okay. we all know that the stock air intake tubing with all those bends and that corrigated tube are crap. so i had an idea to build my own. similar to the CAI but no bends. it would come straight off the throttle body angled down a bit for obvious reasons. and end right under my hood vents with a k&n filter. only thing is this. would not having the MAF have a negative effect on my engine and would drastically shorting my air intake like that be a bad idea

 

Bad idea. It'll only run in 'creep home' mode without the maf.

 

so would it be better if i incorporated the MAF into my new idea. if that short of an intake run wouldnt hurt it

 

I think with that design you would be sucking in a lot more hot air from the engine than the stock design. And yes it would be a good idea to put the MAF on it.

 

Maf sensors also like long straight runs of tube before an after the MAF, to get an acuurate reading of flow through the MAF.

 

ok i'll test it out and see what i come up with. whats the worst that can happen. engine wont run right. in which case i go back to the stock design or go back to the drawing board. if it works good i'll let you all know.

 

We're telling you right now, you're engine will NOT run right. THe MAF sensor is your primary load sensor and is the only way that your ECM knows how much fuel to inject.

Without a MAF sensor, you'll be lucky to get it to idle and the ECM will need to try to guess at airflow based on TPS voltage, ECT Voltage and RPM.

Not a smart idea. You'll never know if your fakie CAI has done anything useful because you tottaly screwed up the air metering.

 

ok so if i get one of those aftermarket ones that ive seen i didnt see a place for the maf on those?

 

I think you'll be fine if you incorporate the MAF sensor and maybe modify your design to go to the side of the engine, like most traditional CAI's Just to increase the length of the straight pipe the MAF is located on. Will suck in cooler air too which is the whole point.

 

thats probably what i'll end up doing

 

Do you have a camaro or firebird? If it's a 'maro you already have all the airflow you could need. If it's a 'bird you can just cut a hole beneath your air filter and you have an instant cai.

 

its a bird. but i also want to make the air in flow more smoothly. get rid of all those crazy angles and stuff. from what ive researched here i have a good idea of what i need to do. probably gonna but a box around it too to keep some engine heat off the filter