Has anyone bought their "power coupler"? It replaces the stock duct from the MAF to the throttle body - it has a smooth finish rather the the stock duct which is full of ridges. Does this really help the airflow? What, if any, performance gains would we be looking at?

 

I got one, took the screens out of my MAF, and put in an air foil. I felt a small gain from these 3 but I think most was from the MAF. For $40 it can't really hurt.

 

tim89 - why did you take the hypertech chip out - just curious

 

All it did was turn the fan on earlier. It was the stage 1 chip. I heard the stock one is better. I couldn't feel any differance except for the car running hotter now. My girlfriend says it better now though. :rolleyes: I'm going to get the stage 2 Fastchip soon. I hear thats the best next to a custom chip.

 

I heard the power couplers don't help any on a LT1, suspect same situation on an L98...

 

Yeeeah it's tempting for 40 bucks, .....but it just seems like another one of those scams.

 

Since I race my car I'll admit it, periodically I look for any little advantage I can get.....so like the other folks have said on this thread, "for $40 what have you got to lose?".

IMHO what you have to lose is $40.

I have to admit I didn't do a 'before and after' dyno test so perhaps if you could get it to fit there may actually be a performance gain, but my impression of the product is that it is poor quality, is difficult to install, has serious potential for unreliability, might be worse performing than the stock accordion, and has no customer support whatsoever by the manufacturer. :cuss

On my car (and I'll bet on other C4s too) the center axis of the throttle body and the center axis of the MAF are not in line. In other words, the stock accordion hose makes a slight kink (a shallow, upside down U) to connect the two. Well, when you take the smooth, rigid coupler and try and make the same connection, the kink makes the lower wall of the coupler buckle upwards into the air path. I'd estimate that it reduces the cross sectional area of the coupler by at least 30% in this area, if not more. :nonod:

Also, the coupler is nothing more than a sheet of rubber cut into a party-hat style cone with the pointy end cut off, resulting in a big opening (throttle body end) and a little opening (MAF end) with a GLUED lengthwise seam.

The first one MAD shipped me had a horrible glue job so I had to send it back. The second one was acceptable but still not great. Included in the box from the manufacturer was a sheet of installation instruction (a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy......) that also included their name, phone number and address.

I called them to ask what sort of testing (if any) had been done on the glued seam to insure that it wouldn't come apart. Road racing has it's own set of problems like prolonged higher than normal temperatures and constant engine twist in the motor mounts which in turn is constantly yanking at the coupler.....not to mention the obvious normal heat, chemical resistance, ozone, and age concerns. The last thing I want is to suck dirt into the engine through a split in the coupler, or just as horrible, would be extra clean air that the MAF doesn't know about making the car run too lean (spelled H-O-T!!).

But I never got a chance to ask any of the questions because although I left several messages on the manufacturer's answering machine they never called me back.

Given my experience I'd say it was a piece of junk. Although the smooth sides have potential for increased flow, the 'kink' in the coupler on the underside after installation seems to make things worse than the stock setup, not better.

Btw, never being shy to modify something to make it better, I spent quite a bit of time trimming/mitering the TB end of the coupler to get rid of the kink.....but the geometry of the components and the stiffness of the coupler made it impossible. At that point I just pitched it as I didn't even want to try and return it to MAD (since I modified it).

This is just my opinion, your experience may be different.

:seeya

 

It fit fine for me. Just slid it on. I guess it depends on if you consider $40 a big risk or not. When I got it I had extra money so I figured why not.

 

I have an '85 4+3. My only mod this spring/summer has been the coupler. I have a stageII fastchip, relocate MAT, screenless MAF, airfoil, Accel supercoil, Bosch +4's, TPIS wires, K&N/open lid. It has made the car rev quicker, and a little stronger. It would stop making power around 4000-4200 RPMs; It now falls off at 4300-4400 RPMs. I know about the intake runner restrictions, so to some they could reason that nothing is gained. But I noticed it, and I've noticed some of the liegenfelter engines and aftermarket air induction systems use a non-accordion hose. Just like the airfoil, for the price, it can't hurt. John :seeya

 

I had one........... didn't make anydiff with the other stuff I had and it eventually split so I took it back off ........can't tell any diff at all

 

Yeah, the glue looks cheap, and will tear in the future. When that happens I may go back to stock. BTW Mike, and I'm not ticked or anything for no response, I emailed you about the location of the MAF burnoff/power relays locations; the burnoff is inside the passenger compartment by the ECM. It appears it may be a mother scratcher patience-wise to change! :seeya

 

I didn't get the e-mail........it may still be in cyber space .......sometimes it takes a long time to get to me sorry :confused:

 

well i had ordered it a couple of days ago - was just wondering what it would actually do - for $40 it cant hurt

 

This is disappointing. I was just beginning to look for a replacement for the stock accordian. Mine has a small hole in it and I had to heat it up with a plumber's torch to fit it over the front of my BBK 58mm TB.

Are there any other alternatives?

 

I've heard that those couplers sometimes split. Other than that possible problem indeed it couldn't hurt except mayber your wallet a little.

Tim89, don't bother with the Stage II chip. Your '89 only needs an AFPR to tune fuel to air at WOT. I installed a used ($50 on e-bay) Stage II and no diff. at the strip. Since I have an aux fan sw wired into my main fan relay it didn't even bring the fans on earlier. In fact I think the timing is a little too agressive as I can no longer run with base timing above the stock setting of +6deg without getting knock counts at WOT.

 

Thanks for the advice, consider it taken. With the AFPR how do I tune at WOT? I can't imagine trying to tune my engine as I'm flooring it.