devosm
LVC Member
Installed my new chip and in dash nav system
What did you do to your LS today?
- Thread starter RigsLS
- Start date
Thanks, and I've thought about it. Black seems to make the wheels look a lot smaller on this color.
I really liked the 300s v6. I even think the base v6 is good enough for me. The 8 speed really makes a difference. I would say it's just as quick as the LS, probably because of the transmission. The 300c is nice and all but I hate the 5 speed, and I can't justify the price over what little gain in performance I would get.
And at the end of the day you would still have a Fiat, er, Chrysler.
I know, I know. Not too many other attractive options today..
2005_LS_V8
Active LVC Member
Last night, I did the poor man's intake mod. I removed the air box, looked at where the stock filter seats to and began drilling out below that level on the two closed sides. Also removed that air-horn-looking thing that is really pretty nifty, but probably restrictive. I unhooked the battery for 40 minutes while I drilled the air box.
After I hooked up the battery, I went to open the driver's door and that set off the alarm. On startup, I got an error about 'foot on brake/set parking brake. That finally went away after a few minutes of driving. The memory seats would not accept a setting until this afternoon. Now, everything seems normal again.
Car is scary fast now. Many say that you only get better throttle response or you don't really get HP gains. I dunno. I think more air in makes a huge difference. I've certainly had vehicles (F-150 V8, Regal V6) that didn't benefit so much from this mod. But those were one valve per cylinder engines. Four valves per cylinder can make much more use out of more air in. I didn't have the $270 to blow on the fancy aftermarket intake. My cost, $0.00! Total time, about an hour and a half (I'm slow as a turtle). The most time-consuming and annoying part of the job was filing off all the plastic from the edges of the holes I drilled.
Of course, now that I know I may have a bearing replacement ahead, I'm not going to be punching it much at all.
Removed this thingy:
Making this opening less restrictive:
Tools used: drill, 1" and 3/4" router bits, round file
My new, swiss-cheesed airbox:
Oh, almost forgot, today I went to the dealership and had the computer scanned so I could get my door unlock code. Mission accomplished and no cost.
After I hooked up the battery, I went to open the driver's door and that set off the alarm. On startup, I got an error about 'foot on brake/set parking brake. That finally went away after a few minutes of driving. The memory seats would not accept a setting until this afternoon. Now, everything seems normal again.
Car is scary fast now. Many say that you only get better throttle response or you don't really get HP gains. I dunno. I think more air in makes a huge difference. I've certainly had vehicles (F-150 V8, Regal V6) that didn't benefit so much from this mod. But those were one valve per cylinder engines. Four valves per cylinder can make much more use out of more air in. I didn't have the $270 to blow on the fancy aftermarket intake. My cost, $0.00! Total time, about an hour and a half (I'm slow as a turtle). The most time-consuming and annoying part of the job was filing off all the plastic from the edges of the holes I drilled.
Of course, now that I know I may have a bearing replacement ahead, I'm not going to be punching it much at all.
Removed this thingy:
Making this opening less restrictive:
Tools used: drill, 1" and 3/4" router bits, round file
My new, swiss-cheesed airbox:
Oh, almost forgot, today I went to the dealership and had the computer scanned so I could get my door unlock code. Mission accomplished and no cost.
Looks pretty cool 2005LSV8! Might as well cut the whole bottom out though like on here: http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/tech/Lincoln-LS/Modify-Airbox/
RigsLS
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Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
Nice, but I noted that the modder both cut the entire bottom of the box off and complained about the airbox now being far more bendable. It looks like he cut the bottom out by cutting along the side of the box in line with the bottom. If you were to cut the actual bottom out instead, leaving a half inch lip on the bottom, around the curve from the side to the bottom, you would retain the most of the stock rigidness of the box and would still get the benefit of the opened box.
lincolnelite
Well-Known LVC Member
Really, if this is true then Ford will save a lot of money by getting rid of the snorkel and since there is less material for the intake housing it will be cheaper (either making more holes or cutting the bottom) to manufacture. I hope this is not just a placebo effect. There might be a difference if the air filter is dirty to begin with and was replaced with this mod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCi2yo4UqPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCi2yo4UqPI
I would bet money your battery's on the way out. The alarm will do that after disconnecting the battery for a lengthy time or when reconnecting a low battery. The parking brake instruction is normal after battery replacement.
Their test is flawed (I don't remember how as I don't want to watch this again). Just like Myth Busters said it was more efficient to drive freeway speeds with the windows open than running the A/C. They did that test at 50mph. IIRC, they were called out on and redid the test at ACTUAL freeway speeds. Shock of shocks, they "discovered" that at actual freeway speeds running the A/C vs having the windows down yielded better economy. Who'da thunk?????
