Modifying the Mass Airflow Sensor- This is a tricky one, and if done wrong, can ruin the part and cost a 'lot' of money for a new one. Only for the seriously hard-core horsepower seeker, and one who is familiar with working with handtools. The modification is in two steps. The first step is to remove the screens in the front and rear of the MAF. This allows for much greater airflow. The screens are not really needed for protection of the hot wire inside the MAF, that is what the air filter upstream is doing. The second step is to grind away the cooling fins inside the MAF. This is the critical operation that can ruin the part if done wrong. It is best for the novice to just remove the screens and leave it at that.

i got this at this site http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/tpimod1.shtml

when i do the grinding away the cooling fins, wut shud i use? a dremel?

 

My advice about grinding the fins off is; DON'T DO IT!
They aren't much of a restriction at all, and are necessary for cooling the internals. Everyone I know says it shortens the life of the MAF dramatically! And I've never heard of a decent gain in airflow from doing it...
The screens are said to be there to stabilize the air stream crossing the MAF wire, to uniformly cool the wire giving less erratic readings.
But they "are" the main restriction and if removed have little effect on MAF function...BUT have a very good effect on airflow to the motor! (the good out-weighs the bad..)
So, I'd say carefully cut the plastic around the circumference of the MAF just behind the screens, this will free them and also preserve them in case you ever wanted to put them back..

 

i went overboard looking for that extra tenth out of my MAF. i didn't cut the fins off, but i did remove both the screens off my 1 year old maf. car ran funny with a flat spot in the slow acceleration. this all occured after i did the screen removal. i ended up getting the code 34 (MAF) and had to replace it because the maf started dumping gas in the cylinders casuing crappy idleing, super bad gas mileage, and worst of all, anybody who rode in the car smelled like raw gas when they got out. i had to buy a new one for 165 bucks brand new (which isn't bad) from Microtech. i got it through advance. it only had one screen and it was a metal mesch looking thing. i didn't remove the screen, and all my problems were gone.
now to the shocker.... i was at the dyno no more than a month ago and did a few runs on my current 1 screen maf. i netted 251.7hp @ 4550 rpm and 333.1 lb.ft. torque @ 3000 rpm. i borrowed a friend of mine's hogged out maf he bought from TPIS. no fins, no screens, no nothing. with that, i netted 253.3hp @ 4600rpm and 333.9 lb.ft. torque @ 3000rpm. no a real world dyno test showed around 2hp gain and not even 1 lb.ft. torque. like the article u copied says, it's only for serious ho guys. and if you were that serious, u think u'd just go for speed density.

 

aight thanks for the info

 

The MAF meter is calibrated for the actual flow through the volume of the MAF, removing the screens shouldn't have a large affect on the meter, but removing the fins will, because you gain volume for which the meter isn't calibrated, the extra air causes a lean condition, the O2 senses the extra air and commands the ECM to richen the AFR. If you remove too many fins the Maf will have to be recalibrated (don't know of anyone who does, or if the MAFs can be recalibrate, don't thinks so because someone would be making much ching, ching.)

The fins are heat sinkers. If they were flow straighteners they would have to cover the entire cross sectional area of the MAF.
Air-flow straighteners are only used before/thru/after elbows, or in very turbulent flows, immediately up & dowmstream of the sensor.

The screens distribute the air evenly across the hot wire. The second screen my be need to ensure distribution across the two throttle bores. We should all be familiar with the aerator (screen) on the kitchen sink faucet and how the flow would be without it (take it off and see for yourself.)

Any mods that don't report increases in air flow, or fuel will be learned out by the ECM because that's what it was designed to do.

Personally I would only remove the screens, because the stock air box in my Z has no elbows and the filter acts as a flow straightener, and I don't believe the flow is very turbulent.

 

Well to get the best MAF flow is eo just plain get rid of it.


But din't just Yank it off and throw a filter on it and chuck your air box in the back......

Have it Properly bypassed................

and Converted to MAP witch i did Last week ot my 87 GTA gained alot of go power.....

i'm prolly in the 16.0?'s or 15.90's I can't find my G-tech to be sure but i am covinced i am out of the 16.11's yay.......

Still there is much More Work to be done on the L-98......

Tune up ect........intake mod's and rear end gears......

I've seen many guy's just yank them witch dose work buy it run's way way too rich but if you don't mind swapping spark plug's every 2month's then do the tank and chuck method..

but with these nice ga$ price$ I don;t think you'll want to brun that amount of gas with out getting a lot of power gain from it....


or let me make it simple....

1. lose 3mpg gain 15-20HP.....

2. get same MPG gain 20-30hp.

3. do a bunch od mod's lose 3mpg gaind 175-225hp.


I'd pick 2 and 3 over #1.......

But it is all upto The owner I guess.....

 

You can do it but unless you have your EPROM redone, it might read wrong. There are gains but you will have to redo the EPROM AFAIK.

 

DON'T DO IT

no matter what you do to your EPROM (chip) you will not have a correct calibration input signal. You'll be close but not close enough. I think that between my screenless and stock MAF I see a few grams/sec difference at idle and neither of them make my car run any faster so I know that my chip is WAY off for the mods I have done.

again

DO NOT DO IT. It does not help your performance, this mod stems from back when no one did any modifications to the chip and it worked because lieing to the ECM on the front side helped the hp numbers only because it was better to lie than to not lie. Now with the technology to calibrate the chip correctly, you're only gonna hurt yourself if you do both.