what are the goods and bads of descreening your MAF on an 89 iroc 5.7 and is it even worth the time to do it?

 

My experience would be to leave them alone. I descreened the MAF 5 years ago on my TPI because I read in certain books that it would be worth a few HP. After years of fighting an erratic idle and lean condition off idle, I had a friend come by and do some datalogging. Turns out the MAF tables were way off base, and he suspects the descreened MAF doesn't allow for a stable reading of air.

I'd leave it alone if I were to do it again.

 

Go ahead and descreen your Maf sensor, if you have a extra $300 you don't know what to do with.

 

I'd agree with the prior responses. If you have reached a point where the MAF is a restriction, you really should consider a change to S/D and start burning your own PROMs and scanning data yourself as a programming guide.

Those screens at either end of the MAF serve multiple purposes, about the least of which is to keep debris off the hot wire.