Hib Halverson

An aftermarket air filter assembly (aka “air box”, “intake kit”, “air induction system”, “ram air kit” or whatever) is often one of the first mods a many Corvette DIYs choose. On various vehicles, including Corvettes, I’ve had: K&N Fuel Injection Performance Kits, AIRAID Air Boxes, Vararam Ram Air Systems, Whisperlids and Granatelli Motorsports intake kits. They all have improved performance to some extent, but I’ve, also, never had one which offered a large improvement–until now.

For a few years, on my C5 Z06, I’ve had both an aftermarket air filter assembly and an aftermarket MAF sensor, both from Granatelli Motorsports, and expectedly, they provided a modest performance increase of 4.5-hp at the rear wheels, SAE-corrected. At the time, I was satisfied with that.

Several months ago, I was talking to my friends at Katech Engines, Inc about what intake kits they used on their customer cars. and they put me in touch with Jim Hall who owns Halltech, a maker of induction parts for Corvettes. Halltech is also the home of the “ULZ700”, a fully-streetable, 2770-lb, 715-hp, C6 Z06. Some have taken to calling Hall’s C6Z the “Snakeskinner II”. The car is a showcase for lightweighting C6 Z06es with carbon fiber parts. It even has CF wheels!

While Jim Hall sells a number of Corvette performance enhancements and exterior customizing products, his bread and butter are C5/C6 Corvette air boxes. Haltech sells a C5 product called the “Killer Bee II Conversion Package”. It includes the C5 Killer Bee II Cold Air Induction System, which is adapted from a intake system Hall designed for the C6Z06. It accepts an LS3/7/9 ”probe style” Hitachi MAF sensor the user supplies and comes with a Halltech wire harness adapter to connect the C5 engine harness to the C6 MAF sensor. *

The idea of using the LS7 MAF Sensor in an air filter assembly that parallels the later, C6 Z06 and ZR1 OE design, appealed to me. The “KBII” has been used on C5s with 427s making 600 at the wheels and, according to Hall, can ultimately support air flow for 950-hp, so maybe it’s overkill for my “puny” 430-hp LS6, but I still wanted to give it a try.

I ordered an LS7 MAF sensor (PN 15865791) from GM parts vendor, Tom Henry Racing. Once I had the sensor in hand, the KBII installation was duck soup. I removed the Granatelli Motorsports parts, installed the Halltech silicone hose connection, the Halltech air bridge and filter then installed the new MAF sensor and connected the adapter harness between the existing engine harness and the new sensor.

Because of the MAF sensor upgrade, you must reflash the ECM with a new MAF table. Trust me on this. I tried to use the LS6 MAF cal and the engine would barely run. Halltech supplies data for a couple of different MAF tables one can use as a starting point which you can program into your calibration and fine tune to your specific engine set up using HPTuners or similar software app.

I’ll gladly share my MAF table cal with anyone. Our engine was a stock LS6 with a Crane Cams package of 1.8:1 rockers, dual springs and titanium retainers along with: Denso IT22 plugs, MSD plug wires, RC Engineering 310-cc/min. injectors and a Corsa X-pipe. If you’re engine is similarly modified and you’re going to use the Killer Bee II, email me at finspeed@netmotive.net and I’ll send you the MAF data.

With the Halltech Killer Bee II in place, I took the car to the Westech Performance Group in Mira Loma, California to use their Superflow Autodyn chassis dyno to validate the installation. It was a warm day and, not wanting any knock retard to skew the dyno results, while Eric, Westech’s dyno technician, strapped the car down; I poured enough Rockett Brand 100 unleaded racing gasoline in the tank to make 93-octane. Then, I made five runs on the Westech Autodyn.

The results were surprising. The car averaged 380.1-hp at the rear wheels SAE-corrected which works out to just under 450-hp at the flywheel. The addition of the Killer Bee II paid off in a 11.1-hp SAE improvement over the Granatelli parts and a 14-hp improvement over the stock air filter assembly–that’s more than three times the improvement we saw with the Granatelli Motorsports MAF sensor and air induction.

In short, the Killer Bee II is, well...killer. I think it’s the best C5 air box on the market.

tlove32

Nice review of the KB2 If I were NA, I'd run one of those intakes

poopman

Does any one know where the cheapest place is to buy one of these from?

Halltech

Any Halltech dealer can help.

dbs1vette

I've got a Z16 I will be dropping my old LS3 based 416 I had in my 02 camaro. When that happens I'd like to try this cai and see what gains I get with it.