NickT88LSC
Dedicated LVC Member
Changed my right front wheel bearing, car is nice and quite now. All 4 wheel bearings have been done on my car now within the last 2 years
lincolnelite
Well-Known LVC Member
This test is more scientific than Mythbuster's redneck methods. Anybody who can debunked this?
Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
It's flawed because they are using a 6 foot corrugated sewer pipe and are not getting the pressure into the box that actually running the car on the road would have. The ram air effect would not be all that much, but every little bit helps.
2005_LS_V8
Active LVC Member
Thanks for the tip! At the mom and pop dealership I bought it from, the saleswoman mentioned that the mechanics had 'done something with the battery' and had to reconnect it. She didn't specify what it was and I didn't think to ask as to whether that was a new battery or one that had been removed for bench charging or a dying one or whatever. I just assumed it was new. It's probably old, though. I'll see if there is a date.
At any rate, I'll get it tested real quick now. Probably should just leave it with my mechanic for the afternoon and ask him to evaluate the suspension, the pulley system, the cooling, all those potential LS problem areas. One good thing about this LS for my situation is that I work for a large car parts distributor. As long as we carry the part, I get about a 50% discount from retail pricing. We carry the suspension parts but not headlights. I should check that degas bottle part.
2005_LS_V8
Active LVC Member
A difference in what? Performance? By removing dirt, which would allow what? More air flow into the engine, more Cubic Feet per Minute, CFM? Are we to believe that more air into a clean filter would harm performance? Or would it just have no effect at all? Now those electric inline fans, those are a drag on performance, because they don't move any more air. In fact, they slow it down by air resistance from the too-slow-moving fan blades. Pure, factory intake CFM would be better than that. But the reason intakes have become popular, even when expensive, is that they do indeed let in more CFM of air into the engine for a given throttle position. Performance is improved along the entire power band. At low speeds, the lowered air resistance increases MPG.
Now, why do Ford and all other manufacturers not do this? Aesthetics, emissions requirements, tradition, not wanting to market a car that runs at it's physical limits... I can think of many reasons. As far as the gains in performance, the proof is in the pudding. Like I said, I've done this to some cars and it didn't do as much as I wanted or expected. Those were the one valve per cylinder engines. My old Sebring six cylinder engine had either 12 or 24 valves, I forget, but the intake had an impact there. On the LS V8 32 valve engine, the effect is rather astounding. My V8 F150, I think only 8 valves, single overhead cam, 5.4L, the intake added some power, but it didn't blow me away.
So it's a direct relationship to valve count, IMO. Probably some other comparison is more correct. But essentially, the more you are processing that air down the line to get some additional performance, such as Dual Overhead Cam and 4 valves per cylinder, the more you are going to benefit from a de-restricted intake. The rich get richer, in this case. The poor get only moderately less poor. So you would have to define what all the possible test vehicles scenarios COULD be. Did they do that, or did they just grab some rental piece of junk? I haven't watched their video, they irk me. I'm pretty sure I could put a restricted intake system on a Viper and then put an open intake system on the same Viper and see some measureable gains in performance.
Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
What he was saying was clear to me. Someone installing a performance enhancer may perceive more of a performance gain than they actually received from the new part, because they performed other needed maintenance at the same time. In the case of a CAI, a person may replace a dirty filter at the same time they install the part, and thus would see more of a gain than they would if they installed the same CAI on a car that had a clean air filter.
col batitong
Active LVC Member
Finished installing the suspension parts, new head unit, fuel pump, eibach lowering springs and 4 wheel alignment. LS runs nice and smooth again
:Beer
:Beerlincolnelite
Well-Known LVC Member
Economically it doesn't make sense. The cheapest re-usable cone filter (spectre) is $20, why would car manufacturers invest on the stock filter housing. Definitely it cost more than fabricating a plastic heatshield. Why spend on ecoboost technology when a K&N filter (or CAI) will improve mileage or power? Is that what car manufacturers wanted? More flow on the intake doesn't mean more power the car, it all depends on the PCM. The car has a computer that senses the amount of air coming in via the mass air flow sensor and adjust accordingly to maximize fuel efficiency. You could put in a high speed fan to boost the CFM but if the computer says this is the max I could handle it's useless. Just beside it is the Intake Air Temp sensor and that also is being used by the computer to adjust the blend. The swiss cheese mod might even cause some problems on idle, those holes could allow hot air from the engine cabin. If you look closely the stock filter box has rubber fittings to the holes in the fender and near the headlight. It was designed to not allow air from the engine cabin.
To summarize, a CAI or any intake mod without a proper tune is worthless. I have a CAI installed on my LS and I haven't seen any performance or mileage improvements, sure it sounds good and my engine bay looks cleaner.
