Sorry

 

What happens when you cut out the Fog Light Shrouds and install a Blackwing or Stinger? Doesn't that let in cool air to the filter? Of course, I liked the thread last week where the poster claimed that the stock Airbridge design cooled the incoming air.

 

Yes it does, but it gets a bit diffused and hence, is not quite as "cold" as a direct shot to the filter. Still, it is far better than doing nothing and it will extend the life of plastic and rubber components in the engine bay.

 

Actually, the foglight area is at about the same height as the scoop in a radiator shroud cutout system (or at least fairly close to the same height.) I noticed this when I was installing my cold air scoop. Therefore, the chances of hydrolock are fairly equal. That being said, I must mention that I have driven my car in heavy downpours and the worst that happens is the bottom of the filter gets a bit moist.

The nice thing about the radiator shroud cutout design is that if you have headers, you can both cool the intake air and cool the engine bay by cutting up or removing the fog light covers. This is something you cannot do after installing a Vararam unless you install offset scoops onto the lower radiator cover. Having less than hot air in your engine bay is important if plastic and rubber component life is important. The old Mercur turbos would cook belts and hoses very quickly, due to the high underhood temps.

 

i have a twinflo dual cone intake with the fog lights cut out and this morning i just drove through what was probably the worst storm in LA in years, and had to go through a couple flooded places...no problems.

 

The opening in the radiator shroud cutout system isn't the problem here. The problem area with a bottom feeder is the lower edge of the air dam. I just went out and measured. The lower edge of the air dam sits about 3.5 inches off the ground. The lower lip of the foglight openings are about 9 inches off the ground. Besides that height difference, however, the key thing here, is that the air dam acts as a scoop. That's its function. If you feed an intake from that area, not only do you scoop air to the intake you also scoop whatever else happens to be at least at that 3.5 inch height....water, trash, leaves,etc. That's the problem if you drive through a puddle deeper than the lower edge of the air dam. You scoop water and take your chances. You scoop enough and... I really don't believe too many cars have hydrolocked, but there is certainly not an equal chance of hydrolock with a Vararam as with a bottom feeder.
Ed

 

Let's put it this way: Have you ever heard of someone with a Vortex or K&N FIPK intake system that hydrolocked? No? Neither have I, so I'd say the chances of hydrolock between those bottom feeders and the Vararam are the same: VERY LOW!
Besides, the old "bottom feeders" were traditionally intake filters that extended below the radiator cover and into the airstream. The latest cold air systems position the filter inside the engine bay, well out of harm's way.

 

I always get a laugh out of the guys who debate the "ram air" effect of an intake. These are usually the same people who used to own WS6's and would argue til they were blue that their "ram air" hoods made them faster because the hood design, or in this case the vararam, forced air into their motors.. Marketing is a great tool..

The only gains you may see would be from the temperature difference of where the air is drawn in, and even then I'd bet my next paycheck that the difference between the vararam and blackwing is negligible as far as real world HP is concerned...

 

There is no ram air effect with variram... put a boost Gage in the air stream of a Vararam and tell me how many pounds of boost it gets.. there ain't any.. there is no compression of any air, Its just a means to get cold air into the fuel mix at what ever volume the engine is demanding. Cutting cold air screen is ineffective unless you can remove the heat generated by convection from under the hood... cutting the famous cowl gasket to remove heat doesn't work either because there is negative pressure at the base of the windshield.. we( Gm engineering) learned this from 6 weeks of wind tunnel testing... So much BS and bad info here....

 

Just a clarification -- Have owned 2 vettes, a 396 Chevelle, a Z28 Camaro, 350 El Camino, Formula Firebird etc. No WS6 in my past or future! Forced Air (or Ram Air) has been an integral part of many car designs and modification kits. Have to believe there is some advantage to this technology other than keeping a bunch of Marketing teams in business. I guess the 1970 Cowl induction was just a marketing tool! Also how do we explain the increases at the track? Look I agree I am a skeptic when it comes to someone telling me they can get me 8 HP by adding a Throttle Body bypass but stats don't lie when it comes to mods lile the Vararam.Maybe we need a controlled experiment much like the LGM vs Dynatech Headers a few weeks ago. Just a thought

 

Good job. I have thought about running a tube from a cooler to the Vararam for true cold air. But I still haven't figured out how to slow the air so it really has time to cool off. We could put the supercharger industry out of business. Cold air and ram air. Just need help with the design.

Guess I'll stick with my Blackwing for now.

 

Now here is a fact from someone that actually had both systems on the car. I went from a Blackwing to VARARAM and gained an avg. 3mph and 4/10's. My car is/was a VERY consistent a/4 that ran 12.25's @ 113 ALL DAY LONG for over 1 year. Swap to VARARAM gave me (the only change) VERY consistent 11.81's @116 mph. These gains stayed with me for over one year, racing at different times, days, DA's blah blah blah. BTW, my consistency with both intakes was within 3/100's. Maybe the printer at the track was given a "placebo" just to pacify me for spending $300 on a VARARAM.

For all you nay-sayers that have never done it or even been to the track to test out your "theories", I suggest that you shut your mouth when comes to giving advice until you have "been there and done that".

I find it funny that the fastest N/A C5's in the country run VARARAM. But then again, what do they know, they ONLY RACE THE CARS and can choose any intake they want.

I always get a laugh out of guys like you. Please explain my gains.... I'll be waiting.

