air silencer removal

89tbsc

Registered User
i removed the air silencer today and thanks to all the posts it was a very easy job, after this was done i took the car for a ride and in about five minutes experienced a bucking and rpm fluctuaion of about 50 to 75 rpms. this was very similar to the same symptoms i experienced when my cam sensor went bad, was there a step in the process i did not see about removing the silencer. will unhooking the battery do any good? thank you for your help. p.s. after arriving at our destination and staying about two hours the car drove just fine going home, about ten miles.
 
Never experienced anything like that when I did mine. Double check the connections on the MAF sensor to make sure that they didn't get stressed or jiggled loose.

The airflow change isn't dramatic enough for the computer to need to relearn to prevent drivability issues.

Do you have a K&N panel filter?
 
no, i have not installed the k and n yet, could that be a problem? the maf sensor wires seemed ok
 
make sure you didnt damage the element on the mass air -if
you had that apart--also check that the little breather tube
on the intake hose is still connected and not leaking
its kinda on the underside of the tube
g/l
 
No. With or without a K&N won't affect the issue you report. Just won't see the big performance change without it.

But hose issue is real possiblity. Also damage to MAF. It is delicate internally. Just check it to make sure it's clean and some dirt didn't drop into the sample tube.

Also check that air line.

Pick below:
PCVHoseHighlight.jpg
 
Also make sure that the intake tube is tight at the TB end. I did a Air Silencer removal last week and when I was moving the intake tube out of the way it came off of the Throtle body.

If the clamp isn't tight it wil suck air and the car will buck under medium and heavy throttle.

If's it's all the way off, the car wont even start and run!
 
One issue with the silencer removed is water ingestion onto the filter. I removed my silencer. I was caught in a heavy downpour and started getting a "check engine" light any time I opened the throttle. The code was for MAF signal out of range due to a wet and non-flowing airfilter. I also noticed sand in the filter case.

I reinstalled the silencer but will be gearing up a better flowing replacement as I liked the performance increase and the blower whine.

Steve Best
 
That must have been quite a downpour.

I have never... and I mean absolutly NEVER had water in my airbox. And I've been cruising in some good rain, and gone through some nasty puddles.

Sand, who cares. That's why you have a filter. I find sand in the air box of most of my vehicles. Go down a dirt road 4 or five times a week and you'll find sand even with the air silencer.

If you use a K&N filter (you should), then you don't need to really worry about water either. If a paper filter get's wet, it swells and blocks airflow even more.

If the K&N filter get's wet, it just get's wet. Then it dries. The oil in the filter repells the water.
 
In all honesty it was a heavy downpour with lots of standing water on our poorly drained highways. And I was flying. 6:00am on a Sunday morning on my way to work from Cottage Country. As one of my buddies at work put it: "Did you see that rain? There was whitecaps in the middle of the highway!".

I run K&N filters on my PI Crown Vic and my SVO. I have run them on most of my bikes over the years. They definately improve performance but at the cost of less filtering. After 100,000 kms on the Crown Vic I noticed much fine grit accumulated (in the oil from the PCV) in the corners of the plastic MAF-TB plenum. Inspection of the SVO revealed grit accumulated in the crevasses of the VAM corrigated hose and compressor erosion. The older 84 SVO runs a stock paper filter and shows no such contamination.

Every modification has a cost, a side effect. Most folks are quick to tell you of the improvements but gloss over the downside. I have run K&N filters for years and been very happy with them, assuming they did a fine job of filtering. It is only lately I have seen the evidence to the contrary.

With the close tolerances of the blower on our engines I do not think I want any abrasives in there. I may run a K&N at the track (still supremely better than no filter!) but for street mileage I'll run a paper filter.

Steve Best
 
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