[nickc50310]

ok guys, whats the deal with the 3.2 intake?? now im seriously curious as to what the purpose of all the bends and wires are!! somebody has to know what the story is on this air intake. well im sure some of you other 3.2 owners are just as curious as me so lets do some research- im at work and got nothin else to do!! LOL!!

ill post whatever i can find.

do you guys think this bending is robbing us of power?? :thepan:

 

[odysseus]

I'm not sure why the snake-like intake pipe is so long. I know dual throttle bodies complicates it a little to reduce the 3" pipe to two 2" pipes.

RSM racing has a all metal version that they claim makes 11 RWHP, for a mere $560. After the 'great air intake challenge' this is likely solely due to the included K&N filter. I doubt the metal tube flows any better than the stock plastic tubes that we already have.

It would be cool if someone could fabricate something similar from 3" metal pipe, but have it go directly from the MAF to the dual throttle bodies (like the 3.6L) so we can dyno test it. There is a stock 'air intake resevoir' and 'air intake valve' attached that would likely need to be integrated, to keep the PCM happy.

 

[Mbai2]

The big plastic thing with the 2 tubes is a part of the multi-ram intake. There is a valve in there and also a valve in the intake plenum that are controlled by the ECM. Depending on which valves are open, it effectively changes the intake tube/resevoir length to optimize torque across the RPM range.

Look at page 5 in this PDF for details.

 

[MontySkull]

Is there a way to eliminate that valve before the throttlebody without buying RSM's overpriced intake?

 

[nickc50310]

yes but what does it all mean bazzle!!!???

ok,lol, i just had to put that in there since that was my first thought. i just had a revalation as to why the thing bends down all crazy like- you need an EQUAL distance for each throttle body! think about- if you bent the intake tubing straight to the air box the intake on the left (when facing the engine) would get a different amount of air because that pipe is longer. i think that having these crazy bends is our only option boys. now what if we made the entire works into a bigger pipe and then into a y splitter to the throttle bodies?? things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm.

 

[Mbai2]

Is there a way to eliminate that valve before the throttlebody without buying RSM's overpriced intake?

I guess it would be possible to replace the entire resevoir with 2 2" tubes of the proper length. From the document, it looks like it may harm low end torque.

 

[Mbai2]

yes but what does it all mean bazzle!!!???

ok,lol, i just had to put that in there since that was my first thought. i just had a revalation as to why the thing bends down all crazy like- you need an EQUAL distance for each throttle body! think about- if you bent the intake tubing straight to the air box the intake on the left (when facing the engine) would get a different amount of air because that pipe is longer. i think that having these crazy bends is our only option boys. now what if we made the entire works into a bigger pipe and then into a y splitter to the throttle bodies?? things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm.

Wow, that is a very good explanation. I never really thought of the length for each intake being the reason for the long intake path.

 

[MontySkull]

The valve is just a butterfly that opens up more or less when needed, right? What if we just kept it open?

 

[Mbai2]

The valve is just a butterfly that opens up more or less when needed, right? What if we just kept it open?

You could do this by grounding the circuit but the question is why? This wouldn't help performance. In fact, it would only hurt low end torque and most likely set off a few codes.

 

[MontySkull]

How would it hurt low end torque by opening up the air path to the plenum?

 

[Mbai2]

How would it hurt low end torque by opening up the air path to the plenum?

If you read the article I posted, you would see that at low RPM the valve is closed in order to achieve more low end torque. If you opened the valve too early, you would lose torque. Another thing is that the valve doesn't block any direct path to the TB. It only changes the volume of air that the intake reservoir can hold in order to match the intake resonance to the engine intake pulses within an RPM range.

 

[nickc50310]

ok my theory about the lengths was wrong. i looked at my intake at lunch and realized that the left tube does in fact have alot more length than the right. damn now im really stumped.

now, in looking at that rsm setup you can see that the valve is not going to be functional. would rsm sacrifice low end torque for more hp?? that would be stupid if they did! hmmm theres gotta be a way for us to get more power out of this thing!

 

[Mbai2]

now, in looking at that rsm setup you can see that the valve is not going to be functional. would rsm sacrifice low end torque for more hp?? that would be stupid if they did! hmmm theres gotta be a way for us to get more power out of this thing!

Many intake and exhaust modifications sacrifice low end torque for more horsepower. A less restrictive exhaust usually let's the engine breathe easier for more high end horse power but reduced backpressure actually hurts low end torque. Turbochargers sometimes are restrictive are low RPM's and hurt the torque. Once the engine reaches high enough RPM's and the turbos spool up, then the power increases. I would not be surprised if the RSM setup only improves performance at the top end.

 

[TCSisOFF]

If it ain't broke don't "fix" it

 

[s15driftking]

can anyone psot a link to the RSM intake? i want to see what that looks like. I hate the two rubber tubes coming off the stock 3.2 manifold, im sure those corrogated bends are robbing power.

 

[odysseus]

I think RSM has long since quit offering parts for the CTS, if they're even still in business. When the car first came out, they offered a Vortec type supercharger for it. Also custom intake hoses, etc.