Vararam Power Duct Installed.
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 3,903
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From: You know your drunk when you swerve to miss the tree then you realize its your air freshener! Covington Ga
Vararam Power Duct Installed.
I've been up in th air about getting one to go along with my Vararam. I found one from a local member "phil hunter" for a good price so I figured I would give it a shot.
The install took less than 30min. It was very simple and stright foward. I also moved the MAF in front of the TB. Started the car and let in run for about 5min and then checked the clamps again. No CEL or any off the wall stuff on the start up. I took the car for a test drive and really didnt notice any change in the car. Maybe a little better throttle response, but thats it. I was really just looking for something to do to the car......
It was worth what I paid for it just becasue it looks better than the stock air bridge.
Worth $100+ new? Heck no!!!
Worth buying one used for a good price? I think so.
Look better than stock? Yep
Hard to install? Nope
Power gain? Little if any
Reason to work on the car? Yep
Reason to do some WOT runs to "test it"? Yep
A few cell phone pictures.
The install took less than 30min. It was very simple and stright foward. I also moved the MAF in front of the TB. Started the car and let in run for about 5min and then checked the clamps again. No CEL or any off the wall stuff on the start up. I took the car for a test drive and really didnt notice any change in the car. Maybe a little better throttle response, but thats it. I was really just looking for something to do to the car......
It was worth what I paid for it just becasue it looks better than the stock air bridge.
Worth $100+ new? Heck no!!!
Worth buying one used for a good price? I think so.
Look better than stock? Yep
Hard to install? Nope
Power gain? Little if any
Reason to work on the car? Yep
Reason to do some WOT runs to "test it"? Yep
A few cell phone pictures.
Last edited by 0331MARINE; Jul 2, 2011 at 09:44 PM.
Safety Car
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 4,237
Likes: 11
From: Lacombe Louisiana
Pretty much the same results I got (I paid $87 shipped new) gained 8/100's at the track.I also noticed a bit better throttle response on the street and it looks better.I also relocated my MAF btw,some folks do not.I have had zero problems or codes.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 5,375
Likes: 328
From: CA.
St. Jude Donor '13-'14-'15
General conception is not to move the MAF location--Reason being is that GM has it programmed to work in it's stock location and moving it may make it read incorrectly---Directly in front of the T-Body would read some turbulant incoming air that is created when the throttle is not WOT--When the blade is only opened slightly the air passes only thu the top and the bottom of the blade and also only the top and the bottom of the MAF-- The MAF wires are in the middle of the MAF !!!!----Of course if you have a tuner you can correct all of this with hours of data logging and MAF table adjustments--But why go thru all that trouble if you don't have to--
JMHO----
JMHO----
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 3,903
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From: You know your drunk when you swerve to miss the tree then you realize its your air freshener! Covington Ga
Z06? Or did you de-screen your MAF? Its common to get the codes if you dont have a screen on the MAF.
Safety Car
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,451
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From: DFW Texas
Mine is an 03 z06, no maf screen. I guess these cars are really picky about airflow. I did actually get a CEL even after I got the MAF back to stock location, but apparently it was due to not tightening all the metal band clamps all the way, once I did that the CEL hasnt come back.
Pro
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 541
Likes: 38
From: Temecula CA
Looks good. Glad it was an easy install for you. Sorry you didn't feel any improvement, but I didn't either when it was on my car. Still, you'd think it would add something to the top end HP, give that it has twice the area of the stock one.
Phil
Phil
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2007
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From: You know your drunk when you swerve to miss the tree then you realize its your air freshener! Covington Ga
No problem Phil, and thanks again
. I wasn't really expecting anything power wise, I really did it for the looks. I agree on the top end gain, but we will see once I get a clutch that doesnt slip at 5k.
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 70
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From: Douglasville GA
I'm glad yours fit. The vararam fit great for me and the install was very easy. Until I got to the powerduct. It would NOT fit, it wasnt even close, so I gave up and put the stock bridge back on. Maybe one day i'll try again.
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2007
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From: You know your drunk when you swerve to miss the tree then you realize its your air freshener! Covington Ga
I remember reading something about the motors being higher or lower on some of the early C5's.....I think......
Last edited by 0331MARINE; Jul 4, 2011 at 02:34 AM.
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 3,903
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From: You know your drunk when you swerve to miss the tree then you realize its your air freshener! Covington Ga
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 5,375
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From: CA.
