going to **** off a parts supplier that is paying their salaries/costs by stating their product is junk - so you have to read it with a grain of salt.

Have you ever seen a Sunday hod rodding show talk down a product the are installing on a car?

 

I followed TPIS' directions in "Insider Hints" to the letter. I removed both screens and the heat sink fins (do the latter with a hacksaw and a vise, not a grinder). The whole process took about an hour counting R&R. This is a simple mod and truly difficult to screw up unless you drop the MAF and someone drives over it. But be sure and get instructions on removing the screens. They do not come out the way you might think by looking at them (mainly try not to stab yourself in the hand while doing it). My car runs fine and has about 2 years on this mod. I did the same thing on a former F-Body with 383 I had and ran it 100,000 miles before I sold it. No problems.

The "marketing" knock makes no sense to me. This is just a minor mod and does not produce much difference. But TPIS' tests do show some airflow improvement. Heck, just think about it for those who want to belive it is a contrived result to sell parts. First of all, they tell you how to do it at no cost. So where is their marketing advantage? Secondly, what would happen to their reputation if it was truly fabricated? They'd be out of business. Hello, Duh! In my mind, anything that restricts or interrupts air flow will improve performance when removed. Just my $.02. But it is true, this mod has little measureable impact in overral performance. But isn't that true of any mod we make on our C4's? It is mainly something to do that should help. I have never seen a comment from anyone they wish they had not done it.

 

Because I know they are all lies, everything but exhaust and most of the numbers they quote there are about 2x of what the exhaust gives you.