More Air

[04MaroonTB]

Just curious. Is there an air silencer or restrictor that you can remove on the Trailblazer to help bring in more air? I will be putting in a K&N filter in soon an wanted to know.
I removed it on my Ford I had awhile ago and put in a piece of dryer vent hose from the fender to the airbox to allow less restrictive air coming in the engine.

[02EnvoySLE Guy]

Unfortunately there isn't anything I know of in there that can be removed. It's actually a mostly solid intake setup in the airbox. Have you ever taken yours apart? I had mine torn apart the day I bought the truck; actually about an hour after I got home with it. I was a bit dissapointed with the lack of modability to the stock setup.

[04TBEXT]

04MaroonTB,
Bringing in more air is helpful, but the amount of air which ultimately passes through the engine is controlled by the throttle opening, piston speed, and exhaust outlet diameter. Nice and shiny chrome air intake tubes with colored filter element are pretty. Maybe bringing in colder air from an outside source could be a claim, but when underhood temperatures are 200 degrees plus, I wonder how much this cold air is heated as it passes throught the tube and ultimately is ingested by the engine. When I think of these air intake systems, I think of tilting my head back, placing a funnel in my mouth and then pouring fluid into the funnel. The amount of fluid that enters my mouth is controlled by the smallest diameter of the funnel and the amount of fluid I can ingest. The only way to bring more air into the engine, other than changing its' physical dimensions, i.e boring, stroking, larger valve diameters, "more" camshaft, etc., is raising intake manifold pressures. Supercharging or turbocharging will fit the bill...Unfortunately, I know of no one out there to take on the design & development of our vehicles on a large scale with good R&D.

[Envoy Fan]

Unfortunately, I know of no one out there to take on the design & development of our vehicles on a large scale with good R&D.

Not what we wanted to hear, but unfortunately all to true. :cry:

[Jman423]

So are we wasting our money with the FIPK's and the High Flow intake setups, anything has to be better than that little tiny air intake tube on the front of my airbox..... right?

[04TBEXT]

The factory air intake is adequate for stock engine applications. To say the tiny air tube is inadequate is as much as saying the custom air intake set-ups are overkill. The diameter of the bores in the throttle body determine the static amount of air the will enter the intake. You can place as much air in front of the intake manifold you want, but it is the throttle body bore size that determines the flow amount. Conversely, the rate (speed) at which air enters the engine is determined by the engine's volumetric efficiency. With these two factors in consideration, all aspects of engine aspiration must be modified equally for an overall improvement to occur. With the factory set-up, all of this activity is monitored by the vehicle powertrain control system which has fuel trim tables burned into the powertrain control software. The PCM attempts to keep the stoichiometric fuel/air mixture @ 14:7 to 1 as measured by the absence of oxygen in the exhaust pipe. Technically speaking, fuel mixture is determined by the amount of oxygen present in the exhaust pipe, not the air intake.

[sallen]

so what your saying is that it doesnt matter and you should leave the air intake at stock

shay

[XTREEME]

so what your saying is that it doesnt matter and you should leave the air intake at stock

shay

I've noticed an improvement in performance and mileage with mine:

http://home.comcast.net/~joelischynski/TB4.jpg

[04MaroonTB]

Looks like we have a good discussion going here concerning this?

I know Ford has a air restrictor plastic baffle going from the wheel well into the airbox. The opening into the fender well was about 1/4 inch opening and it seems like the baffle was a maze of less air-more air-less air into the airbox so it was quite restrictive. We used to remove the baffle and add a dryer vent cut down which was a straight path of cold air going into the engine. It was more throaty sounding and gained some ponies that way.

I didn't take mine apart to look yet but instead of spending $300.00 on an Air Intake system this would of been a cheaper type of upgrade.

[04TBEXT]

Sallen...What I'm saying is the stock air intake system is adequate for stock applications and that the diameter of an opening dicates the amount which flows through it. The diameter, shape, contour, finish, etc. of an aftermarket air intake system cannot increase the volume (amount) of air that travels through the throttle body. Some people chose to use these systems for their reasons and I make no opposions..I'm just not fully sold on the idea.
04MaroonTB...I am not familiar with this specific Ford design, but I do know that many factory air intake systems incorporate a baffle system to avoid water ingestion...nothin' worse than the dreaded "hydrostatic lock-up"

[lgrpup]

Maroon, if you look at the pic posted by Xtreeme of the engine bay you can see the silencer. The little black box that says Vortec on it, is a silencer. I bought the Airaid kit, and found out that unlike the K&N kit it doesnt bypass this silencer. So I took off the box and used some silicone hose to extend the Airaid tube. This does make the engine noiser though. After reading some of the posts in this thread and seeing my fuel economy drop I am considering putting it back on. Also I was wondering if that black material of Xtreemes engine compartment was sound insulation? I thought the 06' model year was going to start getting the quite tuning, not 05'.

[lovswr]

Xtreeme, did you get the header spacer kit too? I see on the airaid website (http://www.airaidsales.com/www/AirAid-Intake-System-for-02-04-Chevrolet-Trailblazer-42L--P3C54.aspx) they list this for 02-04 TB's. However as it looks identical to the pic above on your 05 TB I am just assuming they have not updated that page yet.

[XTREEME]

Xtreeme, did you get the header spacer kit too? I see on the airaid website (http://www.airaidsales.com/www/AirAid-Intake-System-for-02-04-Chevrolet-Trailblazer-42L--P3C54.aspx) they list this for 02-04 TB's. However as it looks identical to the pic above on your 05 TB I am just assuming they have not updated that page yet.

Correct. The '05 is the same as '04 in this case.

[blandmiller]

I have an Airaid cone filter system on mine and it does help. I have chassis Dyno numbers to prove it. Increases were 5ft# and 7 Hp with the Airaid. :eek:

[Laloosh]

what were the before and after numbers?