I have a friend who has a BMW m5, it has 500hp. The 2 MAF sensors were disconnected from the 2 intakes, the reason is that the computer is told to ignore the values from the sensor and just tune it always for performance. In this case you are sacrificing gas mileage for performance. Any tuner specialist will say you can't have both, that's why I'm skeptical when somebody says "It improved my mileage and at the same time I have more power".
Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
You assume that the OEM's main goal is to maximize mileage or power. It is not. The OEM's goal is to balance between mileage, power, emissions, longevity to prevent warranty claims, and who knows what else. Were this not the case adding a few degrees of timing in the right places would not improve both mileage and fuel efficiency. The OEMs know that they could do this and get the same results, since they likely test each field on the fuel/air map to see what the results are. If the advance produces more emissions than they expect, they kick it back. If it runs the engine close enough to the edge that someone putting crap fuel in the car might result in a warranty claim, they kick it back. So yes, it is possible to make changes to the car that get improvements in both power and fuel efficiency. In fact, it is more likely to be able to see improvements in both because a computerized car can be modified to tune more towards fuel efficiency under light loads and low throttle and more towards power under WOT conditions. I agree that a tune is required to take full advantage, but a car computer has some leeway to adjust itself to improved hardware so the computer can take partial advantage without a tune.
I might also add an example of where fuel efficiency is sacrificed for emissions - lean cruise. Lean burn can increase fuel economy by as much as 20 percent on the highway without damaging the engine, but it increases NOX emissions and would require a more expensive catalytic converter to reduce NOX, and a wide band O2 system to correctly monitor the mix. Thus, while the OEMs have offered this in the past lean burn is not a common use system. We may see it more in the future though, if CAFE requirements go past what they can do at the time.
Keep in mind your going to be riding down the highway at 70-80 mph. Also with wind hitting your car and hopefully going into your intake, in a completely different car than they tested. Every car will react different to a cold air intake, I'm sure, as they aren't all built the same.
Upstairs Chris
Dedicated LVC Member
My opinion, is that on its own an intake doesn't do much other than look cool and sound good.
With the ways cars are controlled by computers these days you could put a huge cone on the front of your car leading into the intake and see almost nothing. The computer is going to adjust everything to compensate to get the car to run the way it is supposed to. In order of what I did to my car was 1)Intake 2)Full Exhaust) 3)Tune.
With the intake the sound change was the biggest factor no noticeable performance gain. The exhaust bumped me a good bit on the butt dyno but as it should. I got a full magnaflow system to include cats. Now, even with those things the computer was still in charge. Once I got a Torrie tune, holy ****. Much improvement in almost every department but I'll stay on topic here with the engine. With the ability to intake more air and get the exhaust out quicker the tunes Torrie made for me, MPG...Performance....and Performance + 2 degree's of timing, made a world of difference. I haven't tried MPG yet, maybe on a long trip or something. I also haven't tried performance +2, just performance. The car is noticeably quicker. It's not like adding a turbo or anything I mean you have to be realistic. I'd estimate 10-15 in gains on both HP and TQ. The shift speed increase is really what gets you going quicker.
I use the Torque Pro android app and a OBDII bluetooth adapter. It's not exact but it's close enough. I've launched to 60 in 6 flat before according to that thing. It was 6.6 with just the intake.
Again, the ability for the intake to make some gains is there. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the obvious improvement in flow path and resistance, but you have got to modify that computer to actually use it.
With the ways cars are controlled by computers these days you could put a huge cone on the front of your car leading into the intake and see almost nothing. The computer is going to adjust everything to compensate to get the car to run the way it is supposed to. In order of what I did to my car was 1)Intake 2)Full Exhaust) 3)Tune.
With the intake the sound change was the biggest factor no noticeable performance gain. The exhaust bumped me a good bit on the butt dyno but as it should. I got a full magnaflow system to include cats. Now, even with those things the computer was still in charge. Once I got a Torrie tune, holy ****. Much improvement in almost every department but I'll stay on topic here with the engine. With the ability to intake more air and get the exhaust out quicker the tunes Torrie made for me, MPG...Performance....and Performance + 2 degree's of timing, made a world of difference. I haven't tried MPG yet, maybe on a long trip or something. I also haven't tried performance +2, just performance. The car is noticeably quicker. It's not like adding a turbo or anything I mean you have to be realistic. I'd estimate 10-15 in gains on both HP and TQ. The shift speed increase is really what gets you going quicker.
I use the Torque Pro android app and a OBDII bluetooth adapter. It's not exact but it's close enough. I've launched to 60 in 6 flat before according to that thing. It was 6.6 with just the intake.
Again, the ability for the intake to make some gains is there. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the obvious improvement in flow path and resistance, but you have got to modify that computer to actually use it.
Murdered_LS8
Well-Known LVC Member
I bought one of those Bluetooth obd2 scanners today. Any pros/cons?