free mods
Thread Starter
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 631
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From: Metairie, LA
free mods I'm putting on an SLP CAI, lid, and ported tb. While I'm there I'm gonna port the maf and do the tb bypass. Anybody have and experiences with free mods such as these? 02 z28 a4, btw. So you wanna be fast mentions them briefly, but I wanna hear what some of you have experienced.
Staging Lane
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 82
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From what I've read on here, as well as talking to various sponsors on the right, the risk vs. reward doesn't seem to be worth it on the ported MAF. You are only going to pick up maybe 1-2 HP and the stock MAF will support over 500 HP, so why bother?
Don't touch the MAF sensor. It is fine unless you go with a boat load of power and it will cause you a ton of headaches. If you do decide to port I'll sell you my stocker once you realize it was not the thing to do!
Teching In
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 15
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did you already purchase the CAI? If not, you might want to just go w/ the Free Ram Air mod. I did it on My 98 Z A4 and it was great but I did it mostly for high-speed highway driving rather than dragstrip use. (I was driving on the German autobahn at speeds in excess of 100mph on regular basis.) I de-screened the MAF but didn't port. No problems. And I did the TB bypass on my WS6... never got around to it on the Z. Hope this helps.
TECH Addict
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,660
Likes: 14
From: England
Pretty much all free mods are worthless, only do them if you are bored as you'll see no gain.
Stock MAF is fine for well over 500rwhp. Porting it will yeild ZERO gain in terms of dyno, ET or SOTP (seat of the pants). And it's common for people to actually bugger up the MAF by porting it which causes poor running, bad idle, horrible mpg and less HP.
Ported MAF =
Best case - ZERO gain car runs normally
Worst case - Loss of HP and bad running
TB by-pass is also pretty pointless. I don't believe the coolant is there to prevent freezing as many claim becuase the logic and physics and even common sense sya it isn't.
I believe it exists for cruise economy and emissions purposes. At light throttle it will slightly heat the intake air which means less charge densisty so should help to promote better cruise mpg. At full throttle the intake air speed will be too fast to be heated by any significant amount so there is ZERO loss of HP and performance.
The other reason is emissions, generally warmer intake air will produce less emission, again this is probably due to lower charge density. Many cars actually have the air intake over the exhaust manifold for this very purpose as it will take in hot air from around the exhaust.
So IMO TB by-pass is pointless and yeilds ZERO gain in dyno, ET or STOP. The only time to perform the mod is if you by a new TB setup which doesn't cater for having coolant going thru it.
I believe very much that to perform a mod you need to understand what it did and how. And what you intend to achieve and why.
Stock MAF is fine for well over 500rwhp. Porting it will yeild ZERO gain in terms of dyno, ET or SOTP (seat of the pants). And it's common for people to actually bugger up the MAF by porting it which causes poor running, bad idle, horrible mpg and less HP.
Ported MAF =
Best case - ZERO gain car runs normally
Worst case - Loss of HP and bad running
TB by-pass is also pretty pointless. I don't believe the coolant is there to prevent freezing as many claim becuase the logic and physics and even common sense sya it isn't.
I believe it exists for cruise economy and emissions purposes. At light throttle it will slightly heat the intake air which means less charge densisty so should help to promote better cruise mpg. At full throttle the intake air speed will be too fast to be heated by any significant amount so there is ZERO loss of HP and performance.
The other reason is emissions, generally warmer intake air will produce less emission, again this is probably due to lower charge density. Many cars actually have the air intake over the exhaust manifold for this very purpose as it will take in hot air from around the exhaust.
So IMO TB by-pass is pointless and yeilds ZERO gain in dyno, ET or STOP. The only time to perform the mod is if you by a new TB setup which doesn't cater for having coolant going thru it.
I believe very much that to perform a mod you need to understand what it did and how. And what you intend to achieve and why.
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Tech Resident
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 5,117
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From: Philly
Originally Posted by camaro z28 #2
I'm putting on an SLP CAI, lid, and ported tb. While I'm there I'm gonna port the maf and do the tb bypass. Anybody have and experiences with free mods such as these? 02 z28 a4, btw. So you wanna be fast mentions them briefly, but I wanna hear what some of you have experienced.
i will never do a "free mod" to my car, ever. the only "free mod" my car will ever see is a vaccuming and a wash/wax. there is a nearly endless supply of aftermarket parts to get our power levels up. if these "free mods" we really good to do, don't you think GM would have done them from the factory?
