Got the Lingenfelter on. Considering upgrading the air filter to a Green Filter.

 

I’ve purchased 4 Green Filters and don’t know if I’d ever purchase from them again. It’s a big hit and miss with them on if you’ll ever receive the filter. Pre-Covid ordered one for my Toyota Tundra took probably two months to get. Ordered one for my Infiniti G35X work car and amazingly got that within a couple weeks. Then ordered one for my Camaro and one for my fathers SRT8 and was a nightmare getting them. Took well over three months and lots of emails and Facebook messages (was best way to get a response) before it got taken care of. I asked for my money back a few times and that seemed to get a fire under them to get it taken care of.

Quality and fitment were top notch, customer service wasn’t bad either. Was just a huge pain on not knowing when I’d actually receive the items. Plus I seen a dyno video of a k&n vs green filter back to back and didn’t show any improvements. But like I said in overall quality GreenFilters is probably the best I’ve seen between them and K&N.

let us know how the new cai helps out, curious if it helps out power wise. I’d think with air inlet temps should improve.

 

Well, the filter I'm considering is in stock at Summit so I think I'd not have a supply chain issue getting one.

My experiments with the K&N filter in the stock box already proved to me the intake air flow needed help. To recap, I started with a Wix filter in the stock box. I then switched to the K&N that came in the Magnuson kit (I don't like K&N so didn't put it in at first) and felt an immediate improvement. The Lingenfelter has an even bigger filter in the K&N style and more area for air to get into the air box altogether so I see no way it would be any worse than the K&N in the stock air box. At the very least I expect the intake sound to become a bit more aggressive sounding. Hope to drive it today, won't be able to get on it much unless it warms up though, still sitting on Summer only tires which absolutely suck if the temps are below 40 or so.

 

Go to 70th and McCormick in front of the FedEx building might be your best bet for a spot with good traction. Everyone races at that spot, can only run 1/8th but should give you a good idea of power. That’s the spot where 1320video films cash days and other stuff so lots of rubber has been put down.

Don’t forget to record it, have been checking out some of you YouTube videos, very cool. Love hearing the whine from the supercharger!!

 

Okay, here's my review and impressions after the Lingenfelter went on. I did a lot of little things on the car this weekend, installed the push connectors on the evap lines, tidied up some hose and wiring routing and of course installed the Lingenfelter which turned into more of a job that expected to get it to sit right so things would fit together as well as they should. In the end, the freshly charged battery could barely crank the engine so I had to drain the Maggie cooling system, remove the tank and replace the battery. No big deal, just a little extra time and work.

So, I took the car for a good little drive to see how the new intake would do. No codes, ran great. No leaks which was also great. I got it fully warmed up and did some mid-gear pulls, no hard launches because it was only just above 40 degrees out and I'm on Summer only tires. The first pull was just a gentle acceleration in first and then pounded it in 2nd and third. Lost traction almost all the way through 2nd. That's partly due to the temps and the tires, but it was pulling like a beast. This is a LOT more like what I expected when the blower first went on and was fully tuned. I'm still shocked that an improved intake and filter could make so much difference, but really I shouldn't be. A blower moves a lot more air and I was obviously choking it down with a paper filter due to my stubborness. Well, I got over it at least. Also, losing the stock air box could only be a benefit. I didn't notice a real change in the intake sound but maybe because I mostly hear the exhaust and the blower or maybe there really wasn't much change in the intake sound. Doesn't really matter, but I kind of expected a louder intake sound.

The Lingenfelter is kind of expensive for what you get but in the end it did fit pretty well and it is obviously pretty effective and really was my only real option for the Maggie aside from stock since I really don't at this time want to drop the change on another DuSpeed and a new heat exchanger. I wonder how well the Lingenfelter will work in warmer weather. Will be quite a few months before I can know anything about that.

