Perusing the threads over at desert dimes and saw a couple of mod suggestions that, frankly, scare me.
That being said multiple sources claim that both give more low end power and a difference that you can easily feel through the pedal.
The mods are first, pulling all the honeycomb out from in front of the MAF sensor, and, even more permanent, cutting the flapper off the intake.
Has anyone here done/tried one or both of these, and, if so, did you really notice a difference?

To be honest, I am half afraid it's a way to run off the noobies

 

Both these have been discussed here before, so without duplicating the info, let's just say they are of very dubious benefit.

 

There are two very different camps on this one. Those that claim gains with both mods and those that don't.

I have done the honeycomb thing on other cars with poor results (erratic MAF readings as an example of the poor results). The honeycomb serves to smooth out the air flow through the MAF sensor so there the sensor reads a more average flow for input to the PCM. Think of it as the air straightener in a wind tunnel before the test area. For consistent data, the air has to be traveling straight and uniform through test area where the sensors are. I ran through the numbers on this some time ago in terms of the areas through the intake path and how much larger the section with the screen was to the actual test area in the MAF as well as how much larger the test area in the MAF was to that of the throttle body cross-sectional area. Naturally, the throttle body is the smallest area in the intake.

I have done the throttle blade deflector mod as well and saw uneven plug readings from front to back which I attributed to uneven distribution of EGR gasses (higher concentration to the front cylinders after the mod). Other than increased throttle sensitivity (not as much throttle needed for the same amount of torque out of the engine), I saw no increase in WOT performance with before and after scans using my scan tool data logger (at the time I had an Autotap). If you are thinking of doing this mod, I would suggest only cutting half of the deflector off so that normal cruising throttle position still results in more air going off the back side of the throttle plate to pull EGR gasses into the center of the plenum.

 

Thanks for the quick responses guys, sounds like not only were these known about before here but have already been tested and pretty much debunked.
I think I will stick with my original plan and just get a cold air intake, (with heat shield), and possibly a reprogrammer.
After that if I still need more power it seems from all I've read that the most inexpensive/cost effective route is to slap an LS series small block in there.

 

Your last sentence I agree with. When my Blazer isn't fast enough to suit me I step into my Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited. There I find power. If that isn't fast enough then I fire up my Suzuki SV650S try that on, that as a rule works.

 

Lol yea 4.3's werent made to go fast