Benefit for me to switch to a cold air intake?

You'd probably make more/better power by tossing that stock MAF and getting a basic Translator and a newer MAF.


If you get a 3.5" MAF and put it on your 3" MAF pipe you'll get faster spool. Doing that will require you to either get a 3.5" filter or neck down to it.


also, ignore the nominal sizes. A 3.5" MAF only has 83% of the flow area of a 3" pipe. The 3" is only 60 something percent.

Many opinions on this and testing from people who "have done that". Do some reading with the search function. I know it does not always work but if it is you will enjoy the data you find. It then boils down to a personnel preference from aesthetics and practicality.

earlbrown said:

You'd probably make more/better power by tossing that stock MAF and getting a basic Translator and a newer MAF.


If you get a 3.5" MAF and put it on your 3" MAF pipe you'll get faster spool. Doing that will require you to either get a 3.5" filter or neck down to it.


also, ignore the nominal sizes. A 3.5" MAF only has 83% of the flow area of a 3" pipe. The 3" is only 60 something percent.

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Pardon the interruption but Earl does a 4" filter fit onto a 3.5" ls1 maf or would a 3.5" filter be better?

To the question in the thread it seems the debate is always does the extra bends and tubing in the intake trac to get the filter out of the motor bay negate the benefits of getting the cooler air.

SpeedRacerX said:

Seeking your opinion on whether or not I could see a gain or benefit from changing my air intake setup.

Today, I have a 14" long with 3" inlet K&N filter attached to the factory MAF attached to a Kirban 3" intake pipe to the billet inlet bell to the TA49. The cannister was relocated to make room for the long filter.

I've been thinking of a cold air intake similar to either Tin Man or the big mouth one sold by TR Custom Parts.

I've witnessed the benefits of a cold air intake firsthand on my LS-powered and modified Pontiac G8 GT.

Colder intake air would seem to make sense on my GN versus sucking in hot air from the engine compartment.

What do you think? Benefit to moving to the cold air style or leave well enough alone??



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

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Save your money I went 10s with a smaller kn filter and 3 inch pipe and stock maf with a 49.a swap out to the filter outside the car netted o gains at the track.i was running alky.

deezdad said:

Pardon the interruption but Earl does a 4" filter fit onto a 3.5" ls1 maf or would a 3.5" filter be better?

To the question in the thread it seems the debate is always does the extra bends and tubing in the intake trac to get the filter out of the motor bay negate the benefits of getting the cooler air.

Click to expand...

Keep in mind that colder air does not equal more horsepower. Yes, if your air is so hot it causes problems, then colder air would be better. Not because it's cooler, but because it cured a terminal issue. Right now you don't have that problem.
Keep in mind a CAI kit might lower your temps a few degrees, but the turbo is going to literally add HUNDREDS of degrees to it. The benefits are negligible after that. It's up to the intercooler to remove more BTUs than any CAI could dream of shedding.


The reason I recommend tossing the stock MAF is because it's crap. They're just too old to trust and it's not that much money to upgrade to something that actually is an upgrade. The other reason is to get rid of some pressure drop pre-turbo. You can have the baddest ass compressor ever known to man but if you pinch off the intake, it's a POS. We only have 14.7 pounds to work with. When you think about it like that, 3" of pressure drop (1.4#) is right at 10% of available air!

The easiest way to reduce flow restriction is to get a MAF with a larger cross section, and a bigger neck filter. Bonus points if it has a radiused outlet like the AEM filters. K&Ns have a hard edge on the outlet so they actually flow less than the outlet size.

You can NEVER go wrong letting the turbo do its job without handicapping it (or any pump for that matter).