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I have watched that video numerous time and appreciate their hard work and honesty. I reached out to Paragon on You Tube and AFE via email. I asked if there was a mix-up in models or editing. Paragon stated that these were their own findings. My comments are no longer there, which is a bit weird. AFE replied that they too were somewhat surprised with those results, but they were clear that I should buy from a dealer who is sharing their honest opinion and sticking to their findings. BTW , AFE has great customer service and answer my questions within a few days.
I have watched that video numerous time and appreciate their hard work and honesty. I reached out to Paragon on You Tube and AFE via email. I asked if there was a mix-up in models or editing. Paragon stated that these were their own findings. My comments are no longer there, which is a bit weird. AFE replied that they too were somewhat surprised with those results, but they were clear that I should buy from a dealer who is sharing their honest opinion and sticking to their findings. BTW , AFE has great customer service and answer my questions within a few days.
aFe is a stand-up company; I've been impressed with their customer service, design, and R&D throughout the years (nearly 2 decades personally). This is actually the 3rd independent test where I've seen the ProDryS outperform the Pro5R on the dyno, interestingly all N/A applications while F/I prefers the oiled cotton Pro5R. My personal theory is that while the oiled cotton provides higher outright airflow, the dry synthetic media offers a smoother less turbulent path.
I initially bought that Pro5R system but have since switched over to a pair of oversized DryFlowS filters. If you are wanting to try them both, order the DryFlowS kit and you can have my original Pro5R filters for cheap.
I would like to add that last weekend when installing O2 extensions for my cats I had the filter box out and as always looking everything over. I opened the air filter and I was amazed how much loose dirt and smaller debris floating around at the bottom. Obviously from the outside intake. Just stating might be good idea every few months to open box while still on car and vacuum out. I have mostly track miles and I know it had higher chance of nasty debris out there but the way our car is design it’s something to think about.
I would like to add that last weekend when installing O2 extensions for my cats I had the filter box out and as always looking everything over. I opened the air filter and I was amazed how much loose dirt and smaller debris floating around at the bottom. Obviously from the outside intake. Just stating might be good idea every few months to open box while still on car and vacuum out. I have mostly track miles and I know it had higher chance of nasty debris out there but the way our car is design it’s something to think about.
I did notice this while installing the Paragon Touring exhaust, and adding the 2 extra DCT quarts of fluid. Lots of dirt in that area and my car has only 1100 miles. I had to move the air box to add the fluid, so I looked inside.
BTW moving that factory air box is flat out a difficult project. I have worked on very tight cars before, my 900hp CTSV being one of them. This airbox matched that in difficulty and perhaps was harder.Those brown xmas tree zipties are a major pain.
Agreed with the two previous post, the air box definitely gets dirtier and dustier than I've previously seen on other cars. Another reason I am glad to have switched from the aFe Pro5R to aFe DryFlowS filters. These and the AttackBlue are going to filter equivalent to OEM paper with the Corsa DryTech3D right behind.
Honestly the factory intakes are in a terrible spot from a debris and cool air perspective... they get saturated with hot air off the front brakes and radiators and they take a lot of debris when on track off the front tires. Further the entire airbox gets stupid hot where it sits as all air is trapped between it and the engine; IATs suffer greatly on track. I think its a fine position for a street car but if anyone is dedicating the car to be a track car I'd explore other options. People like to think they are only pulling cold ambient air but that's unfortunately not the truth... I tried to explain my point in another group and got blasted that 'GM produced the perfect car'; 'the car works perfectly at Ron Fellows', 'look at my C5 race car from 20 years ago, i know what i am talking about'; these type of people in the Corvette community hinder progress on the platform as they are too stuck in their ways or too old school to realize that the entire car is a compromise for the general population; they honestly make it hard for those pushing the platform to even make posts about how they are fixing known issues. People in the industry dont even post about the known issues because of the shitstorm it creates with people arguing them about it and how their data is wrong.
I have a solution that I created which is more inline with where other mid-engine cars and racecars are collecting their cold air for the engine; I'll post about it when i have time.
I wonder if lining the exterior of the airbox with some of that heat reflective gold foil would help? Perhaps wrapping the intake tube with some DEI heat sheath? Neither will be a cure-all, but could each offer a small amount of assistance.
I wonder if lining the exterior of the airbox with some of that heat reflective gold foil would help? Perhaps wrapping the intake tube with some DEI heat sheath? Neither will be a cure-all, but could each offer a small amount of assistance.
I think if you are maintaining the stock intake box, or one of the aftermarket solutions you'd have to insulate the entire box to make a noticeable difference. The reflective tape would work for a short period but the entire engine bay turns into an oven and overcomes the reflective tape pretty quickly.
Last time I did any type of IAT testing, it was on a turbocharged application and with the proper intercooler, pipes, and coatings, I was able to keep mine within 10F of ambient.
Last time I did any type of IAT testing, it was on a turbocharged application and with the proper intercooler, pipes, and coatings, I was able to keep mine within 10F of ambient.
High enough the car pulls timing.... which isnt too hard considering how sensitive the car is to MAF/IAT readings.
I'll try and log stock intake vs. a solution same day at the track.... Thats the only thing that will make sense to this discussion as ambient air, length of session, which part of the session etc can impact IATs widely. Fortunately or Unfortunately I just finished part 1 of my fix for our findings yesterday, i have a track day next week where ideally we'll get to log the solution.
We'll be aiming for 1:28's at Road Atlanta on a street tire as well testing this intake mod. So should be a fun day! One of these days i'll bite the bullet and throw slicks on the car and really post a crazy number but havent found anyone sniffing our lap times yet that I've needed to.
I have a solution that I created which is more inline with where other mid-engine cars and racecars are collecting their cold air for the engine; I'll post about it when i have time.
Honest reason i havent posted about it is because i dont have all the data organized to do a full post...hopefully after a track day i'll have the data needed.
anyone can send me a message on Facebook or Instagram if they want a teaser shot... (John Beystehner or. JBeystehner)
Today I was poking around under the hood of my wife's Jeep and noticed the air intake snorkel sits directly above the turbocharger/catalytic converter unit by only about 2 inches. I found this big D.E.I. velcro heat shielding at my local AutoZone and it worked perfectly for the job. I'm tempted to go get another one for my C8's aFe intake tube...
