C5 air intake

**dklowrider** · 01-02-2010, 03:37 PM

didn't turn anything up on a search. what's my area of concern with aftermarket air intakes, and driving in the rain. it seems if you aren't doing a true cai like the under the bumper intakes, or the breathless style where you cut into the radiator shroud you may not have worries.
i'm talking about the bbk, volant, halltech style. are these worry free, especially if you use the front weatherstrip under the hood?
only thing i know for sure would be a z06 lid w/ a good filter.
any experiences?

**Ramairgod84** · 01-03-2010, 05:44 AM

I've got the donaldson blackwing on my vette. It was a simple install and I noticed a good gain from it. You dont need to really worry about water getting all the way up into the intake with these cars. The air would have to be strong enough going through the filter, to push the water alll the way up vertically up over the radiator shroud. It's just impossible. Dont go with the breathless or any of those cut into the shroud. It's only like 2 or 3 horsepower more and not worth all the extra trouble. Now, with that said. The only Ram Air option would be the vararam, which hooks up to the back of your foglight housings. There's been a long standing debate on water ingestion with that. Here's what you should do. First, get the donaldson blackwing, they're not very expensive, and are very good quality. Second, get your throttle body port n polished-shaner performance. Then, You could get a basic tune, which can run around $70, just so the car runs better. The next thing is something very custom. Get an extra front liscense plate, and cut a hole in the middle of it, leaving about half an inch to the edge all the way around. Run a piece of door edge molding along the edge of the hole. Next, you can get wire mesh similar to what the zo6 mesh screens are. Fix that to the back of the hole, and maybe a smaller mesh behind that, to kinda filter out bugs and stuff. Then what you would do is cut the bumper piece behind where the plate goes. Yes, cut that piece in the shape of the plate, but leave room for where the plate screws go in. See where I'm going? Then install the plate with the new screen, and you'll have direct air going to the filter. BIG help. Now, rain. All you have to do is put the full liscense cover back on and you're fine. I would suggest a basic tune after the liscense plate mod, eventhough I havent myself. I've driven in the rain with the screen'd cover and i've been fine. I just keep an eye on it. If you search arund on here, or tech you might find the write up. I found the writeup on corvette forum. here's a pic of how one guy did it.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-p...post1571610984
here's where u get the screen:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-z...-a-source.html

and HERE's how to do it with tons of pics
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...cover-mod.html

and here's a pic of my car. You can keep it metal, or paint the screens to match ur color preference

**10spokess** · 01-03-2010, 06:05 AM

Thats going to be the first mods im doing to my corvette im picking up excelent input ramair

**Ramairgod84** · 01-03-2010, 06:40 AM

Another thing you can do, it just hit me, is take your foglight housings out, and cut the backs of them off. If you have foglights, dont mess with the hole around them. When you take out the plastic piece, you'll see where it looks like you can cut. So take the dremmel and cut out the rectangular bits. This will allow more air to come into the motor compartment, and help with both the air intake, and engine cooling. Here's a link to what it will look like, and doing it yourself will save you $30
http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...4&dept_id=1458

now lastly, before you get into bigger mods like exhaust, headers, you can get a big mouth air dam. This replaces the stock plastic with a metal one that scoops up air from underneath. This is the only thing that might ingest water IF you drive through a deep puddle.http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...6&dept_id=1758
I would have gotten this but i need to replace the front bumper, and work on the t/a. If you do all this to your car, you'll see a great improvement, I garuntee it.

on a side note, you could descreen your maf, but from everything i know, it's a hit and miss. Some say they've done it with good results, some say nothing happend, some say their engine kind of stumbles at idle- a tune can help.

**dklowrider** · 01-03-2010, 08:02 AM

thanks, this is just what i was looking for.
one thing i haven't picked up on though, the blackwing filter is the micro-fiber material, is it run dry or oiled?
i already stuck a magnaflow axle back unit on and just had too many concerns about the intake. i assume that the foglight housing mod simply doesnt channel water right up to the filter like the vararam unit would. the center license airway mod is cool, but they do have a premade unit for that now also. i think i'll pass on that one. i basically want to upgrade the airway without worrying about water, and sucking up every bug and piece of dirt that gets near the front of my car.
how important do you feel the design of the plastic airbridge is? as in, would i be better off with a halltech unit, or something similar, over a blackwing filter with the stock airbridge? maybe a blackwing and an aftermarket airbridge? maybe i'm laboring over something that isn't critical enough for the type of use it will normally see, which is me having a blast.

**Ramairgod84** · 01-03-2010, 08:28 AM

i think its oiled a little bit, im not sure tho. and you run 0 risk of water ingestion by removing the back of the foglight housings...unless you're going swimming through a deep puddle with ur vette.. They dont channel water. They do have a pre made unit, but it doesnt look as good and costs alot more. Like I said, it wont harm your system unless ur doin like 80 or so in heavy rain. and it takes 2 mins to put the other cover on if you're that worried. In harrisburg and alot of east coast states you dont have to worry about highway speeds exceeding 70mph. You'll be fine. As far as the air bridge, they make an enlarged one thats plastic that I got. Not those $300 carbon fiber ones. Get a smooth coupler when you get the blackwing.

here's vararam's power duct - http://www.mamotorworks.com/corvette-2-135-9804.html

Here's another more stock looking. http://www.corvettesofhouston.com/pr...roducts_id=221

Trust me on the front liscense plate cover mod. It def helps and you can always switch the covers if ur worried about rain.

**dklowrider** · 01-03-2010, 09:18 AM

i might be more inclined to go the foglight housing route since it's not as direct to the filter, but for now i'll weigh the pros and cons of a complete system vs a blackwing filter and piecing the rest together. sure do like that filter, but i keep being drawn back to the halltech venom package.
thanks for the help/ ideas.