How small of an air intake can I run
How small of an air intake can I run I currently have a rigged up 3" intake on my stock 5.3 with LS1 intake and 5.3 throttle body (78MM I believe). I am wondering if this is hurting me at all, I am also running a pretty small air filter. The truck feels like it runs ok but can this be causing any sort of power loss? I have attached a photo of the piping and filter size for reference and you can see why i am running the size piping I am running lol.
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I had a really good engine guy tell me once that you need 3 to 4 times the area of the throttle body or carb bores minimum to keep from having a restriction, That more is usually better.. And that you want at least a foot between the filter and the MAF to let the air get laminar before it passes through the MAF, as he put it you can get away with a lot but this is the easiest place to lose or gain power without a lot of effort.. Also if you use a manometer to check the vacuum inside the filter and after the MAF as long as they are not too far apart life is good.
YMMV..
YMMV..
Definitely not ideal as that air filter has very low volume. If you can find a clean area, pull that filter and aim your intake tube straight up (to avoid road debris) and take it for a couple pulls. You should notice a difference if the filter is in fact too small.
Ok so even with just the 3" intake piping, try to get a larger filter and that alone should help out you think?
My observation was based on the assumption that the filter wont let enough air in. You could also put a vacuum gauge on the motor with and without the filter and record the results. A heavy change in vacuum could indicate the inadequate flowing filter.
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Verdad Gallardo Gotcha, I can monitor the vacuum and remove the filter and see what happens.
I want to just snag a cheap ebay 4" intake kit but what worries me is they are all metal and will likely raise my IAT's. I am currently running a plastic intake and with my intake being so close to the radiator it still has warm IAT's during summer.
Best way to know if you have an intake restriction is to look at manifold pressure at WOT where you should ideally see no vacuum at all. If there's a way you can scan the car for MAP value at at full throttle that would tell you yes or no on the intake. Anything more than 2-3kpa vacuum and you have some room to improve by getting a less restrictive filter and tube.
