corvetteandsilverado

Well we decided to install my vararam intake last night since it was just sitting in the box. I was going to take it to a shop to get it and my heads all installed but there was a change of plans. Overall the install wasn't to bad took about 3 hours from start to finish. The vararam is a interesting product let me just say. I'm a little disappointed with the quality but I knew what I was getting when I bought it thanks to the forum. Here is a few pics of the install

My best friend after getting the car in the air






After it was all installed and Idled for awhile to make sure there was no check engine light on I did some test runs. My first impression was I really didn't notice to much of a gain from the intake but then again I wasn't really expecting to. I also noticed that the AIR hole was not put in my vararam intake but I'm assuming my AIR system was turned off when I got my cam and everything installed.
Do you think I would feel more of a gain on my car if I got it retuned with the intake? My car has a pretty large cam Texas Speed Tsunami 235/240 .648"/.609" but the tune on my car is excellent and drives good. I guess my question is the car makes 420wrhp with this set-up do you think I could see some gains by retuning with the vararam. Thanks as always for looking and advice

Vetteman Jack

Nice mod. You should see some increase in the performance of the car - I would talk with the shop that did your tune and see what they think about a re-tune. I would think that tuning it for the Vararam would give you some gains, but not sure if the return would be worth the investment of another tune.

jbondfl

It is difficult, at best, to see gains from a VaraRam on a dyno. It requires higher than normal air pressure to get its full potential. You will see your improvements on track in ET.

Personally I beleive you would be disappointed if ou had to spend money oon the retune.

baxsom

what made you decide to relocate the MAF, I noticed some people do, some people dont with this intake.

corvetteandsilverado

Yea once we started the install it wasn't to bad just the Vararam itself was difficult to get everything to go together smoothly. The instructions told me to relocate the MAF I don't see how you could have kept it in the factory location, I really don't think relocating it caused any changes just moved the sensor its still getting the same amount of air.
I'm curious to see if there would be any change East-coast corvette did all the work on my Zo6 but the shop is in North Carolina so I would be using a different shop for the re-tune. I was hoping for 10 more wrhp but I think thats wishful thinking. I also wanted to sting out the car alittle more then the factory rev limiter trying to get a few more ponies out of her. Thanks everyone for the input

waddisme

My car actually dynoed 8 rwhp less after installing VR. But as soon as I got on the backstretch at VIR, I could tell the difference. Your tuner should tell you if a re-tune is necessary.

Camjamsdad

What intake were you running before the vr? If it was another brand of after market intake I don't think with the cam and tune that there would be much left to feel. The vr does help. On a stock car it will learn the new airflow after several miles. On your car I have no clue. I'd think it would adjust itself but don't take my word on it.

momo20

it takes a few miles for the car to adjust to the new air flow..

DARRYLZO6

I would probably get a few days of high speed/highway driving. What they said, a re-tune would probably be unnessasary and the hp gains,if any would be negligable. Youre probably not goimng to do much better but with any intake that gets more outside air than stock, you are going to make gains.

ztheusa

Let us know how much it reduced your gas milage.

DARRYLZO6

There's always someone who chimes in who let's everyone know it's time to up his meds. I'm actually not hurting at all in the mpg dept. Maybe after you take a couple of hits of Baileys and get some sleep,maybe you can add an intelligent contribution to the conversation and stop being a jerk.

Silverbullet00

On the dyno you will get no gains, at the track, 3/10ths all by itself in the 1/4 mile! For less than $300 and three hours,,,best bang for the buck! A cheap mod you can feel!

yaknow

looking at your mods, I believe you have plenty of air flow, your cam is bigger than mine but, your rwhp is lower than I'm expecting (my tune is being done tomarow and thursday) are you still running stock injectors? if so what is the duty cycle? IMHO with right fuel mixture you should be upwords of 435 rwhp. I believe re-tuning after adding the vararam is not going to net you much if anything, don't get me wrong I have one, drive it let the computor sort it out, the vararam does it's best work at high speed and torque when actually moving.

corvetteandsilverado

No my injectors are upgraded to 36lb 3 bar that were installed with the cam. I covered all the grounds when I tore apart my car last year. I'm alittle disappointed on the car numbers but it has a very conservative tune it only revs to 6500 and it rich not lean. The runs extremely strong but I was thinking it I rev it out to 6800 and lean it out some I could make some more power. Here is a copy of the graph


I'm really unsure where I'm going to go from here. I know with a FAST intake manifold and heads the car will be strong but I'm thinking this winter the car might take a different way. Hopefully I'll get some miles on the car this weekend and I'll feel a notice with this new intake. I just had the Zip-Tie mod before so its definitely a upgrade. Thanks again for all the input and advice

momo20

i agree...i thought they tell you when you buy the vararam that its gains are when you are driving as it's a forced air intake and not just a big filter setup...like you i noticed a difference in performance.i love mine

ztheusa

No. There is no "forced air." The engine itself is still pulling air through a Vararam intake.

None.

C5Wolfe

Get ready ztheusa, Here it comes You have dared to question the vara ram!

JW Motorsports

it works. I love mine

corvetteandsilverado

Thanks to everyone that had something positive to contribute to this post besides bashing vararam. I did alot of research and read alot of post on this forum which helped alot in my decision on my car. My main concern was to either get the car re-tuned or leave the tune that I currently have. I'm still tore in my decision if I get the car re-tuned I can lean it out some and raise the rev limiter, or I can leave it alone because it runs strong as it is. Thanks again to everyone that has helped and gave there opinion

clayton1

I thought the vararam used the ducts up front to direct air, via ducting, into the filter/throttle body/combustion chamber while driving?? Is that not in a sense "forced air"? Of course an engine pulls air but its going to get alot more pushed directly at whilst driving.........no?

Nice work by the way OP!