Vararam vs. others cais any opinions??

[TLSTWIN]

I love mine, here is my review and my dyno sheet. Notice the ambient temps as well.

I do have surging sometimes when the air is 60 or below outside, but only while cruising. Not too big a deal really... it would be nice to have none, but the dyno numbers don't lie...no one else gives that much HP.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105109

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102886

[SK360]

The intake which removes the bend from the intake tract before the throttle body and pulls air from the coolest source will be the best, no matter what some dyno shootout shows.

Get one that is over the rad and don't look back.

[nyny69]

Originally Posted by ssmike

So what's up with the K23 MAF? Is this just to use with the Vararam or will it work with any cai?

What was explained to me from Vararam was that most cars have the same maf which work fine with the screened unit. While testing they had one vehicle with a different # on the maf and were having problems with it.

Before my revised unit was shipped they verified my maf #.

Hope this helps.

[nyny69]

Originally Posted by TLSTWIN

I love mine, here is my review and my dyno sheet. Notice the ambient temps as well.

I do have surging sometimes when the air is 60 or below outside, but only while cruising. Not too big a deal really... it would be nice to have none, but the dyno numbers don't lie...no one else gives that much HP.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105109

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102886

Your surging at cruise is probably attributed to you having an older unit without screen.

[axis]

Originally Posted by SK360

The intake which removes the bend from the intake tract before the throttle body and pulls air from the coolest source will be the best, no matter what some dyno shootout shows.

Get one that is over the rad and don't look back.

That's right, damn any REAL WORLD testing and go with pure theory and what the manufacturer says.

[sspaul]

do a simple search on here and you will find jannetty did 2 cai dyno comparisons. each test had different cai units he tested. as far as other mods go, a set of lt's. lt's and a cai with a dyno tune will wake the car up. if that still isn't enough for you then their is always cam, throttle bodies, new mainold, custom motor builds, FI, nitrous, the list can go on and on

[SK360]

Originally Posted by axis

That's right, damn any REAL WORLD testing and go with pure theory and what the manufacturer says.

When I see a drag strip shootout where they can impossibly lock track conditions and density altitude perhaps testing 500 filters at the end of 90* bend tubes will be an acceptable test then.

Common sense dictates that you would want the straightest path of air coming from somewhere not in the engine bay.

[axis]

Originally Posted by SK360

When I see a drag strip shootout where they can impossibly lock track conditions and density altitude perhaps testing 500 filters at the end of 90* bend tubes will be an acceptable test then.

Common sense dictates that you would want the straightest path of air coming from somewhere not in the engine bay.

While I agree, it's been shown OVER AND OVER that on the CAMARO a OTR intake has it's problems. In theory, your arguement is sound. In reality, on this car, there are problems to overcome with this type of intake. There's not enough room to have a free flowing intake coming over the radiator. The MAF has already shown that it doesn't like turbulent flow, hense the straighteners that are needed to smooth it out. This in turn has a negative affect on the amount of airflow that's being sucked in. Just how much has yet to be seen as there isn't much data out on whatever revision number this one is. As you stated, it's imposible to use track testing in a shootout testing format. All we have is dyno testing and that's where we are. IMO, it's a copout to say that dyno testing isn't going to show the true potential of X CAI. While it may not show accurate WOT and max speed data, it should still show how well a CAI is going to work. In theory, they should all work better at the track or at higher speeds than ted can make up for with his massive fans. The point is, it shows how well it should scale. Since VR refuses to have their CAI independently tested, all we have is end user feedback. Finding UNBIASED enduser feedback has shown itself to be hard to come by with many VR users. If and when enough real world testing is done on the VR unit, we can make a better assessment of it's potential. I'm glad VR finally got their unit to have better driveability. Now it's just a matter of finding out what they gave up to get it. From some of the reports i've seen, it's no better than any of other OEM location CAI's.

[BowlingSS]

I wonder why VR will not let their CAI be tested with the other CAI's. Something very strange here. I am going with......TBD.

