Lucky86

I was looking thru my corvette central catolog and stumbled upon a kit with an open air cleaner ,not in a housing, claiming between 10-20 hp. Anyone using a non stock air cleaner?

XLR8TIN

claim is key word, try a open air cleaner & k&N filter, both found in corvette catalogs, but even this may only produce a couple

FASTAZU

After market Cat-back is your best bet for HP gain, next would be an E-prom change, than headers. If you want more and you will it just cost $$$

http://zr1specialist.com/

Crusin

Marc, that's why you are the ZR -1 Specialist. You have the right answers.

locobob

Not much to be gained at the air cleaner, perhaps a well designed true ram-air system would show some gains at speed but I haven't seen anyone making such a thing for C4's.

Crusin

I agree with you LocoBob, I think very little H/P would be gained going this route, cat back exhaust and headers would improve H/P greatly. Plus 4.10 gears.

LT5corsa

I agree 100% with HP gain from exhaust, headers, tune and 4:10's

Experts say ram air works on a big block LT-5 but its still a marginal gain and at high speed

Ram air requires cutting the support behind the license plate as well....

Very aesthetically pleasing but minimal gain, especially from a stock ZR-1



David

Rkreigh

graham told me that the stock paper air filter and housing was good to 800 hp so unless you are above that you're fine. just for grins, I swapped between a paper filter and a properly oiled K&N to test their claims ZERO difference same day dyno

Forced Air makes the "bumper ram air" setup which replaces the front license plate. you could get a big cooling blower and do a dyno test to see if it would pick up anything.

there is a "mild supercharging" effect from ram air, and it's probably worth about 5 hp (but that's over 100 mph)

save your money and your bumper, look for the HP elsewhere

marc coplon also had the nice "blaster" and jeal makes a beautiful carbon fiber "flipped" air intake that positions the air filter face down to pick up cool air. seems to work ok but I haven't seen any dyno tests to verify the power gains so I can't tell you if they work or not

they do look great though!

the "claw" style is actually a bit more restrictive than the factory setup again, it looks cool, but won't add power and actually flows less.

Crusin

I agree with your assessment on the Ram Air system, very little gain in H/P. I always assumed that K&N filters were the best on the market, your test proves otherwise. It just shows you one can't always believe the claims some of these companies make. CHEERS!

Goldcylon

The only thing good about the Ram air system is the Intake from licence plate as you are opening up more air to the bottom feeding radiator. If anybody has owned this system they will tell you thats really where all the benefit stops. The design really cramps the flex air tube (Think Dryer vent hose) from the air intake license plate to the bottom of the air filter housing. Thats right only about 25% of the air filter is getting any "Ram" air

Cutting the bumper support is only true for the 84-90 C4 and the 90 ZR-1. The 91-up requires no v notching of the bumber support so no big deal you are cutting into styrofoam. I think the front license plate looks Bad azz. But hey thats my opinion. What I did like about the AO system is they had two plate styles. One that said "Forced air" and the other that has the "ZR-1" logo on it. Everybody forgets the plenum inset that was labeled forced air as well. Also Damit I need to get my plate painted as its currently AB Blue maybe this winter before my 380 dyno run.

Neat concept. If they figured out a non flexible duct and "opened up" the entire surface face of the air filter element IMHO it would have been a true "Ram Air" Some previous owners have complained about shooting water into their engine during low type flood events, however lets face it we all ride pretty low. Your mileage may vary.

Crusin

A very good explanation in regards to this matter, result being very little H/P gain in adding a Ram Air System. Instead of going through the expensive of adding headers or 4.10 gears to obtain extra H/P, I think I will leave mine stock as I may sell to get a Z0 6 . Thanks for your comment.

5abivt

I may order my a/o today want to swap an unpainted for the AB assuming its in mint condition?