New filter

[DarthChicken]

So I was showing my friend  Jeff Perrin of Perrin performance my car, and we were looking at the intake... and he couldn't believe how small the filter was.  Here is a mini flat panel filter in comparison to the filter on the Atom



And, of course... I got to thinking about my dyno chart, where things seem to go all to hell right around 5000rpm.  And about Bottoz intake temperature measurements.  And... hmm... I wonder if the supercharger is starved for air?  I wonder if the intake temps are high, and the power falls off because there is an air restriction on the intake.  And I know that Brammo is going to be trying some different air filters this week on our local dyno. 

So... I chopped it off (after carefully removing the MAF sensor), and put on a conical filter.  It wasn't easy, I had to drill out the rivets holding the air intake to the coolant resevior, remove the drivers side coilver to get it the intake out, and the find a place to chop the intake where it would leave enough room in front of the MAF sensor, but allow me to put the whole thing back together if for some reason this didn't work (with a silicon coupler).  Taking a hacksaw to my intake made me a little nervous

Here are the results, it fits perfectly



Results - impossible to tell.  My butt dyno is one of the worst in the world.  But... I can tell you I bumped off the rev limiter in second gear tonight, which I've never done.  The power did NOT drop off like it has been from what I can tell, but I need to get my car on the dyno.  I'm very much hoping to do this on Thursday.

Once again... thanks to Bolus, for the pictures and the hosting of them.  And I saw that 2nd gear stutter as you drove away dude 

(Edited to add photos back in relevant places that I've attached in post later on to get them on the forum)

[DarthChicken]

One more picture, so you can see how it sits



(Edited to add photos back in relevant places that I've attached in post later on to get them on the forum)

[bolus]

How was the sound after driving back home?  could you tell any difference?

[DarthChicken]

I was concentrating on drivability more than anything, to make sure it didn't screw up throttle response and stuff.  It still screams as far as I could tell  though, but at idle it is quieter for some reason.

[Jammer]

Anytime you remove a restriction, good things can happen...but often a touched up tune is necessary...knowing the car is tuned fat..this may help lean it out a tad... but be aware of dust...the stock filter certainly would do better.  Note: I run house screens on my turbos...so i guess I am no one to talk about dust!

I appreciate you weren't afraid to play with the car though.

[bolus]

I still think you should have done it this way:

[DarthChicken]

LOL!  Nice bolus.  It would have meant cutting the screan though, couldn't bring myself to do it 

Jammer - the MAF should catch an increased airflow, so there shouldn't be any issues there.  What I found VERY concerning was the shape of the intake.  When I cut the pipe, I measured the inside diameter... 66mm...in one direction, 71mm in the other.  ITS NOT ROUND!!  Not a problem if its tuned for it, but I know the tune you and I have is the tune from the old intake, which was metal and I'm assuming round.  Bolus or one of the older car owners, could you measure the inner diameter of your MAF tube?

[bolus]

I didnt take it off but assuming it is round and it has a 247mm circumference so ~79mm diameter to the outside

[Terry Kennedy]

[quote="DarthChicken"]Taking a hacksaw to my intake made me a little nervous [/quote]

As it should. Do you have any idea how much that thing costs? 

Seriously, the K&N filter is pleated. If you want, take a knife to the edges to separate it from the border and flatten it out. You'll be surprised how much bigger it gets!

[bolus]

[quote="Terry Kennedy"]
Do you have any idea how much that thing costs? 
[/quote]

Oh crap, I better start saving...    Hey Terry, when are you going to tell us the secret stuff you know? Can you give us at least a release date?

[Terry Kennedy]

[quote="bolus"]Oh crap, I better start saving...    Hey Terry, when are you going to tell us the secret stuff you know? Can you give us at least a release date?
[/quote]

I'll tell you everything after it is public knowledge 

Seriously, I honestly don't know the release date for the upgrades. I'd expect that Brammo wants to have all of the parts on hand so that customers (or their mechanics) won't have to tear into the car multiple times as parts of the upgrade become available. I expect the main holdup is in getting a sufficient quantity of the ECUs from GM after GM verifies the tune settings.

I can tell you that I have my original ECU and injectors at this point. So even I don't have all the latest goodies.

A lot of what I was doing was commenting on instructions to make things easier / faster / better for you folks when the kits finally come out.

On the subject of the 300HP issue - with my car stuck in the garage, I don't have any dyno results yet. But I'm sure Brammo will be correcting this as they've handled everything else. In the meantime, I'm not worrying about it.

Regarding the intake in particular, I'd be careful about making changes there. Both because it may affect the final tune / be incompatible with Brammo changes, and because it is awfully easy to get something sucked into there and cause *big* problems that will force you to tear down the supercharger and / or engine. I've heard the "whump" of a plastic bag being sucked into the intake (fortunately not on my car), and let me tell you - it is an instant sinking feeling of "OMG - what have I done".

[Jammer]

Thanks for posting Terry..
Darth... I keep forgetting about the MAFs ability to compensate...since I run SD on my Turbo toys.

[DarthChicken]

Jammer - np.  I wish we were running speed density, I'd go crazy with the intake, LOL! 

Terry - I'm not too worried about what I've done.  The intake at the MAF housing is unchanged, all I've done is uncork the filter.  The filter I put on is used on hundreds (if not thousands) of cars with proven gains, and I'm POSSITIVE nothing got into the throttle body, because I took the intake off to do this work (along with removing the MAF sensor so it wouldn't get damaged), then cleaned the intake extremely well.  I come from the land of turbochargers, I've seen what a rag or bolt left in an intake can do, its not very pretty.

Also, the way I cut it, if I needed to reverse the work I've done, its very easy to do so with a silicon coupler and a couple of hose clamps.  I'm sure that intake costs a pretty penny, but its too small IMO for the amount of air flowing through it.  And if its that expensive, I'm not very impressed with it - there were voids in the walls that I cut through, and as I said, its not round on the inside at all (5mm difference!)

 

[Jammer]

We have fed a 408 ci ls1 with a 78 mm intake tract /TB... to well over 500hp NA and it needed alot more air. Forced induction gets pushed through so i really cant see the filter being the culprit for 40 missing HP.. but we shall see.

[Alec]

Missing photos added back for continuity.

First photo in initial post . . . .