Robby Camero
15+ Year Contributor
- 101
- 0
- Oct 27, 2003
-
Toronto,
ON, Canada
Just wanted to share some tips with anyone who is using a translator or plans on using one. This info is what I found when trying to sort out the final details of my gm maf setup. This info will mostly apply to those using a 3" maf and a 2.5 or 2.25 upper intercooler pipe.
The outside diameter of a gm 3" maf is 3.247 at its biggest point on the diameter where you will be using couplers to attatch the maf to the ic pipe. Whats the problem you ask? Ever try to put a 3" silicone coupling on something that is bigger by almost a 1/4 "? Its not frickin easy!!
Also, try and find a 2.5" - 3.25" silicone coupler. They arent easy to find if they even exist.
Ryan from Kinetic first told me about this problem while talking to him about a throttle body he made for my setup.
I found that there is plenty of material on the housings of the maf and you can easily remove most of it to make 3" couplers fit without having to have two grown men and a tub of grease to get the couplers on.
I took the maf appart, carefully placed the middle piece aside, and I was left with the two end peices. There is suffincient room to chuck the piece up in a lathe and turn the diameters down so they will nicely slide into the coupler.
The side that is closest to the throttle body can be turned down to 3.07". The side that is closest to the air filter can be turned down to 3.12"
I am a machinist and did this at work in like five minutes per side on our lathe so a machine shop will not charge you much for this easy fix. It will be worth the extra trouble in my opinion so you dont end up fighting with your setup. The result is the couplers go on with ease! The one that is bigger was a little harder to go on but a tiny bit of wd-40 made it slide on nice. This saves you time, effort and is nice when you have to take it appart for whatever reason.
I cant say if this would apply to the 3.5" maf guys but here is my setup to give you an idea of what I did. Also this helps by you having all the correst size couplers and not hacking anything to make it work.
-I had a 2g TB elbow and a Buschur 2.25 upper IC pipe.
-I now have a custom 2.5 TB elbow (2" longer than 2g and .25" bigger in diameter)
-3" gm maf
-2 x 2.5" - 3" silicone couplers
-I cut the Buschur pipe to now fit the maf and flared the end at a muffler shop to 2.5 to fit the coupler perfectly.
I dont know how many of you will care about this info but I find posts like these helpfull when considering a mod and saving time is always good too. Just thought some of you might appreaciate this idea I tried and it works and fits like it was actually suposed to be there. Remeber, this probably only applies to those who wish to use their 2.25 or 2.5 UIC pipe. A new TB is probably your best bet as well because the 2g tb is only 2.25. This setup is a first for me and I am new to this so I could be missing an easier solution but this was my simple solution. The real issue here is couplers to join the maf and the limited sizes you can get.
Feel free to add any other things I might have over looked while doing this. I know there are kits you can buy but this is much much cheaper.
Thanx for the space
Rob
The outside diameter of a gm 3" maf is 3.247 at its biggest point on the diameter where you will be using couplers to attatch the maf to the ic pipe. Whats the problem you ask? Ever try to put a 3" silicone coupling on something that is bigger by almost a 1/4 "? Its not frickin easy!!
Also, try and find a 2.5" - 3.25" silicone coupler. They arent easy to find if they even exist.
Ryan from Kinetic first told me about this problem while talking to him about a throttle body he made for my setup.
I found that there is plenty of material on the housings of the maf and you can easily remove most of it to make 3" couplers fit without having to have two grown men and a tub of grease to get the couplers on.
I took the maf appart, carefully placed the middle piece aside, and I was left with the two end peices. There is suffincient room to chuck the piece up in a lathe and turn the diameters down so they will nicely slide into the coupler.
The side that is closest to the throttle body can be turned down to 3.07". The side that is closest to the air filter can be turned down to 3.12"
I am a machinist and did this at work in like five minutes per side on our lathe so a machine shop will not charge you much for this easy fix. It will be worth the extra trouble in my opinion so you dont end up fighting with your setup. The result is the couplers go on with ease! The one that is bigger was a little harder to go on but a tiny bit of wd-40 made it slide on nice. This saves you time, effort and is nice when you have to take it appart for whatever reason.
I cant say if this would apply to the 3.5" maf guys but here is my setup to give you an idea of what I did. Also this helps by you having all the correst size couplers and not hacking anything to make it work.
-I had a 2g TB elbow and a Buschur 2.25 upper IC pipe.
-I now have a custom 2.5 TB elbow (2" longer than 2g and .25" bigger in diameter)
-3" gm maf
-2 x 2.5" - 3" silicone couplers
-I cut the Buschur pipe to now fit the maf and flared the end at a muffler shop to 2.5 to fit the coupler perfectly.
I dont know how many of you will care about this info but I find posts like these helpfull when considering a mod and saving time is always good too. Just thought some of you might appreaciate this idea I tried and it works and fits like it was actually suposed to be there. Remeber, this probably only applies to those who wish to use their 2.25 or 2.5 UIC pipe. A new TB is probably your best bet as well because the 2g tb is only 2.25. This setup is a first for me and I am new to this so I could be missing an easier solution but this was my simple solution. The real issue here is couplers to join the maf and the limited sizes you can get.
Feel free to add any other things I might have over looked while doing this. I know there are kits you can buy but this is much much cheaper.
Thanx for the space
Rob
I nearly chucked my maf against the wall trying to get my couplers on. 
