Please educate me on aftermarket MAFs

is it necessary? were all the mods on your car necessary? answer, no. with the plenum and TB you already have MAF will be a perfect addition without wasting money. Maf should've been first. then the plenum and TB. but whatever.. About how it works, yes it leans the car thus making more HP. Worth the money? Try finding one on ebay for cheap. I bought one for my friend for around $125 but that's rare.. You'll probably be seeing most for $250 which isn't bad at all... good luck

btw.. with all those mods you got a 14.2???

KaPPaBaLL said:

is it necessary? were all the mods on your car necessary? answer, no. with the plenum and TB you already have MAF will be a perfect addition without wasting money. Maf should've been first. then the plenum and TB. but whatever.. About how it works, yes it leans the car thus making more HP. Worth the money? Try finding one on ebay for cheap. I bought one for my friend for around $125 but that's rare.. You'll probably be seeing most for $250 which isn't bad at all... good luck

btw.. with all those mods you got a 14.2???

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I feel the opposite. I woulda got MAF last instead of first and gotten a Pro-M instead of C&L. I'm not sure if the C&L did anything and the Pro-M is nicer since it can be tuned/calibrated or whatever.

Pro-M is a nicer piece i agree but both are calibratable.

Look...Any tuner worth his salt can calibrate using the OEM MAFS. You do not need an aftermarket MAFS, especially if you're running the stock injectors. If you run large enough injectors, you may want to go with the 90mm Lightning or Cobra MAFS, but you don't need to spend $300 or so on some aftermarket part. When you throw those cams in, you may need a Lightning MAFS, but I'd ask my tuner if you'll even need one at all.
If he says "You need an aftermarket MAFS", find another tuner.

nickthegenius said:

LOL...no, that was in September before all the tracks closed. The only performance mod was my Magnaflow catback and I was running on 18's. I was fairly pleased with it. Now if I had all the mods I do now, I would have been rather displeased.

BTW, I think I might skip the Maf for now and focus on suspension and get some uppers/lowers and subs.

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very good choice.. i got my MM full length subframe connectors, c-springs, and tokicos all around. feels like a rock. need the LCA's and UCA's next.

If the stock one is tunable, what is the point of getting a $250+ aftermarket MAF? A calibration should cost way way less than that right?

I got an aftermarket maf because I don't have the time to drive the distance and wait for a tuner to calibrate the stock maf. It's simple and it saves time.

Getting a tune isn't easy for many of us. I'd love to get a dyno tune.

JonJon said:

If the stock one is tunable, what is the point of getting a $250+ aftermarket MAF? A calibration should cost way way less than that right?

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i'm with you on that one.. I'm gonna want a tune once i add a 75mm t/b to my combo, so i think i'll just wait till then

Redfire03GT said:

I got an aftermarket maf because I don't have the time to drive the distance and wait for a tuner to calibrate the stock maf. It's simple and it saves time.

Getting a tune isn't easy for many of us. I'd love to get a dyno tune.

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matt matt, didn't know it was you

Worth it ?? I dunno


We went the aftermarket route and found ourselves quite pleased with the results on the dyno. I spent the $$$ to go with the C&L 80mm MAF (which also comes with a K&N conical filter) at a dyno tuning session and found the improvement to be well worth it personally.


Just for comparisons' sake, we made one pull prior to installing the C&L with the factory MAF and paper filter setup. The only mods to the car were an off-the-shelf DiabloSport 4 bank chip and a set of Steeda UDP's. That combo grossed 336.5 at the crank (286 RWHP) with a pig-rich A/F reading.


After about a 20 minute fan-aided cooldown we installed the C&L MAF, changing absolutely NOTHING else. The next pull showed 352 at the crank (299 RWHP), with a nicely adjusted A/F mix to boot. That's right, we picked up an additional 13 RWHP with no smoke and no mirrors....... swear to God.


Moral of the story........... as with most mods, different cars and combos respond differently in otherwise identical conditions. There are folks here who will scream up & down that aftermarket MAF's are an absolute waste of both your time and money, and they're certainly entitled to their opinions. I just happen to be one of those guys who happens to be on the other side of the fence- and it's not from what I heard "Part A" did for a friends' car......... it's from what I've actually spent the time and money to find out for myself.
It's obvious that some folks don't get diddily-squat from an aftermarket MAF, but equally true that many of us did.


Since you've already got plans to add the UDP's, I'd say you're pretty well set up on the other bolt-on mods. So the only other thing I'd absolutely recommend is a good dyno tune to go on top of the MAF upgrade, should you decide to go that route.

Whatever you end up doing, good luck and we hope it helps !

If all you did was swap out the MAF sensor, then it sounds like the only thing that you did was leane out the A/F ratio, no?
There is only one reason for changing the MAFS calibration (either aftermarket, or tuning the OEM), and that's the need for more fuel.
And if you're already on the dyno, why spend the money on a part you don't need? Did this tuner sell you the MAFS? If so, he's just selling parts to make money.

The C&L 80mm flows at over 900 cfm, substantially higher than the factory setup. The change in MAF calibration occurs as a result of that increased volume of air flow (per minute), which necessitates a greater pulse (volume) of fuel to maintain uniform A/F ratios.
In other words, if you normally add one spoon of red pepper to your chili, you have to increase the amount you're adding if you're cookin' a bigger bowl and want to maintain that same "bite"/ per spoonful.


Sorry for the food analogy, but does that kinda make more sense now ??

OleGrayCar said:

The C&L 80mm flows at over 900 cfm, substantially higher than the factory setup. The change in MAF calibration occurs as a result of that increased volume of air flow (per minute), which necessitates a greater pulse (volume) of fuel to maintain uniform A/F ratios.
In other words, if you normally add one spoon of red pepper to your chili, you have to increase the amount you're adding if you're cookin' a bigger bowl and want to maintain that same "bite"/ per spoonful.


Sorry for the food analogy, but does that kinda make more sense now ??

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i get what you're saying...

Do you know what the 90mm Lightning MAFS flows? The reason I ask is that it's gotta be cheaper than the C&L unit, right? I mean, if you need a larger MAFS (so you don't peg it), why not use the Lightning's?
I like this conversation. It's a hot topic!

stick with the stock setup, i had a c&l and went back to the stock MaF and airbox with the headlight pulled for the strip. My corrected times are better with the stock setup over the c&l.

On the subject: I have a 01, now Ive seen that other guys have a 01 and go out and buy a 80 mm maf and claim good SOTP increase. How can this be? Doesn't the 00 and up have a 80 mm maf? Besides the pole on the stock maf whats the difference? Even with a aftermarket one you still use the stock sensor.
Thanks