Bill

[SK360]

Originally Posted by axis

While I agree, it's been shown OVER AND OVER that on the CAMARO a OTR intake has it's problems. In theory, your arguement is sound. In reality, on this car, there are problems to overcome with this type of intake. There's not enough room to have a free flowing intake coming over the radiator. The MAF has already shown that it doesn't like turbulent flow, hense the straighteners that are needed to smooth it out. This in turn has a negative affect on the amount of airflow that's being sucked in. Just how much has yet to be seen as there isn't much data out on whatever revision number this one is. As you stated, it's imposible to use track testing in a shootout testing format. All we have is dyno testing and that's where we are. IMO, it's a copout to say that dyno testing isn't going to show the true potential of X CAI. While it may not show accurate WOT and max speed data, it should still show how well a CAI is going to work. In theory, they should all work better at the track or at higher speeds than ted can make up for with his massive fans. The point is, it shows how well it should scale. Since VR refuses to have their CAI independently tested, all we have is end user feedback. Finding UNBIASED enduser feedback has shown itself to be hard to come by with many VR users. If and when enough real world testing is done on the VR unit, we can make a better assessment of it's potential. I'm glad VR finally got their unit to have better driveability. Now it's just a matter of finding out what they gave up to get it. From some of the reports i've seen, it's no better than any of other OEM location CAI's.

Well then perhaps the LS3 MAF is limiting the potential for the car to use a good intake?

I have seen in person 2 different GTO's pick up significant power on the dyno getting rid of a 90* bend intake in favor for an over the radiator intake, One a heads/cam LS2 and the other a 416ci LS3 stroker.

[lurk]

A little off topic but this is straight from their site. Is it just me or did he just put all
a/f cells to 15.0. Isn't that lean?
http://www.vararam.com/camaro-ramair-unit.html

[axis]

Originally Posted by SK360

Well then perhaps the LS3 MAF is limiting the potential for the car to use a good intake?

I have seen in person 2 different GTO's pick up significant power on the dyno getting rid of a 90* bend intake in favor for an over the radiator intake, One a heads/cam LS2 and the other a 416ci LS3 stroker.

You seem to be using the same comparison in all your posts. THIS ISN'T A GTO. Whether or not the MAF is being finicky doesn't matter. It is what it is and that's what we have to work with. The cartridge type MAF is less restrictive but it's very sensitive. This has it's advantages and disadvantages. I don't know specifically what MAF type the GTO uses but I suspect it isn't the same type we have. I would imagine that it would take quite of bit of $$ to swap over to a different MAF so this is what we have. It woudn't be cost efficient to spend that amount of $$ to gain just a little HP, if it really is better. You can't just claim that all OEM location CAI's are the same when it's been shown that they aren't. Speaking in just generalities, a couple of the CAI's tested made double+ the HP as some of the other CAI's. That sounds impressive till you put numbers on it and you're only talking 5-8whp. Now if you compare the VR unit to any of the CAI's that didn't fare well, you could go to another site and say the VR was vastly better than 90 degree bend intakes. That's misleading as you didn't specify which intakes you're comparing. Put it up against the Halltech, ADM, CAI, and Fastlane, and you'll see a different story.

You can't have it both ways in your arguements. You can't say that dyno testing is worthless and then post up dyno improvements to back your claims. I'm not saying that the OTR type CAI's aren't any good. I'm just saying that to date, they haven't produced repeatable numbers that were as good or any better than the 4 that I mentioned. If they do, then the C5 crowd will have another great option.

[SK360]

Originally Posted by axis

You seem to be using the same comparison in all your posts. THIS ISN'T A GTO.

OMG IT's a camaro! You're so right! Totally different powerplant and what works on one def can't work on the other.
What was I thinking.

[GMRULZ]

Originally Posted by SK360

OMG IT's a camaro! You're so right! Totally different powerplant and what works on one def can't work on the other.
What was I thinking.

The MAF`s are different though. You have the old style that has its own housing and its own screen. The LS3 and L99 have the sampling tube MAF that bolts into the intake piping and it does not like turbulence. That being said it looks like Vararam is on the right track w/ these air flow straighteners in their new units.