Race MAF Worth it for Turbo Upgrade?

[Fg4Juke]

Hey all, I'm about to upgrade to the R365 turbo on my 2017 si. I'm currently running the prl short ram with the street MAF, will be upgrading to the 27won turbo inlet, and currently have a mishimoto intercooler. Is switching to the race maf worth it at this soon to be powerlevel? or is it not worth the hassle to switch over to a new intake system, i'd probably switch to the 27won intake. Thanks!

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[gtman]

I would say yes. That SRI is your weak link though.

Are you considering a 27Won Race MAF intake because you're concerned a PRL CAI might hydrolock?

 

[Fg4Juke]

I would say yes. That SRI is your weak link though.

Are you considering a 27Won Race MAF intake because you're concerned a PRL CAI might hydrolock?

Not too concerned about hydrolock. My reason for avoiding the cobra CAI is that I have a Canadian model and didnt/don't want to deal the washer fluid reservoir relocate

 

[madchiller]

a race maf will only get you a few extra whp at most so you'll need to decide it's worth. even with the street maf i still hit 345whp on the dyno and was limited by fuel not by air. if you plan on going past the typical 345-350whp mark with additional fueling it could be beneficial.

 

[Fg4Juke]

a race maf will only get you a few extra whp at most so you'll need to decide it's worth. even with the street maf i still hit 345whp on the dyno and was limited by fuel not by air. if you plan on going past the typical 345-350whp mark with additional fueling it could be beneficial.

I don’t plan on going anymore than fbo + R365 on 94. Worth going race maf? I wish prl sold the race maf conversion for less than 250$. Crazy price.

 

[madchiller]

I don’t plan on going anymore than fbo + R365 on 94. Worth going race maf? I wish prl sold the race maf conversion for less than 250$. Crazy price.

too me it wasnt worth it the extra 3-5whp you'd gain.

 

[Fg4Juke]

too me it wasnt worth it the extra 3-5whp you'd gain.

Understood and I see how that makes sense for just fbo and my current power level. My concern is that now that I’m going big turbo there’s a lot more “going on” in the system and wonder if it would be more beneficial. Are you big turbo as well?

 

[gtman]

I'm pretty sure at 345whp he's got a big turbo.

 

[Fg4Juke]

True, somehow missed that lol. Will be adding an update to my car on the tuning reliability thread once I go big turbo!

 

[gtman]

True, somehow missed that lol. Will be adding an update to my car on the tuning reliability thread once I go big turbo!

Sounds good. Updates there are always welcome.

 

[DadBodMod17]

I’ll be honest that’s surprising that the race mar doesn’t really add much benefit to a larger drop in turbo. I’ve upgraded my charge pipes in the anticipation that a race MAF would be needed. Doesn’t force the turbo to work harder or anything like that to stay street??

 

[Old F@rt]

I’ll be honest that’s surprising that the race mar doesn’t really add much benefit to a larger drop in turbo. I’ve upgraded my charge pipes in the anticipation that a race MAF would be needed. Doesn’t force the turbo to work harder or anything like that to stay street??

Agree, but I don't think it's so much about the extra hp, but more about the Race version will allow the engine to make that power easier. I just saw the Street MAF as a potential choke point, so went with Race when swapping out charge pipes, TIP & intercooler. My car seemed happier ( LTFTs) on the Race vs Street MAF, even though still on stock turbo. I'm sure Florida heat/ humidity has an impact.

 

[Austin@Wunderladen Racing]

The main reason for switching to a larger MAF housing is for the car to be able to make more peak power.

Most MAF sensors are referred to as a hot wire MAF, basically there is a wire in the sensor that has current run through it and is exposed to the intake airflow. As the air flows over the wire it cools it off, which decreases the electrical resistance of the wire, this creates a corresponding voltage or frequency signal that the ECU sees and is able determine the airflow of the engine. The problem is that there is a ceiling to that signal, in the case of a voltage based signal, it's capped at 5V, so when your airflow signal hits 5V, the computer is unable to measure any higher.

This is fixed by moving to a larger MAF housing, because the amount of air flowing over the hot wire in relation to how much air is moving through the rest of the pipe decreases, so the 5V signal references a higher airflow number allowing the ECU to be able to keep track of things again. This is also why the race MAFs require a retune, because it alters the relationship of airflow to signal voltage for the computer.

TL;DR larger MAFs don't create more power, they allow for more power. They're rarely ever the biggest restriction in the system.

 

[bbeem]

The scaling is different with the larger race MAF of course. I read that when driving easy with minimal air flow the race MAF is slightly less accurate on the bottom end which makes sense. It might also be more accurate at the top end with max air flow though.

 

[86salmon]

The scaling is different with the larger race MAF of course. I read that when driving easy with minimal air flow the race MAF is slightly less accurate on the bottom end which makes sense. It might also be more accurate at the top end with max air flow though.

The 27won race MAF is a prime example of this. It's HUGENESS makes tuning at low rpm trickier

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