For those who have just:

1.) cold air intake
2.) cat-back exhaust
3.) stock tuning and everything else

For those of you who installed a modified MAF sensor at this stage, which brand did you use and what approx. dyno / avg. e.t. & mph gains did you measure? Also any problems associated with the modified MAF sensor you used. :flag

 

Seems that most are staying with stock MAF or at most going with the 2002+ Z06 sensor which is descreened. Porting the MAF, changing ends etc. changes air metering . Rescaling the MAF table in the PCM results in inaccuracies in engine management including torque. Hope this helps some. :cheers:

 

Pop the screen out and leave the rest alone. The stock MAF is just fine in there.
Good Luck,

 

I've read that stock are good for 400+ RWHP. Remove the screen and you may see @ 5HP gain according to others. I'm going to do my soon; when I can a chance. I'm betting the screen is to catch air filter fibers. Read a post elsewhere on my Ford Ranger about fuel problems and the answer was to check the MAF sensor wire for fiber collection and clean it off so the sensor can operate properly. My money says that's what the screen's for :p:

As far as straightening flow......that's BS. As a Mechanical Engineer that's done a number of airflow systems (process and HVAC) I know you need straighteners, i.e. tubes, that are at least 6 pipe diameters long. The screen's a lint catcher. Use good air filters and trash the screen!

Here's looking for sunshine this weekend!!!

:party:

 

I would recommend the 2001 Z06 MAF with the screen over the 2002+. Every car I have tuned with a 2002+ Z06 MAF has had very erratic MAF readings when combined with aftermarket intake tracts. The screen is very important to maintain accurate readings and the HP loss (if any) will be negligible.

Tim
http://www.cs-performance.net

 

Is my guess off on the purpose of the screen? I wonder what purpose it serves? As I explained, it can't straighten the flow unless it works against fluid dynamic principles.

Now if the fin is removed from the MAF I could see why there would be problems.

Just trying to learn :cheers:

 

[QUOTE]Is my guess off on the purpose of the screen? I wonder what purpose it serves? As I explained, it can't straighten the flow unless it works against fluid dynamic principles.

Now if the fin is removed from the MAF I could see why there would be problems.

Just trying to learn :cheers: [/QUOTE ]
I don't believe it's intent was to straighten but to homogenize the airflow. I think it basically levels out turbulence by inducing uniform turbulence with the screen. I'm not an engineer ...does that sound plausible?

I know I've read that a major function is Debris Catcher. :yesnod: :yesnod:
Hope you get your sun! We're looking at rain here( Cincinnati) :cool: :cheers:

 

The screen does reduce turbulence. I have numerous logs that demonstrate how erratic the readings can be with the descreened MAFs. As for the screen being a debris catcher... that does not make sense. Debris catching is the job of the air filter. If debris is getting through the filter elements it is not going to be stopped by the MAF screen. Now if large debris is getting through then the seal is poor at the air box but this would not be normal for a car rolling off the assembly line.

Tim

 

Not to jump right on in this thread, but are you all saying to just take off the stock screen?

 

I removed the screen in my MAF and I also polished it up with sand paper for about an hour. Cleaned and re-installed. Small seat of the pants increase and an increased intake howl.

 

I have the Breathless PP plastic housing and airfoil and smoother idle and no issues.

 

I think the screen does some good to stabilizing airflow in the vicinity of the element. The theory is such screens break up larger eddies into smaller eddies. It's the kinetic energy from smallest eddies do work against viscosity and the kinetic energy associated with eddie motions are converted to thermal energy at this scale.

The real world argument is probably does the screen do enough good with signal stability vs. the flow losses. I think based on rides in vehicles that have screenless MAF sensors that the gain in performance is modest like the decrease in drivability (hence the conservative OEMs GENERALLY add in such screens).

I originally asked the question more from the recalibration tuning slant since most gains with the basic setup I posted was probably from the recalibration aspect. I remember a friend with a '99 FRC with just borla xr-1 system, ecklers modified MAF, and twin flow CAI doing 12.68 at 113.9 mph on stock tires in mild air. That seriously exceeded my expectations and for my brother with an '02 Z28 SS who's ready to mod lightly I just want to verify performance gains of a modified MAF on top of just cat-back and CAI mods.

I also did many experiments on a scientific setup with a honeycomb flow straightener at the intake section. The streamwise length of the honeycomb section is fairly long but I don't know enough about this to extrapolate it to modified MAF performance changes other than the empirical guesses of +/-5 hp for stockish setups.

 

If the reason for the honycomb were to stop debris it would not need to be as sophisticated (sp). Have you seen one? It is not a screen.

 

Good reason as well. Given that it won't take much to take out the hot wire element, the screen would serve as an appropriate redundancy to the air filter.