looking to upgrade my air intake.

reason for wanting a change: want the car to run cooler and more efficiently in hot/humid weather during high speed and especially low speed autocross. car tends to heat up more during low speed events.

vehicle: 2004 z06

questions:
1. best bang for the buck?

2. least amount of work to install.

3. if changing the power duct, which unit/mfg has the least amount of internal hood liner rub/contact.

4. regarding the mass air flow mechanism. please explain what came stock vs the items I read about mentioning mass air flow sensors.

5. I realize that changing the thermostat or computer settings will help it run coller...but I can't believe it will help on efficiency. am I correct in thinking that?

thanks in advance.

Elizabeth

 

Halltech Stinger

http://www.ayetech.com/cars/vettestinger.htm

 

Okay Elizabeth:

Here goes... You have to give the engine what it wants, which is COLD air. Cold air is more important than more air. Cold air is dense air which means more molecules and what our cars really want is an inter-cooler. Well, we don't have one so GM came up with a novel idea... The Air Bridge. Pretend you are going to whistle. Instead of blowing air out suck it in and feel the cool. Fast air is cool air. Call it a wind chill but as the winds pick up the air cools down. The air bridge being flat speeds up the air to cool it down. All the guys on the forum are buying these big expensive fat Air Bridges that actually are good a flowing air but slower air is warmer air. The reason is that it is not flat enough in my opinion. If bigger was better, GM would have made the air bridge bigger. The opening in the stock air bridge is the same as the Throttle Body. It works perfectly. Leave it alone.

Now for the intake. Yes, stock is restrictive. GM admits that but made a lot of them and being penny pinchers stuck them on our cars. The Z06 air cover is very close but not perfect. What I did and would be happy to send you is a picture of mine. I drilled 8 one inch holes just under the 7 inch opening. 15 inches of opening is plenty of breathing. You have to remember that it is going into a five inch throttle body. The reason for the one inch holes is to cool the air before it gets to the air bridge. Try whistling again. I've got eight of those small openings speeding up the air and cooling it before it even gets to the air bridge. Vette Fever just did a study on intake systems and the ones that are cone shaped are just sucking a lot of hot air mostly off the engine. VF said that as the engine heats up all the performance is lost due to the heat. You might as well left your stock system alone says Vette Fever. GM being smart folks put the intake on the other side of the radiator just to keep it away from the heat of the engine.

I have a friend with a Z06 who was stunned at the amount of power I had in my LS1. Reason, I force a lot of cold air into my engine. I fly airplanes and I am hear to tell you about density altitude. On hot days, it takes forever to get the plane off the ground. On cold days, I can get into the air before I'm 600 feet down the runway so I know a lot about cold air. Engines love it. Take your car out on cold morning and check it out and punch it.

In any case, you don't need to through a lot of money at the problem. If you want more power, all you have to do is cool the air.

Good luck!

Dan

 

One simple answer
Increased cold Air CFM
increased recovery time ( coolants )
better performance
protects from road trash and water contaminations( especially with halltech bottom breathers )
looks very cool !

The Big Mouth Performance Air Dam !!
Check it out> http://www.C4orceCorvette.com

 

On a Z06 you already have cold air flowing to the filter. A Blackwing is easy to install and will also supply plenty of air with zero codes being thrown.

 

I recommend the Halltech Stinger-R, which comes with huge air filter, larger than stock airbridge, and smooth throttlebody coupler, all for $239 at the Corvette Garage. The Blackwing, for the same price, comes with the air filter only.You do have cold air already, so why not feed it to the largest airfilter made for a C5?

 

The Halltech Trap gets my vote!

 

Gee, I had to wait until Tuesday for the Air Intake thread of the week When is the Catback thread starting

 

One answer.....do a search. It's located on the upper right of your screen and you will find a gazillion writeups on the subject.

 

I had a Blackwing then changed to a Vararam. The Vararam gets my vote. It works really well.