MAF Sensor

[dan]

i hear people are installing MAF sensors and throttle bodies from LS1 engines and seeing performance gains, though this is with the L-67 engine, do you see this as a performance gain for the N/A L36?

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[Bill]

I had a 1995 caravan with a 3.0lt Mitsubishi engine. I installed a throttle body from a 1990 3.3 engine which was larger and it did make a difference in performance. Not that it was ground shattering or anything.

[dan]

thanks for reply…

i installed a 3400 throttle body on my 3100 SFI in my 2000 Buick Century Custom way back, it added more power but nothing exciting, this is what i expected of coarse, you are only giving it a slightly bigger throttle body diameter, and even if it was a huge difference its just a small part of the bigger picture.

[Lorrin Barth]

I come from a forum where people must have money trees in the backyard. Within a couple weeks of purchase of the vehicle they will have new intake and exhaust manifolds, new cams, new exhaust, new turbo, new injectors, new piping and a new turbo. If you go whole hog like this you can see some amazing increases in horsepower. You also better have a tuner who can rewrite the ECU coding to make it all work.

So, each little change you do can make a small difference but for big changes you need big money.

[Kevin Criswell]

[quote=”wysetech” post=63085]I had a 1995 caravan with a 3.0lt Mitsubishi engine. I installed a throttle body from a 1990 3.3 engine which was larger and it did make a difference in performance. Not that it was ground shattering or anything.[/quote]

Kind of like the S-10 guys do with the later model 4 cylinders, they bolt on a the cavalier TB which is a few millimeters larger in diameter. Gives them a measurable change in power.

Not sure if a MAF swap would do anything.

[kevin gosselin]

changing a throttle body to a bigger one give you the opportunity to swallow more air. Being said all the air piping with the maf have been tune to maximum performance to begin with.

Let say you can increase the air volume being swallowed by the engine by changing the stroke or piston size, or either exhaust system. You will have to consider increasing the air duct size to maximum performance. You need to remember that a maf will go from 0 to 5 volt of range (you wont reach 5 volt but want to get as close to it at WOT). so small change to a engine don’t need maf replacement.

In the case that you need to increase the maf flow piping size for serious modification. a new mass air flow andor ecu calibration apply.

So don’t get all carried away with MAF as is it more a programmer task than just swapping part.

For example if you increase exaust size, bigger t.b. and a performance filter. Good chance are that you won’t max out the mass air flow range. A graphic of the mass air flow operation would be increase at some place over RPM if you would like to compare from the original set up.

Exhaust backpressure play a role on swallowed air at idle. so you can gain air flow at higher speed if you are straight pipe but loose it at idle…. so being said you want more air overall you need to change the engine displacement considerably to justify touching the mass flow and ECU and injector.

The best example would be to add a supercharger on any engine you think of (forget about the durability of the engine itself) now you would have a way wider range of airflow involve. You would need a mass airflow who can measure super low ( like less than 1 volt) of idle and close to 5 volt with WOT with supercharged at its peak power) now there is a shit ton of difference in air flow. But what does the computer need to understand about 4.5 volt in airflow compare to a naturaly aspirated vehicle.

Anyway I’m done now 😛 MAF and computer and injector must be kept last in tuning for minor modification

Wrong mass air flow measurement would have effect in fuel trim and if it is a fuel enrichment (fuel trim always being on the positive side) you will loose in fuel economy and expect converter failure

[Author]

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