 

 

manufacturer claims , for the most part , are self serving..Some manufacturers here post fantastic claims, find out later they don't work, and then remove them from their sales offering to only be replaced by some other half thought through design, they hype it's performance knowing full well that the only legal recourse for most buyers of these short lived products are the very same Mattress tag police enforcement agencies that have made such an impact on people removing those tags under penalty of the law...
It's all about money for many...the claims increase the money because of so many blind consumers.. These vendors after offering something so shameless, leave the forum only to return months later with some other piece of crap...
Guarantee offerings are only posted until someone wants their money back...Why are so many offering from one vendor in particular always discontinued after a few months, and people are always after him for their money back or damages cause by poor design..

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by 99blackFRC

The only gains you may see would be from the temperature difference of where the air is drawn in, and even then I'd bet my next paycheck that the difference between the vararam and blackwing is negligible as far as real world HP is concerned...

Great, put up your paychecks. I'll gladly swap back to a Blackwing, get some runs and then go to Vararam and baseline again. Well........... lets see those paychecks.

You guys have no clue "what real world HP is".

 

OK, tell me how much HP gain you would have to have to pick up .3
Maybe your old filter was clogged. Maybe it was 40 deg cooler on that day. Go to the track, run your VaVaVAVaram and then change to the Blackwing. You won't like what you see.

Bob

 

The 9s have been informed.

On the one hand we have the VaraRam which draws it's air supply from outside and in front of the car. The theory is that it is significantly cooler air than that which the Blackwing sucks up.

Well.

The Blackwing indeed sucks up air, but is it the hot air from under the hood which one observes as the car sits, or is it new incoming air in front of the radiator shroud, introduced under the hood as the car moves?

It would seem reasonable to believe that the Blackwing gets its air supply from in front of the radiator shroud as the car moves. If this is the case then there should not be an appreciable difference in air temperature. This "new" air should not be much, if any, warmer than the air entering the vararam.

This idea that the Blackwing takes in hot under the hood air doesn't hold up because new air is taken up as the car moves along. If the engine compartment were sealed airtight, then maybe I could make sense of this theory. But it is not. Thats why the car runs. The engine compartment is not sealed, new outside air comes in. The position of the Blackwing is far enough anterior so that when the car moves it should not take up anything but cooler, outside air coming in.

From a practical standpoint, a "real world" standpoint, here is what I have seen.

1. At least 2 Z06 owners at my local track who say they have not seen any performance difference which could be attributed entirely to the Vararam.

2. Cars running the Vararam and otherwise modified very similar to my own with best ETs slower than my own. While it is difficult if not impossible to compare time slips from around the country, this is a sticking point for me in making a decision to make a switch.

3. Nothing more than anecdotal evidence from those here who claim improvement in the Vararam vs the Blackwing. Their improvement could be the result of track prep, DA, etc. This takes on new significance since the improvements the Vararam is said to give over other systems typically cannot be seen in dyno graphs.

When I add all this up with the poor fabrication, fit, finish and quality of workmanship of the Vararam, the potential for hydrolock, the poor quality of the air filter element, the difficulty of the installation, along with the questionable at best benefits it offers over the Blackwing, my choice is easy.

The VaraRam is probably snake oil. Some of the claims they make, I mean 0.3 improvement in the quarter mile is some serious power.

 

Here, let me post it again............ I've already done that, what you posted above only in reverse. Here, I'll repost it so you can read it. The question for you is this: Have you done it? If not, your OPINION has no basis. If you have, please post the results. Then again, if you had, I'm sure you would have posted the results already to back up your statement.

Like I said below, the car ran X for over a year, that means in excess of 30 runs in the course of over a year. Switched to VARARAM and ran Y for countless runs in excess of a year. NO OTHER CHANGE. Please explain the increase in trap and decrease in E.T. Once again, I'll be waiting for your "theory".

Put VARARAM on one car and a Blackwing on the other, and watch the VARARAM car walk away from the Blackwing car. Arm chair quarterbacks.

"Now here is a fact from someone that actually had both systems on the car. I went from a Blackwing to VARARAM and gained an avg. 3mph and 4/10's. My car is/was a VERY consistent a/4 that ran 12.25's @ 113 ALL DAY LONG for over 1 year. Swap to VARARAM gave me (the only change) VERY consistent 11.81's @116 mph. These gains stayed with me for over one year, racing at different times, days, DA's blah blah blah. BTW, my consistency with both intakes was within 3/100's. Maybe the printer at the track was given a "placebo" just to pacify me for spending $300 on a VARARAM."

Have fun with your Blackwings, in second place of course.

 

 

Regarding intake air temps: I connected one of those OBDII data loggers to the open connector, just beneath the dash and during the Summer of 04 (Before I installed my cold air mod). During the early morning (6:00 AM) when the ambient temp was down to 50 or so, my intake air temp would reach 115F at 50 mph. At 80 mph, this would drop down to 108F - still many degrees higher than ambient air temps of 50-60F.
During the afternoon when the ambient temps reached 85+, the intake air temps climbed up to a max of 150F at 30 mph and then cooled off to 129F at 80 mph.

My point? At these intake air temps, the engine CPU is retarding timing enough (to prevent knocking) so that HP is down by up to 10. This is real, seat of the pants HP that is being taken away because the air filter is sucking up hot air. The Stock box, Blackwing and Halltech filters cannot pull in ambient air unless it is directed toward them from the outside, either through the front or from underneath.