cold air intake problem on 97 GT

[jinx6570]

Has anyone had a problem with thier stang after installing a cold air intake? My intake goes from the throttle body to the fender well and everything is fine until you let off the throttle. The engine starts to sputter. RPMs are fine and it goes away if I put it in neutral and let the car coast. There isn't any hesitation under acceleration only when letting my foot off the gas. Any inputs would be appreciated. Thanx

[stangt00]

I personally didnt experience any of those symptoms from installing the cold air intake. The only thing I can think of to make sure you have good connections on all of the connections to the new pipe and to the EGR. My car wouldnt even run without those connected. Also make sure your air intake temp sensor is inline with the airflow so that it gets a good sample from the air.

[surfbeast]

Make sure all the hose connections are solid and that the MAF is solidly connected. You can spray the MAF sensor with some contact cleaner to clean off any oil residue that may be on it from the new oiled air filter. Ohter than that most CAI's don't cause problems.

[jinx6570]

For anyone interested, I fixed the problem. The intake has a 90 degree bend where it goes into the fender well and attaches to the filter. The filter is basically pointing at the ground. I cut the intake before the bend and reattached the filter. Now it is pointing out towards the fender. For what ever reason- this fixed the problem. I made sure all connections were good and that there were no air leaks. I even put the old factory intake back on- car ran fine. So, I cut the 90 degree bend off and it worked- go figure. Anyone have any reasons why?

[stangt00]

A Ford SVT tech told me when I put the Cold air on mine that the bends in the pipe disrupts the flow of air, and the mass air meter does not get consistant samples. Therefore the ECC constantly tries to change fuel air ratio's based on the MAF inputs. Even though once it hits the throttle body you are getting the right amount of air, the ECC doesnt know it because the MAF is'nt sending the right signals. I tried to interpret what he explained to me as best I could. But basically, that very well could have been the whole problem.

[Hammer]

Couldn't have said it any better stangt00...

[stangt00]

Hey, I do know a little bit Just enough to be dangerous.

[VicRattlehead]

Originally posted by stangt00
Hey, I do know a little bit Just enough to be dangerous.

good call 100% correct. it messes up the airflow and skews the transfer function that the maf is reading, then sends a different signal to the eec and then it f's everything up. as the orinal poster has found out. the maf is a VERY sensitive item, it needs to be 100% correct to get the accurate measure of air, and that means NO 90* bends right in front of it.

if you really want to learn more about the funtion of the maf visit tccoa.com and under tech articles/intake there are a bunch of articles on there that are very accurate.