[KRAM36]

Originally Posted by The Radium King

I *think* the tip connection is only for vacuum, so not a lot of, if any, air movement through it.

you will need a wideband o2 sensor to measure afrs at wot. your car only has narrowband (ie, measures afr values in/around 14.7). ecu uses feedback from the narrow band sensors to keep afr at 14.7 at idle and part throttle though the use of fuel trims (ltft). this is closed-loop operation.

at wot the ecu wants to add a bit more fuel to keep things cool (ie, an afr of 13 as suggested by jaay). narrowband sensors don't work in this range so the ecu has no feedback on the afr it is providing - it just adds fuel based on the amount of air measured. this is open-loop.

open loop is the most critical, as this is when the engine is working hard and the opportunity for damage the greatest. if the maf is mis-reading air (ie, more air getting in than the maf reads) you may get into a lean situation which can kill your engine (gets hot, detonation occurs, pistons get holes in them).

how can the maf misread air? a larger diameter maf tube will do it. non-laminar flow in the tube can do it (ie, as jay notes, the ecu is calibrated to read airflow based on a certain type of airflow, and this airflow can be modified by bends - or the lack thereof - upstream of the sensor) vacuum leaks can do it, vibration can do it (ie, I thought it was good to have the maf closer to the tb for better throttle response, but this also resulted in the transmission of more engine vibrations) etc.

the thing is, all the factors that affect air metering at open loop operation are present at closed loop operation, so, check your ltfts and see if they are high. If they are then your open loop afrs will be off (my understanding is that the ecu does not use the closed-loop ltfts when running open loop). a little bit of lean operation is ok; Porsche oem afr at wot is 12.5; moving to a 13 should be fine (will result in more power and better fuel consumption) as long as you use a higher octane fuel.

blah blah blah ...

How can I check the ltft? What is too high? Don't I need more miles on the car after the mods (less then 100 miles right now) before the computer sets the ltft?