St. Jude Donor '13-'14-'15
Remember that any additional incoming air will swing your LTFT's to go positive dring P/T---However as a safety to protect your engine --
"whatever the positive fuel trim you have just before going to WOT" will be added to your WOT fueling as well---So if your ECM is adding 10% of fuel to correct for a leanness at P/T --It will add that same 10% to your WOT fuel as well--That may explain why your WOT power seems flat
I would check and adjust all your PT fuel trims to be"0" or slightly negative--These changes should be made using your MAF HZ table
A trim that is negative ( correcting for a rich condition during PT) will however lock on "0" during WOT--so the ECM will never remove fuel at WOT via your fuel trims---
"whatever the positive fuel trim you have just before going to WOT" will be added to your WOT fueling as well---So if your ECM is adding 10% of fuel to correct for a leanness at P/T --It will add that same 10% to your WOT fuel as well--That may explain why your WOT power seems flat
I would check and adjust all your PT fuel trims to be"0" or slightly negative--These changes should be made using your MAF HZ table
A trim that is negative ( correcting for a rich condition during PT) will however lock on "0" during WOT--so the ECM will never remove fuel at WOT via your fuel trims---
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,568
Likes: 264
From: Near Charlotte NC
Remember that any additional incoming air will swing your LTFT's to go positive dring P/T---However as a safety to protect your engine --
"whatever the positive fuel trim you have just before going to WOT" will be added to your WOT fueling as well---So if your ECM is adding 10% of fuel to correct for a leanness at P/T --It will add that same 10% to your WOT fuel as well--That may explain why your WOT power seems flat
I would check and adjust all your PT fuel trims to be"0" or slightly negative--These changes should be made using your MAF HZ table
A trim that is negative ( correcting for a rich condition during PT) will however lock on "0" during WOT--so the ECM will never remove fuel at WOT via your fuel trims---
"whatever the positive fuel trim you have just before going to WOT" will be added to your WOT fueling as well---So if your ECM is adding 10% of fuel to correct for a leanness at P/T --It will add that same 10% to your WOT fuel as well--That may explain why your WOT power seems flat
I would check and adjust all your PT fuel trims to be"0" or slightly negative--These changes should be made using your MAF HZ table
A trim that is negative ( correcting for a rich condition during PT) will however lock on "0" during WOT--so the ECM will never remove fuel at WOT via your fuel trims---
I had to adjust my LTFT's after the VR & PD install.Got'em down to the -2 to +2 range.
\db2
carolina
Melting Slicks
Joined: Apr 2021
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On a 99 can you relocate the maf to this location? and use the iat sensor grommet as stock with the 99 maf sensor. I dont see how it would change things on f-body ls1 the maf sensor is right infront of the throttle body with a 3" bellow. Not to revive an old thread i was going to do the same. Does the varam power duct come with the coupler to connect the tb-power duct and put the maf in the front of the air duct directly inserted similar to stock or is this not possible?
Drifting
Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 1,365
Likes: 414
From: New Jersey
On a 99 can you relocate the maf to this location? and use the iat sensor grommet as stock with the 99 maf sensor. I dont see how it would change things on f-body ls1 the maf sensor is right infront of the throttle body with a 3" bellow. Not to revive an old thread i was going to do the same. Does the varam power duct come with the coupler to connect the tb-power duct and put the maf in the front of the air duct directly inserted similar to stock or is this not possible?
Last edited by C5MSG2004Vert; Mar 9, 2022 at 01:38 PM.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Apr 2021
Posts: 2,191
Likes: 82
You can relocate the MAF but it's probably not a good idea. When I did that to my C5 I immediately got lean codes. Not only that, since I have the MAF with the integrated temperature sensor the temperatures reported to the PCM were alot higher when located it was located near the throttle body. I was able to connect the Vararam to the MAF in either location.
The f-bodies use the maf sensor similar to the z06 located infront in the throttle body with a 3-4" coupler or bellow. Im curious im the maf tunes are the same calibration or different.
Last edited by Justin Raney; Mar 9, 2022 at 04:10 AM.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 2,803
Likes: 358
From: Northville, MI
When GM was developing the LS1 engine they did extensive testing on where to put the MAF, the air cleaner ducting, the coupler, etc. on both the Fbody and Corvette. once they finalized each of the configurations, they made Firmware calculations for the PCM on the final set up. Because every engine is slightly different in its engine management system the Firmware was designed to average the airflow/engine management parameters to go from Death Valley to Pikes Peak. Many times you can make changes to the air intake to the engine and the car will still live within the parameters but often it will cause changes like lean or rich codes, chugging on decel, etc. Unless you run a scan log after making the changes you will have no idea how they have effective the engine management system.