if your gonna stay n/a then leave it be. If you plan on any radical changes in the future (like FI) it will just become a restriction and then you should remove it.

I removed mine and had the MAF ends ported when i went turbo

 

I descreened my first one at 16,000 miles years ago. Felt nothing at all. It DOES NOT straighten air in our cars. On the trucks it does. Longer air travel from MAF to intake in the trucks. PERIOD. I have an 85 CFM truck MAF now with screen and it is tuned. I dusted the air filter today and sprayed down the MAF with cleaner and it did have some debris on the screen. Grass and bug wings of some sort. So the screen did help as another barrier. Glad I have it now.

 

i would have to agree with u. i also believe the screen in our cars does NOT straighten airflow (just vehicles with longer travel) due to our straight intake path and with the velocity the air is being sucked in would keep the airflow straight

 

good info ty all

 

removing it only causes more turbulence and an inaccurate reading the gain in flow is not worth the accuracy loss in every tech book i have ever read it has addressed this as a bad choice. same goes for the jet Maf sensor the screen and airfoil smooth out the intake charge

 

i ported and descreened mine and now im getting a p0171 bank 1 and 2 lean code. i have HPtuners and plan on tuning it out when i put my ls6 intake and injectors in... just have to figure out how to install the drivers.

 

I think when you put the Magnusen supsercharger kits on, the instructions have you remove the screen. I guess they are not worried about safety so much, but they probably compensate for this in the tune.

 

Whether it's meant to filter, I don't know, but I do know that I've found grass clippings, bug wings, and general grime on mine in both my cars. I've taken care to seal up my lid as best as possible.

 

I took the screen out of my 85mm maf and compressed it to see how much of a total obstruction it was. It crushed down to a between a 1/4" and 1/2" I dont remember off hand. I have it in my garage somewhere. Ill try to find it.

 

when you buy an aftermarket maf it will almost never have a screen on it. so why have the screen on the stock one? this was the first mod I did when I got my Z28. It pops off so easy its almost like it wasnt meant to stay there.

 

^^^true. some aftermarket MAFs dont even have a screen. if the screen really solved such a problem as keeping crap out of the motor, aftermarket companies would install a screen for their own liability

 

Mine is still in and i live in oklahoma and there is **** all over the road everywhere... mostly grass from fields... and my air filter is perfectly fine and i have everythign sealed off with my air lid air tight to prevent leaks... when i was checkin my filter (which is in good shape with no holes) i saw my screen had caught alot of grass and little wood chips and bugs that i would want inside my engine so i vote to leave it on.. Depends on where u live though..

 

^^^an OKIE howdy to ya

 

If you buy a new GM 85mm MAF it doesn't come with a screen.