is there some kind of gauge that you can get to measure your intake flow?? to possibly hook up to that little vaccume nipple or it would probably have to be somewhere before the inatke manifold. i know you could hook up a boost gauge but that is for much more pressure and i think that would only work for postive pressure huh? idk whats your knowledge on this?? give me a link if at all possible> thanks

 

If you're looking for a pressure measurement, they do make vacuum gauges for NA vehicles. All it really does is tell you how hard you're driving the engine (lower vacuum usually equals running the engine harder.

If you're looking for air flow measurement- you already have a device that does this, your MAF sensor measures the amount of incoming air. I believe the aeroforce scan gauge will show the MAF reading (some show it in frequency since that is what the sensor puts out, some show the actual pcm's converted measure based off the frequency).

Also, if you had one of those scan gauges, you could read the MAP sensor too- which is the vehicle's built in intake pressure/vacuum gauge.

 

befor you ask me why i want this let me answer you... im doing some ezpieremental CAI work and i think this might help, plus iv heard that if you know how to "read" it you can save a little gas. where do you suggest i hook it up at?? would i be able to hook it up to the vac nipple??

 

The thing people use to save gas by monitoring their driving is a vacuum gauge- you can get them with the overlay that tells you what the readings mean, like this:



It still has the numbers in the middle- but at a glance you can tell how easy you're going on the engine. This would plug right into that vacuum nipple. Honestly, they're nice if you're the kind of person who doesn't usually pay any attention to your driving- but if you're normally careful with your gas pedal, then its really not going to tell you anything you didn't already know.

For that, you really need a flow meter. A bench setup would be ideal- but you can do it using your engine and the MAF sensor. However, the only time I would think there would be a noticeable difference would be wide open throttle (otherwise your throttle blade will be choking off flow). So you'd almost need a scan tool like Autotap to log the data of WOT runs. You could go out and just scan 2 sensors- RPM and MAF airflow. Then install your new CAI, and do the run again. Export the two data sets to excel- and plot the two- that way you could have your RPM on one axis and flow on the other. If you made a noticeable change- the new flow rate will be higher than the other. Thats a good bit of work and money though unless you knew someone local with a scan tool.

 

okay then great. where do you suggest i hook it up at??

 

A vacuum gauge like I posted above can go to that free nipple on your intake.