I tried many intake systems and VARARAM is the best... performance wise....

It doesnt look good, but who cares????? MOst of the stuff that dont look good you cant see anyways, its hiddden under the bumper......

If it performs who cares what it looks like??????

VARARAM is the best bang for your $ especially when you buy it USED...

DOnt bash on vararam just beacuse you have a HONKER........

 

I used the screen from Home Depot. At $8 for a full piece you have enough material to make at least 6 screens. It looks to me to be the same material Mid-America uses at $60 for a kit. It will keep out larger junk such as leaves or a MickeyD fry container that I found stuck in my radiator.

If you have a problem with the Honker sitting too high in relation to the mounting pins on the radiator cover after installing, the problem is that the hole was cut too high up in the shroud. Try to adjust your filter mounting downward, and the Honker will move closer to the pins.

 

how well does it filter the air?

I don't own one but I have heard that it does not seal very well, which is the chief job of an air filter...

 

I have a K&N filter in the VARARAM and it does the job as good as the HONKER.....

for extra protection you could use High Temp SILICONE to seal the K&N inside the Vararam.

 

I was in too much of a hurry and just bought one after seeing it I'm sure you can do as well yourself although The best material would be aluminium as it would not rust and I could not find any locally.

 

Is the Home Depot screen aluminum or stainless or is it just steel? It would pay to have something rustproof, and not have to mess with it twice.

 

This guy is a tech at one of the supporting vendors. He doesn't own a 'Vette. I think he might know what he's talking about.

 

So what specific power differences did you notice and track results??

 

That's what I did. I have to say that the fit isn't great, so with the filter siliconed in I don't worry about it now.

 

It's still amazing to me that with all the time that the Vararam has been out, and they are now on the second generation, that these problems have not been addressed. You should not have to silicone the filter in if it were properly designed in the first place. I know they do a great job as far as performance, but these issues have been discussed since the introduction of this unit and have not yet been rectified. To each his own.

 

yes its a S***TY finish, but it works.....

Is not like you could see the VARARAM on a daily basis, unless you have a SHOWCAR (then you wouldnt need performance air intake).....

My hood stays shut when I drive, so no1 sees the SH**ty finish of my VARARAM.

 

 

If you try this and it works then please PM me!

 

Hood clearance, people. The C5 has a LOT less room over the radiator.

 

I've read reports of hydrolocking on this forum too. However, the reports always mentioned another intake system. Callaway has never received any report of hydrolock in a Honker-equipped Corvette. I'm pretty sure Callaway would be the first to be informed if this occurred.

During the product testing and validation process, in all sorts of wet weather, on highways and secondary roads, Callaway engineers never detected any water, moisture, or "tracks" of moisture inside the Honker ducting. Obviously, water is one of the foreign materials that was inspected for during testing. One test car has accumulated nearly 30,000 miles of testing. I personally drove Honker-equipped C5's and C6's in torrential downpours, through fairly deep puddles at speed, with no water ingestion.

Having said that, I would recommend that you avoid driving through standing water that's over 15" deep or so, but I'd recommend that even if you still have the stock air filter system.

 

The PCM will accommodate the increased available air without "mandatory" recalibration. However, there is even more power available if you recalibrate.

The Vette Magazine article posted earlier in this thread says that MTI got an additional 20 rwhp by replacing the Blackwing with a Honker, then did some tuning and got another 13, for a total of 33 rwhp.

 

The C5 has the accordion coupler because the C5 underhood area is not large enough to accept a large round duct, like the C6. Also the inside of the accordion coupler is much smoother than the outside, almost a flat surface, to minimize any possible turbulence.

We have a special coupler in stock to mate the C5 MAFS with the 90mm C6 throttle body in a Honker configuration. (This reminds me to add this part to the website online store.) If you need one right away, please give us a call (860)434-9002.

 

Do you happen to know which intake systems were installed on the cars that hydrolocked?

 

So is it also an accordian or is it a smooth coupler. And is it therefore larger internal diameter???

Also..... If I order the Honker from a vendor do I have to pay additionally for the LS2 TB to C5 MAF coupler??


SH

 

Its interesting the Hydrolocked discussion comes up so often and the memories are so short. As for those so called technicians I always get a chuckle about their true lack of knowledge. GM themselves addressed a hydrolocking problem on the L98 C4s. On those cars water would come up through a small slit between the front cross member and the rad. shroud and go directly into the air cleaner. A small piece of plastic on the 87 and newer L98s solved that problem. It is still sold by MAD, etc. That was on a car that didn't have a big hole in the shroud for the water to go through.

When the Halltech and Vortec units came out 7 or 8 years ago there were a lot of claims that hydrolocking wasn't a problem. Once enough units got into circulation then we started hearing about hydrolock with those units. The same thing will happen with the Callaway with enough time and units in the field. Do you want to be the one that gets the short straw?

It doesn't take a large puddle to get the problem. Six inches is all that is needed. There are many streets in the country that get 6 inches of water on them during a down pour. Traffic just keeps flowing since most cars do not have a problem with that much water. Vettes with cold air intakes through the shroud traveling in that kind of traffic are going to cruise into the puddle at 20 or so and get a nice heavy dose of water into the engine.

When you can get a unit that has a slide that can be remotely operated to shut off the cold air flow and take air from inside the car as the stock unit does you will have a unit that will almost protect a car from hydrolocking.

Bill