At what point should i upgrade to an 80mm?

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Irish Pride

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As the title states, at what point should i think about going with an 80mm MAF? Currently i have a ported intake/runners with BBBs and a high flow equal length y-pipe. What else do i need to do before i think about an 80mm, and is there a better MAF that i can go with now instead of the 55mm?
 

Leo(209)(707)

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I have pondered the same question myself. Although, if you do get a larger MAF tuning it is the hard(well, expensive) part. I have read many posts that say that you can get a lot more out of an MAF with a tune.
 

StreetlightSHO

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I have pondered the same question myself. Although, if you do get a larger MAF tuning it is the hard(well, expensive) part. I have read many posts that say that you can get a lot more out of an MAF with a tune.

I've heard the opposite.... haha many people here say that if you're still N/A there's no point. I have an LPM that I'm getting flashed soon, so I figured that I'll buy an 80mm and have the LMP tuned for it if I'm spending money on the tune anyway.

But. People with more experience should chime in.
 

Phoenix

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From my point of view you might want to add cams (or something else major) before considering it , specially when you need a tuner to run it.

I dont think you maxed out the 55mm yet.
 

yamahaSHO

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Personally... You should start thinking about an 80mm MAF when you're pushing over atmospheric pressures. You'll find a larger gain with *custom* tuning the stock motor/MAF (upgraded intake and exhaust) rather than getting an 80mm and praying for the LPM to work well with *your* car. This is especially true if you're budget is limiting how much you can do at one time.
 

SHOspazz92

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Personally... You should start thinking about an 80mm MAF when you're pushing over atmospheric pressures. You'll find a larger gain with *custom* tuning the stock motor/MAF (upgraded intake and exhaust) rather than getting an 80mm and praying for the LPM to work well with *your* car. This is especially true if you're budget is limiting how much you can do at one time.

THIS.

Assuming you have a full Bolt on 3.0 (I know you have been through this Jason) Like I do, To include Cams, BBB, PNP, Y-Pipe, Catback...etc and you have the 80mm MAF SPECIFICALLY tuned for your car I think it would help. However, I don't see much benefit from running a Generic canned tune that was made for someone else's car a few years ago. This is the reason I have held off for so long on putting a 80mm MAF on my car.

-Sam
 

jayro

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A larger MAF can be a benefit with a full bolt on sho, however it can also be a performance killer. The tune is very important. You would need to spend some time on the dyno to get it right which can get pricey. It would be best if you had 2 lpm's so that you could try one tune right after the other. That way all the conditions would be the same. Without doing it that way there are alot of environmental variable that would need to be accounted for. Another thing to watch is how you install it and transition to your TB. It is very easy to cause added (bad) turbulence and restrictions to the air path when you are trying to adapt the air track to fit. (I know from experience) To check for this you would want to run the stock maf on a stock tune and then run your 80mm set up on the stock tune with the only difference being MAF calibration.
 

yamahaSHO

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/\ NO dyno is needed. Environmental changes will be calculated based upon how well you get that MAF to spit out the AFR's you desire. Tuning an LPM on the dyno would be much less desireable than some thing that allows you to change tunes or adjust the curve on the fly.

Anytime you change th MAF, start with it's 'factory' curve and tune from there. I wouldn't rely on anything swapping back in the stocker to help with the new MAF.
 

jayro

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/\ NO dyno is needed. Environmental changes will be calculated based upon how well you get that MAF to spit out the AFR's you desire. Tuning an LPM on the dyno would be much less desireable than some thing that allows you to change tunes or adjust the curve on the fly.

Anytime you change th MAF, start with it's 'factory' curve and tune from there. I wouldn't rely on anything swapping back in the stocker to help with the new MAF.

For some reason I thought he had said he had an LPM. Of course having something that you can tune on the fly would be 100x better. The idea I was trying to get across is being able to test things back to back so you remove as many variables as possible. Doing a pull with the stock maf/tune and then doing a pull with the 80mm and the only change in the tune being to account for the different MAF (no changes in timing ect) would show if there is a gain to be had from swapping the maf. I must not have been clear in my post.
 

Irish Pride

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I've got an LPM but have not had it burned yet. I havent seen the need for it yet with the stuff i've done. Eventually the plan is to get some EH runners and upgrade the cams but that is down the line. Getting paint first.
 

StreetlightSHO

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I'm in the same boat as Irish Pride. I have the LPM, but haven't burned it yet. I already have a catback, a y-pipe, and a CAI snorkel.
I have two choices: An 80mm MAF and a properly tuned LPM, or a 55mm MAF and a properly tuned LPM.
How will each choice effect performance?
 

91PDXmocha

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I just upgraded to a 90mm unit only becuase the stock 55mm maxed out at like 4500 rpms on 5 psi of boost . Should be able to to by on a stocker til 300 chp ish . Although a heavy breathing cammed 3.2 with full bolt on's and a tune could probably pick up a few hp with something like a 80mm mark 8 Maf , tuned accordingly of course .
 

StreetlightSHO

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Okay here is a more specific question. If you had an 80mm MAF and an LPM tuned for the 80 sitting on one shelf, and on another shelf you had a 55mm MAF and an LPM tuned for the 55, which shelf would you grab parts from for your naturally aspirated SHO? 55 or 80?
 

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do it for a few extra hp... ive heard a stock will see 1-2 hp... now cams etc... full bolt on will gain like 5 hp possible

the 55m is a restriction in the design. the 80mm is bigger but not a ton more volume being that big metering rod going down the center..

to me personally the maf design is a restriction.. MAP all the way :)
 

HotRodKid

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Q: when should i upgrade my maf?
A: when you max out your current one

Q: wht size maf should i install?
A) the smallest one you wont max out to retain maximum signal strength
 
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