I was hoping Santa would bring one, or enough payola to afford one. He failed me miserably. I just have to know...Santa, where's da luv???

Halltech, can you help a brutha out??? I will gladly do a back to back stock vs killa B dyno run. Deal???

Sigforty

How wide is the Killer Bee filter? I currently have an old Halltech Stinger and the filter needs to be replaced so I am thinking of changing. I am limited with the filter size due to my nitrous outlet stand alone mounted beside the filter.

Halltech

We no longer make the 1st gen filter. It was 14" by 4" inlet; the Super Bee filter is 15" X 4.5" intlet

Halltech

715 HP N/A/ 2777 lbs .5 g fuel. A/C and all interior onboard. Carbon fiber body, driveshaft, wheels, with a complimentary hose of titanium exhaust, bolts, brackets.
Nothing GM will make until 2017 will compete with this build.
Make sure you watch in 1080P High Def.

dbs1vette

What I like is the offer by Halltech that whoever buys one of their cai setups, gets to drive this bad boy for a day. So far I'm in line for 2 days of bliss.

Wonder just how much trouble I could get into with that car in a short time? I'm guessing quite a lot!

Halltech

Come on by the shop this Spring and we will go out for a spin. Literally.

Passed a cop 4 years ago, and didn't see him on a two laner. Blimped the throttle in 2nd, he did an instant u-turn and came after me. 85 in a 45. "were you wearing your seat belt?" I had removed it to access my wallet. "Yes I was", "Oh, I was going to only write you up for a no seat belt, but now I have to give you an 85 in a 45 ticket. Hey, I'll give you a break and make it 10 over." Jerk. Cannot tell a lie, bit me in the arz.

dbs1vette

If I just happen to be out in your neighborhood for a cruise from AZ, I'll stop by and go see what spinning is all about!

A few years ago whilst driving across the deserted hiways of NV, I decided to see what the 05 GTO would do. At 155mph it was steady Eddy for several miles. Waaay out in the distance a lone car came into view. What's the chances I thought????? Pretty good it turned out (or bad). He did write it for 130mph in a 65 as a way of doing me a favor. I guess it was better then taking me to jail, which he reminded me he could do. That little ramble cost me $450 in a fine and about $2000 time it dropped off my driving record. Really not worth that much, but fun for about 5 minutes!

momo20

Nice review! On a side note how do you get results or rule out other types of cold air or ram air intakes when they they only work while the car is moving? Air on a dyno and the open road are two completly different situations in my head maybe I am over thinking this

REVHARD

When my tuner Dr. Phil recommends the LS7 MAF style sensor intake for best results I listen...called Halltech last week and purchased the Killer Bee conversion kit...also recommended by Katech.

--X--

Been running the v1 Killer Bee conversion for over six years now... Would like to upgrade to the v2 filter if it will fit.

Halltech

Sorry, it will not fit. 4.5" vs. 4" flange and intake tube.

Spectre86

Picked up one from a friend that went with a single turbo.

I made 560whp/500tq on a 427 stroker with a bone stock LS7 intake. I had a blackwing on the stock motor and picked up a 100mm MAF. When the 427 swap was done with the new TB, nothing would line up. I was already over budget so a stock LS7 air intake was used.

Car will be going in for a back to back tune with the LS7 intake vs Halltech. Im hoping for 15-20whp since 14 seems to be common on stock motors.

bobby777

Nice write-ups on mrs -B:-If you want only outside air the coolest possible--its VARARAM only -

NemesisC5

Did you do the back to back dyno comparison of LS7 intake vs Halltech KB II intake??

Yes back from dead...saw the link to this thread on Halltech website.

03 Z-oh-6

Will this outperform a blackwing on a stock c5 z06? Tunning needed?

garrettg

Tuning on this is not a choice, it requires the purchase of a ls3/ls7 maf so its an requirement that a tune is needed to map out this new maf into the c5 ecu. All other cai using the stock maf like the blackwing don't require a tune but its highly recommended otherwise you will be running very rich during power enrichment mode which is 60%+ throttle situations and may get the occasional lean code if you don't tune. Even a stock filtered c5 z06 will benefit from a tune, so if you make changes even say a kn filter in place of the stock filter a tune would be advised. There are mail order options if you don't want to spend the money for a local dyno tune. If you want to monitor how much you car is trying to compensate from any cai or air filter mod get the torque andriod app and a blue tooth odb2 module and look at the short and long term fuel trims.