Mass Air Flow Sensor MOD?
 

I've been reading a Sport Truck magazine recently, and it seems as though everyone is selling MAFs for trucks, claiming 10 to 15 hp gains, and even more with an intake installed.

Anyone know what is different about the MAFs being sold in the aftermarket, vs. the stock ones? I know these are for trucks, but is anything available for cars (umm.. the Pro's in particular, of course)? I know the larger truck motors can naturally expect higher gains from certain mods, but could a MAF mod on a puny 2.0L 4-banger increase the gains from an intake alone? Any chance an intake AND MAF swap could get us 10 HP?

Oh, they also come in colors and look nice!!

I'll be posting this around.

Any ideas?

I too was wondering about this....and a while back I found this little tid bit on the Protege Tech.com site

hmmmm but no numbers to tell you for sure if it even works....is truely compatible with the ECU, in the article it does say that the plug is the same and plugs right into the P-5 wireing. but why would it do so much good? becasue of how much air the 93-98 supra needed? seems to me...unless it was BIGGER....and the inlet pipe was bigger, and the throttle body was BIGGER, and the actual intake manifold flowed more....what real good would it do? anyone else got some thoughts or information on this?

If we subtract BS factor from those claims we get 5 hp. 5 hp on 250 hp truck is 2% increase in power or 2 hp for us at the wheels.
Probably there're gains due to different calibration. I doubt that bigger is better-70mm(for example) MAF will be useless with 55mm throttle body. Sir Nuke is right about it-with agressive cams, headwork and bigger throttle body bigger MAF will be beneficial. On stock car-waste of money.
Alex

I switched the Mass Air sensor in my 98 Mustang GT to a Pro-M 77mm unit. First off the Pro-M sensor didn't have crap around the sensor leads like the factory unit which improved air flow. The Pro-M kit also came with all the electronics witch remapped your air/fuel mixture making it much leaner. Theres kits aren't meant to be HP makers, they are made as a tuning piece to improve the overall air/fuel intake.

Down side I had to run 93 octane in the mustang or it would ping!

Thats my 2 cents on Mass Air Sensors.

Well, this is the info I was looking for - glad the responses are coming in.

Interesting bit about the Supra MAS - if the Supra MAS is designed to flow more air, would that in combination with an intake kit help the ECU to optimize the air/fuel for the increased flow capabilities of a CAI or short ram? Could this possibly cause the throttle body to open wider at the same pedal position?

Obviously, you can't get a throttle body to magically flow more air at WOT, but if a MAS allows the ECU to calculate for more airflow than the stock MAS, could this increase power? Is the stock ECU capable of this kind of re-calculation on its own?

I understand the percentage increase thing - 2% increase in power means a lot more to a 300HP motor than a 130HP motor (6 hp vs. 2.6 hp). Still, I have to wonder whether a high-flow (or at least designed for high-flow) MAS (Supra) would increase the efficiency and power from an intake kit, which is also designed to flow more air.

:dunno:

ok someone,m go do this:blue:

I gained much better throttle response with mine. Most kits remove the factory air box & come with a K&N cone filter with improves the breathing also. The Pro-M kit I had was calibrated for the mods I had done to the engine so you want to do this kind of last or you'll be sending the sensor back. The sensors in aftermarket MAF/MAS are more accurate then factory that’s why they work so good. I’m not sure what the import kits are going for but my Pro-M was almost $400.

Ok, well, I plan on picking up or making an intake sometime (if I ever quit looking for other ways to waste my cash!) and if I can get a Supra MAS, I will give it a shot. Maybe I'll even hit the junkyards, seeing as how these things can be expensive - I'd be willing to blow $20 bucks just to try. Chances are I can get a used one cheap. Besides, I don't think a MAs upgrade even really exists for the Pro's - I'd just be going on the ProtegeTech blurb that says the MAS's look the same on the Supra and the Pro.

Assuming it gets done, I will do my best to take before and after notes - as long as the MAS is not a major thing to replace, I'll put the intake on the stock MAS, and then try the Supra one.

Any observations will be made with my seat-of-the-pants dyno and my high-tech diagnostic ears, because I have no access to any real equipment. And it'll be at least a few weeks before I do anything, if not longer, so if anyone else feels like giving it a shot, please do! Especially someone who might be able to get some real numbers.

I know that I used to own a grand am & I could buy aftermarket MAFs from this site: http://www.granatellimotorsports.com/

I also ported my MAF on the GA and that improved HP by helping airflow. Our MAFS are shit. I looked at it and its just plastic junk. THe bulky plastic screen in it is not good for much of anything probably besides saving mazda some money.