I cleaned mine yesterday - the wires were black, and now they're nice and clean. I had installed one of those bigger MAF housings last year without the screen, but I reinstalled the stock housing yesterday as well.

 

I have a buddy who is an exceptional tuner and he saw a car pick up 30 HP on a dyno after cleaning the MAF (all the while folks were telling him he was nuts saying it needed to be cleaned). That's obviously more of an exception than the rule, but power IS "potentially" there if the thing is really out of whack.

Yep, after studying this MAF subject for a while now, I'm of the opinion you should not touch the GM MAF, I even have went back to a screened MAF even though I had a de-screened one to begin with. I posted this in another thread but there are 4 MAF calibration tables in your computer, those tables are based on a STOCK, screened MAF, any thing other than that will throw off those calibration tables, though you can change those tables if you need to (similar to the way you adjust the VE tables for a MAP car.)

 

Anyone ever have a problem with K&N filter oil coating the MAF?

 

Nothing adds HP, products may free horsepower like headers, intake and exhaust. Now talking about your dirty MAF...

Remember engines are dynoed with a clean MAF.

 

Everyone's entitled to their own view, so here's mine.

Some years back I began to notice that the 415 L98 in my 86 Vette seemed lazy and the throttle response wasn't what I'd become accustomed to.

So I hooked up Diacom to the ALDL and found that my BLM readings were pegged at 108. That caused me to being a many day search to discover the cause.

The final thing I did was pull the MAF and spray the thin wires with carb cleaner. I wasn't aware of a specific spray for the MAF.

When I again ran Diacom, I saw that my BLM readings had returned to the 128 range which is where they had been before. Throttle response crispness returned.

I then went back to the most recent change I'd made prior to the laziness kicking in. That's a technique I always use when things are gong well, then I change something and things go to pot. It turned out to be a K&N, out of the box air filter. Remember, "out of the box", so I didn't add any oil to it.

So I removed the K&N and used gasoline I (yea, I know) to remove all the factory installed oil from the K&N filter. I re-installed the K&N sans oil and ran it for several weeks. The problem never returned.

Lastly, I bought a different air filter and threw the K&N on a shelf under my work bench.

Jake

West Point ROCKS!

My West Pointer is kicking back in Aruba on Spring Break.

 

I had this same experience with my 95 and a new out of the box K&N.

Now I just put in a fresh factory paper one each year.

 

EXACTLY! Of course K&N denies it. What else would you expect them to say? Admit it and kill their sales??

Melling took the same position, denial, when it came to light that their HP oil pumps were causing excessive wear to distributor/oil pump drive gears.

They're all about making money; just like AIG and many others!

Jake

West Point ROCKS!

 

Yep, don't use too much and give it plenty of air time

 

When I bought my first and last K&N, oil puddles were in the bag. Not droplets but a puddle when I held the filter up in the plastic bag. Straight out of the box they are very oily.

 

My experience was with an out of the box filter with factory applied oil, not one that I'd sprayed with oil.

Also, there was nothing on the factory box directing the filter be air dried before installation. So who'd even know to do that.

Based on my experience, it's a flawed product inspite of the advertising hype.

Jake

West Point ROCKS!

 

I've heard just one too many stories about K&Ns coating the MAF and compromising performance. Over-oiling isn't the problem. A new K&N right from the box can cause problems. I suppose you can always wash the element to remove some oil, but no thanks. I'll stick to paper.

 

Maybe, but those of us with modified intakes can't use paper, at least to my knowledge no one is making paper for more custom setups.

 

Check that, just happened to be reading Charles Probst "Corvette Fuel Injection" and looks like 90 and later do NOT have the burnoff feature so that is probably why these things are getting dirty for some of us!

 

I just need a burnoff cycle. how else would I blow off steam?

oh wait wrong burnoff.
Hey I just needed to respond.
Actually, I used a relay with the coil attached to the mass air relay to run my aux fan, and the big contacts to the battery with a fuse.
When I shut the car off, the fan runs as long as the burnoff cycle goes.
I guess that when you shut off the ignition, the power relay drops out, and the computer grounds the burnoff relay coil, the burnoff relay powers the element, and I always know when the burnoff cycle is finished.

 

I really wonder just how effective the burn-off feature really is.

Even if it's working properly, doesn't burned off oil still leave a residue? How hot must oil become before it's totally vaporized, leaving NOTHING behind?

Jake

West Point ROCKS!

 

Don't know, but I'd say it works pretty well - I vaguely recall reading that it gets up to some insane temp. But curious as to why the got rid of that feature? Maybe it didn't work so well!