Air Bridge
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 461
Likes: 0
From: Central New York
Air Bridge
Can the OEM air bridge on my 03' be replaced with a High Flow Air Bridge w/o any tuning or other changes? I have a set of RPI engine dress covers coming in Carbon Fiber and wanted to have the bridge in CF as well. Any issues to watch out for? Thank you.
Last edited by ChuckWalters; Aug 5, 2014 at 10:02 AM.
Race Director
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 15,765
Likes: 3,283
From: Phoenix area, AZ
The type of air bridge you use won't make any real difference; it certainly would not justify the expense of a tune by itself. If you do change air bridges make sure the coupler that attaches it to the throttle body is the same size as the old.
I just switched from the stock air bridge to the WCC high flow bridge. The coupler for the stock unit has a 4-3/4" outlet and a 4" inlet. The new air bridge is 4" for both inlet and outlet.
I just switched from the stock air bridge to the WCC high flow bridge. The coupler for the stock unit has a 4-3/4" outlet and a 4" inlet. The new air bridge is 4" for both inlet and outlet.
Last edited by Corvette_Ed; Aug 4, 2014 at 02:24 PM.
Instructor
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 176
Likes: 1
From: Buffalo Grove Illinois
The type of air bridge you use won't make any real difference; it certainly would not justify the expense of a tune by itself. If you do change air bridges make sure the coupler that attaches it to the throttle body is the same size as the old.
I just switched from the stock air bridge to the WCC high flow bridge. The coupler for the stock unit has a 4-3/4" outlet and a 4" inlet. The new air bridge is 4" for both inlet and outlet.
I just switched from the stock air bridge to the WCC high flow bridge. The coupler for the stock unit has a 4-3/4" outlet and a 4" inlet. The new air bridge is 4" for both inlet and outlet.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 2,804
Likes: 358
From: Northville, MI
C5 Air Intake Info
"In designing the C5 GM engineering did a ton of testing and from that wrote adaptive strategy that made assumptions as to air and fuel flow under different engine conditions.
Changing those airflow parts, especially larger ones, reduce the velocity and the A.S still functions as if the stock parts were being used and how it was programmed and does not change even with tuning.
Most cases when the gas pedal is lifted and goes into “decel” with the larger airflow parts confuses the PCM and is adding or removing fuel when it really did not have to.
A cylinder can only hold so much volume and that is with a mix of air and fuel which is only in grams, yet the intake manifold holds quarts of air and the intake runners can only allow as much air mass as the runner size increasing MAF, air bridge or TB cannot make the runners of cylinders flow or pack in more volume then their size is.
If you monitor your engine with a PCM scanner you will be lucky to see a NA engine consume more then 600 CFM of air when a stock 75 mm MAF or TB is 750 CFM so they are never the delimiting factor of not feeding enough air to the engine.
Slowing the airflow down by using a larger air path to intake can, in fact cause ill low engine load performance. A pretty air bridge does not win races or give proper balance of the correct amount of air and fuel needed in all engine loads or conditions.
Larger airflow requires what GM did with the C6 and that is a new faster PCM with A.S software to make use of the airflow to help response times and not to make more HP."
Melting Slicks
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 2,479
Likes: 36
Below is a response from a member of the team that wrote source code for the C5. The smooth air bridges are louder but unless you have made some engine mods, not much happens.
C5 Air Intake Info
"In designing the C5 GM engineering did a ton of testing and from that wrote adaptive strategy that made assumptions as to air and fuel flow under different engine conditions.
Changing those airflow parts, especially larger ones, reduce the velocity and the A.S still functions as if the stock parts were being used and how it was programmed and does not change even with tuning.
Most cases when the gas pedal is lifted and goes into “decel” with the larger airflow parts confuses the PCM and is adding or removing fuel when it really did not have to.
A cylinder can only hold so much volume and that is with a mix of air and fuel which is only in grams, yet the intake manifold holds quarts of air and the intake runners can only allow as much air mass as the runner size increasing MAF, air bridge or TB cannot make the runners of cylinders flow or pack in more volume then their size is.
If you monitor your engine with a PCM scanner you will be lucky to see a NA engine consume more then 600 CFM of air when a stock 75 mm MAF or TB is 750 CFM so they are never the delimiting factor of not feeding enough air to the engine.
Slowing the airflow down by using a larger air path to intake can, in fact cause ill low engine load performance. A pretty air bridge does not win races or give proper balance of the correct amount of air and fuel needed in all engine loads or conditions.
Larger airflow requires what GM did with the C6 and that is a new faster PCM with A.S software to make use of the airflow to help response times and not to make more HP."
C5 Air Intake Info
"In designing the C5 GM engineering did a ton of testing and from that wrote adaptive strategy that made assumptions as to air and fuel flow under different engine conditions.
Changing those airflow parts, especially larger ones, reduce the velocity and the A.S still functions as if the stock parts were being used and how it was programmed and does not change even with tuning.
Most cases when the gas pedal is lifted and goes into “decel” with the larger airflow parts confuses the PCM and is adding or removing fuel when it really did not have to.
A cylinder can only hold so much volume and that is with a mix of air and fuel which is only in grams, yet the intake manifold holds quarts of air and the intake runners can only allow as much air mass as the runner size increasing MAF, air bridge or TB cannot make the runners of cylinders flow or pack in more volume then their size is.
If you monitor your engine with a PCM scanner you will be lucky to see a NA engine consume more then 600 CFM of air when a stock 75 mm MAF or TB is 750 CFM so they are never the delimiting factor of not feeding enough air to the engine.
Slowing the airflow down by using a larger air path to intake can, in fact cause ill low engine load performance. A pretty air bridge does not win races or give proper balance of the correct amount of air and fuel needed in all engine loads or conditions.
Larger airflow requires what GM did with the C6 and that is a new faster PCM with A.S software to make use of the airflow to help response times and not to make more HP."
I'm sure that the aftermarket CAI manufacturers had nothing to do with spreading this myth.....
Last edited by Cybermind; Aug 5, 2014 at 11:25 AM.