About the change in the car with a better intake, all I can say is WOO-WEE, this is a lot more of what I expected when the blower went on. One interesting thing happened as well. I have my boost gauge set with a warning light to go off when boost exceeds 6 psi (the max it should do per Magnuson). On the first harder pull, I noticed the light went off. It didn't just blink, it went on and stayed on for a while. On the next few pulls I actually glanced more seriously at the gauge and I was getting 8 psi, sometimes even a little bit more on the harder pulls in 2nd. Not sure what to think about that, but it certainly never did that with the paper filter so yet another indicator that the engine/blower are much more effective and efficient now. Also, I assume the gauge is accurate, it certainly should be for what it cost (Speedhut). But the key point is that I was getting substantially more boost than before. Also, when doing these harder runs, it redlined like a beast and clearly was not running out of fuel even given the more than expected boost. But I still need to query my tuner about if the tune will need some adjustment given the more than expected boost.

Engine temps never even got to 200 degrees even for a second, but like I said it was only about 43 degrees out. Given the outdoor temps I couldn't really expect to do any meaningful 1/4 mile runs. The street tires would never help me get out of the hole and I suspect the drag radials wouldn't do much at these temps either so I didn't really even try. BUT, given the SOTP impressions thus far, next Spring when it warms up and the roads get cleaned off a bit after Winter muck I plan to strap on the drag radials and see if I can set yet another new personal best. It is going to be a lot harder to find that sweet spot of enough traction out of the hole without bogging or spinning. I think a trip to the semi-local drag strip will be in order next Spring.

I'm considering getting a spare set of 18s and having them widened for the rear to get some bigger meats out in back for when I eventually replace the street tires. I think it would look pretty good too to have a bit of a staggered set up.

Bottom line: I am much happier with the blower install now than I ever have been. I'd also add that I now wonder if dropping the cats will make much difference, it sure doesn't seem to have a choke point at this time. But I still plan to get it back to the dyno and find out.

 

Honestly I’m super curious if you were to get it on the dyno now how’d it compare. Sounds like it’s a night and day difference from how it felt before the cai.

 

Night and day difference may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the difference is definitely meaningful. The fact that the boost gauge showed a marked difference too would seem to indicate that its not all in my head or simply wishful thinking.

 

2-3 psi increase on a blower like yours I would think is a decent jump in power. Probably a 35-40rwhp jump? But pretty neat if this simple upgrade really woke it up that much. Either way sounds like you’re a bit happier now.

 

Nice sounds like the air intake worked out.

Should pick up if you pull the high flow cats off but I'd be curious for a before/after. Like if you did a pull with the exhaust on, and then undid it at the cats to see how much it picks up. I don't like the catless smell (my 2010 is catless) personally.

 

I used a AEM dryflow on my TA. They probably have a universal filter that would fit the GTO.

 

Me neither, I hate that smell. Which is a real strong reason why I kept some form of cats with every modification I've made. That, and I honestly like not polluting any more than I have to. I'll take a small hit in HP in order to keep cats.

 

Going back to the dyno on Saturday to test out the new intake and then test out dropping the cats. We'll see if my butt-o-meter has any credibility.

 

New numbers. 490hp/453tq

Now that's more like it. It made slightly more power with the exhaust connected than it did with the cats dropped and running open headers. Fact is stranger than fiction. But then to be fair, the tune was not adjusted at all to accommodate the open headers (since we couldn't get a good AFR reading due to the open headers).

 

Nice so went from 450 to 490rwhp with just air box swap?

 

Yup. Surprised me that it made such a difference. But maybe it shouldn't be such a surprise.

Overall I gained 102hp from my last best NA run.

Also, while the cats were disconnected we took a look at them. They look perfectly fine, no signs of damage from the extra abuse the blower would be handing them. A couple of times the rear end kicked out just a bit when hitting 2nd gear, it has never done that before. I can always get a scratch in 2nd, and 3rd, but never really got the car loose like that. But, I'm also rolling on old street tires that are Summer only tires in mid-40 degree weather. Next Spring should be fun and interesting.

 

That's great that you hit your goal and the airbox and a little retune got you there.

 

Yeah, all along many folks were saying the tune was crap and it was all the fault of the tune. Not the case and we just proved it. I never lost faith in him, he's always been good to me. My guy is a great tuner and around here is know as the guy who fixes everyone else's messed up tunes.

 

Darn! I just noticed how close you were at guessing the increase we'd see.

 

Yeah did you guys try to measure KPA?

 

I am not aware of any such measurements. If the tuner saw those numbers he didn't comment on them.