DaveLance, that is COMPLETELY false. By putting on a lower restriction intake, you are making the cylinders work less to pull in the air. It's not like the intake is FORCING air into the engine. The engine is one big air pump. Decreasing the restrictions only serves to make the engine more efficient. If you decrease the restriction on the intake, then you may have a higher restriction on the exhaust and then the exhaust would be your limiting factor, but you would still see gains from an intake. True, a better gain can be seen with an exhaust system in place. Typical CAI's net 5-10hp to the crank simply due to the lower restriction and the combination of a good CAI and a lower restriction exhaust (headers & cat) would be upwards of 20-25hp at the crank.

And the "balance" that is in the intake and exhaust really isn't a performance based balance anyway. The intake is tuned to reduce the amount of noise that escapes. The exhaust is tuned for lower emissions and noise. True, they are matched together, but they are done so with concessions along the way. An intake that is designed to cancel out the intake harmonics won't necessarily be the highest flowing intake, the same is true for the exhaust. Gains can be found by simply lowering the restrictions.

Now back to the topic at hand.

strongboy2005, I'm betting that your decrease in 1/4 mile performance is mainly based on the fact that the filter can draw in heated air from the radiator. Fix that and you should see better (or atleast similar) times. Also, although G-Techs are great for showing things like this, they do have quite a bit of variance and that could be making the gap wider between your two scenarios.

 

I punched holes in the front of the factory air cleaner box. Until I saved enough for the K&N FIPK.

 

What is that?

 

An FIPK is a Fuel Injection Performance Kit. It replaces everything from the throttle body to the filter. See the link.

http://www.knfilters.com/search/prod...Prod=57-3017-2

 

Wow that looks cool...

Where's the best place to buy them?

 

I would do a general search on the net for blazer performance parts. I don't have one myself. This is what I have on mine.

http://www.airaid.com/200-133_chevy.asp

 

Yeah I think there is too many variables to determine the gains. You also have to decide whether or not you are willing to take the risk of ingesting some water now. An intake alone usually does little but with some more mods it could make a difference.

 

Anyone have one of these installed? I'd like to see what it looks like in the engine to see if it would pass visual inspection...

 

Sure do click here for picture.



Kidding. Check my gallery here.