Have you noticed an issue with your tune after installing a new part?
Are you emailing your tuner and telling them to "check your tune" even though you've been fully tuned on a fully dialed & vetted file for an extended period of time?
As a remote tuning company, we here at Lund Racing, double as detectives! Oftentimes, a consumer will end up in our ticket system complaining about this newfound problem their car is having after installing XYZ parts.
"Did you install a different cold air intake?"
"Did you install any sort of a sound tube or something?"
"Have you installed a pedal commander or something silly?"
"Have you installed a new hood, grille or bumper?"
"Well yeah, I got a new grille - but that's nothing to do with tuning so I didn't mention it."
Unfortunately, this can be another example of how many popular aftermarket modifications are marketed around their perceived gains, without consideration for how they affect airflow stability and MAF Signal quality, among other issues.
Our goal is to continue to educate and empower the enthusiast consumer in an effort for them to make better decisions when it comes to investing their hard-earned dollars into modifying their cars.
This is just one more prime example how the aftermarket industry creates misleading hype about how their product is going to make your car cooler, better, faster - when in fact, they're going to do none of that for you, and merely going to create a nightmare for you and your tuner.
These vehicles are equipped with a factory MAF Sensor & this is where/how we control the majority of your fueling in your custom tune calibration.
"Ram Air" grilles, GT500 style bumpers, and any other wide open style front bumpers, are all going to need to be accounted for on your MAF Sensor-equipped vehicle(s)! These modifications don't necessarily force more air into the engine. What they often do is disturb the airflow path entering the intake system. When turbulent or inconsistent airflow passes across the MAF Sensor element, the sensor's signal becomes unstable. The PCM then has to continuously react to inaccurate airflow measurements, resulting in poor drivability and fueling behavior (we refer to this as the MAF Signal being "noisy"). In many cases, this will render your vehicle nearly impossible to drive. Tip-in will be miserable, low rpm & low load use will buck like an angry horse (had to try really hard to not say Bronco or Mustang there), just to name a few of the issues that'll likely come your way.
You need to protect the MAF Sensor from turbulent airflow at all costs. You need to build a custom shroud if you have an open element filter in your engine bay (I'm looking at you Coyote Swap guys). You need to isolate the "ram air" effect from being able to reach/get to your MAF Sensors, in order to keep your MAF Sensor happy and keep the signal from becoming noisy. This noisy MAF Signal can also be called "MAF Wash", so you may have heard it referred to as such. We have to remember that the MAF Sensor isn't measuring total airflow entering the engine bay. It's measuring airflow through a very specific section of tubing. When turbulent air strikes the sensor element from varying angles and speeds, the voltage signal no longer accurately represents actual engine airflow.
No, you do not want or need RAM AIR. No, you do not lose power by enclosing the Filter. No, you do not need to run your CAI over the radiator (OTR) to be fast. On most street-driven, MAF-equipped Ford applications, the potential gains from so-called "ram air" modifications are negligible compared to the drivability issues they can create when they disturb airflow around the MAF Sensor.
We monitor & test this theory frequently in our 2500+hp Coyote Racecar where we have both turbochargers mounted forward & low in the front bumper area. We don't typically see any positive effect or improvement from the "ram air" effect (which unloads the compressors) until after 140mph, typically more like over 150mph, and it's very small & negligible, even at those speeds. We see the most effect once we're up over 200mph and beyond, where the increase/benefits become exponentially greater as the speeds continue to increase.
The best performance vehicle is one that you enjoy driving - one that performs as intended, when intended. The best way for you to ensure that's what happens in your personal vehicle is to protect the MAF Sensor from all turbulent air at all costs.
While we're on the topic of the MAF Sensor, we felt like this was a great opportunity to share this video from one of our leading calibrators here at Lund Racing, Alejandro Flores:
There are many ways to skin a cat, for sure, and one thing we've found w/the MAF Sensor protection is that it's less about what you use to protect it, how you mount it, what it looks like installed, and more about simply protecting the filter from seeing turbulent air at all costs. Fans will kick on, creating turbulent air. Grilles, bumpers, hoods being open and slamming air into the filter when the engine/PCM have not requested it, turbulent air. Noisy MAF Signal. PCM forced to continuously correct. Fueling erratic. PCM fighting to chase the condition with every millisecond that passes.
Here's a handful of examples showing how you can protect your MAF Sensor from turbulent airflow and improve MAF Signal quality:
And while we're on the topic of MAF Sensors - you should only ever be using an OEM FoMoCo MAF Sensor on your vehicles! No Granatelli, Accel, or whoever else is selling lies about increased performance via buying their shiny object. The only reason your car will be any faster purchasing those things would be from your wallet being lighter! The only times you'll need to run any aftermarket MAF Sensor in your vehicle is when your Calibration Specialist tells you that we're pegging your current OEM MAF Sensor due to the amount of boost / horsepower we're achieving with your vehicle, or if you have purchased a "No Tune Required" CAI from PMAS! In the second example, you would receive a PMAS-specific MAF Sensor that is only to be used while the vehicle is utilizing the Stock Calibration (thus making it a "No Tune Required" CAI). Once you come to a custom calibration, like what we would offer you here at Lund Racing, you would again reinstall your OEM FoMoCo MAF Sensor back into the vehicle when flashing our custom tune, as we will have correctly calibrated the vehicle for the 120mm PMAS CAI MAF Housing, rendering your previously used, PMAS-supplied MAF Sensor useless once flashing our custom calibration.
Remember guys - tunes do not degrade, expire, or change on their own over time. If you previously had a vehicle that was operating perfectly and is no longer operating to that standard - there has been a mechanical change w/the vehicle of some sort! Scan for codes, investigate, inspect things like vacuum lines, couplers, spark plugs, etc. to help point you in the right direction. In the event of having added a custom bumper, a ram air hood, a wide-open grille - if there is a change in the vehicle's performance, again, it's going to be related to the installation of the physical parts that you just changed, that netted the new outcome of how the vehicle is performing.
Common Symptoms of MAF Turbulence
- Hesitation during tip-in
- Surging at steady throttle
- Bucking at low RPM
- Idle quality changes when cooling fans turn on
- Inconsistent fuel trims
- Random drivability complaints
- Problems that appear only at certain vehicle speeds
We hope this helps you understand the MAF Sensor and its role in the vehicle, how you can protect it and how you can avoid issues from not protecting it! For continued knowledge, information or questions - please feel free to email us at Support@LundRacing.Com with your Ticket Number, Device Serial Number and VIN so we can do our best to help!
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