I am super curious as the placement of the airfilter. I have a CGS ( for cosmestic purposes ) I have come up with a few ideas on how to route air from the lower grille to the intake. The whole idea of a Cold Air Intake is just that, getting cold air. I was even playing around with some sort of inline air filter and using the hole in the fender still.

 

my airfilter will be inside a sealed box and placed similar to the kandn and the airraid. then from the box there will be a tube from either side that go around the radiator. Id love to run piping to the fog lamp holes and get some ram air effect. one thing i deff want to get for the setup is those aem anti water pickup things so i dont ingest 5 gallons of water if i go through a puddle thats too deep.

 

never really thought about that thanks for pointing that out. what i will do is make the maf section of the intake to the throttle body the stock diameter. i am either going to pull off my stock intake to get the size or can anyone tell me what the size is? also if anyone else has any input please share as i do not know alot about these motors but i am doing my research.

 

okay i got in contact with someone at trifecta. he said theres no problem with tuning the maf tables. he said we may just be able to use thbe tables off of the corvette because they havhe the same maf and i think the intake is a n3 in pipe. otherwise he said that if i install it and have a wideband (where can i get a good one or can i rent one from auto zone, or anyone in the toledo area have one?) that he will mail me the tuner and we will work out the tune long distance. or if that is not very cost effective i will just make the maf setion to the tb stock size.

 

just got the rest of the plate today. will be cutting it on sunday with pics posted.

 

hey man i'm really interested in what your doing. I'm trying to fab up my own cai for my hhr. I have a few ideas. Please keep posting id like to see where you go with it. some one has tested the different diameters for the maf tube and said that the right diameter that doesn't give errors is 2.5 in. I'm going to try to get the filter up infront of the radiaton to do sort of a ram air/cold air intake.

 

the box is at the welding shop right now and as for the maf sensor i am going to cut it off of a air box for now so it is exactly right.

 

I wish you the best of luck on your endeaver, and I will be following this thread to see how it turns out.

But please be warned that working on todays engines (and cars in general) with their complicated electronics it not like it used to be. I am an old time hot rodder used to fabricating all kinds of things. Unfortunately, I have discovered that many things that worked on older cars do not work as one would expect on modern cars. Everything from simply changing a radio (need an adapter on the HHR or you lose your turn signals, OnStar, etc plus you need to add a relay for the clicking and a speaker) to how you can not add wiring to the fuse box (circuits monitored by the computer and any excessive draw caused codes or blown fuses). Engine wise, it has been said that too little back pressure muffler wise can be detrimental. Intake wise, I have the CGS and like a few other forum members have been having problems with codes for the MAP and MAF sensor, as well as the T/C shutting down. Possible culprit is the oil from the K&N filter getting on the MAF sensor.

I have also witnessed other people here and on other forums trying to build their own short tube intake systems and getting all kinds of codes due to the wrong size tubing or too little or too much pressure.

I am not trying to discourage you from being inventive. It is just that things are different today than just putting on a low restriction air cleaner and having the car go faster.

Back in the early 80's, I good friend of mine who has a degree in automotive engineering bought a Monte Carlo. He timed it at the track, than began modifing it using all of the recommended parts-computer chip, cooler thermostat, air filter, etc. Each thing he did made the car a little slower, until he finally gave up and restored it to stock. To this day, he can not figure it out.

 

i cant agree with you more. computers in cars today scare me. all i can say is that i am trying to do every possible thing so that the computer will see what it wants to and not go buzerk on me. as to everyone else following this fabrication will be completed soon as i am waiting for the box to get back from the welder.

 

The MAF transfer tables are what causes the problems. If the airflow model of a new intake does not match the OEM calibration, then errors are inevitable and the trouble starts.

The 2.2 ECMs, unfortunately, have very little tuning support. The 2.4 in '06 & '07 does. With HPTuners the values can be re-calibrated to match the actual airflow. I've recalibrated a number of goofy intakes on Cobalts and there are no problems.

As for mufflers, any reference to backpressure (aka resistance to flow = BAD!) being good is absolutely wrong. It's all about velocity and cylinder scavenging.

Any oiled intake presents the problem of MAF contamination with oil. Coat the MAF and it won't read correctly any more. Note that the GMPP intakes are a DRY filter for that very reason. One of the best dry filters available for many intakes is made by AEM.