Chevrolet Cavalier Performance
driftracer
Member Posts: 2,448
First, they don't allow cursing here, so edit your post, please.
RK Sport has everything you can imagine for Cavalier performance. NOPI also offers several things that will boost peak hp and torque.
Bear in mind, just about anything you do that's NOT RK Sport will trash your warranty. RK Sport is a GM subsidiary and their products don't affect the warranty when installed properly.
RK Sport has everything you can imagine for Cavalier performance. NOPI also offers several things that will boost peak hp and torque.
Bear in mind, just about anything you do that's NOT RK Sport will trash your warranty. RK Sport is a GM subsidiary and their products don't affect the warranty when installed properly.
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Poster also wondered about cold air intake. My research indicates that these don't work and that a cannister type (ram-effect) air filtration system would be much better. CAI only works on a cold day (as does your normal filter) and merely sucks warm air into your engine on a warm day, same as your regular filter.
Any other suggestions for the Cavalier? post 'em here.
MrShiftright
Co-host
I cannot believe you, as the Host, would post such a statement. A little history. In the earlier days, the air filter housing snorkel ended in the engine compartment. This being done, all you ever got was hot engine air. Later on they decided to route the input to the filter housing to outside the engine compartment. This provided much ‘cooler’ air compared to the engine compartment. Unfortunately, the manufacturers made the run not very straight and constrictive. If someone installs an aftermarket CAI, they will see an improvement. I know! I did not buy an aftermarket CAI, but took off the ‘S’ shaped intake in the fender well and now see an improvement in performance. The input to the filter housing is still in the fender well so that I get cooler air.
True that Ram Air is the next step in getting even more performance boost. This system forces in even more cooler air than a CAI.
The logic of CAI escapes me, since the factory systems take in air right behind the grill anyway, and, even worse, on warm days a CAI is sucking in warm air just as warm as a factory system.
The supposed "non-restrictive" qualities of CAI systems create a lot more noise than horsepower. Possibly at very high rpms with a large displacement engine, you might gain a couple HP under very ideal conditions. Hardly worth the trouble IMO.
Your experiment really supports the contention, in my mind, that CAIs arent' in fact worth the money, since some tuners report that by merely cutting a hole in the factory air box, they outperformed the CAI easily.
Second, outside air is 'cooler' than engine compartment air. Some CAI systems do not exit the engine compartment. Those systems I would not buy. The systems that extend outside the engine compartment will receive the 'cooler' air.
Third, the larger vehicles air intakes are right behind the grill. Most smaller vehicles route the systems to the fender well than right in back of the opening underneath the front headlights.
"The supposed "non-restrictive" qualities of CAI systems create a lot more noise than horsepower. Possibly at very high rpms with a large displacement engine, you might gain a couple HP under very ideal conditions. Hardly worth the trouble IMO. "
The CAI system does give a little more noise than the factory system, but that is because of all the baffling the factory does on the air intake to reduce this noise.
As far as doing a Dyno test on CAIs, for me it is hard to see how you can get good 'real world' results when the vehicle is sitting still and the air that is getting sucked in is whatever the air temperature is in the garage at the time of the test. Try take a stock from the factory Cavalier on a road test. After you are done, remove the restrictive "s" snorkel intake and run the same road test. See if you do not see an improvement in horsepower. I sure did!! It's A FACT with my Z24.
A true cold air system draws air from outside the engine, usually low in the compartment, and can improve performance SOME (like 1-2%). No major gains, like so many vendors claim...
Add it because it sounds cool and looks cool, don't expect any performance from it.
Mr Shiftright has plenty of experience to draw from and his opinions are directly in line with mine on this.
Install it if it makes you feel better, and your buddies go nuts in the parking lot when you pop your hood - just don't expect to see dyno or quater mile results.
So, if you figure that you're not always going to be 10 degrees cooler (especially on a warm day), and that you're not always going to be in the top end, and that 1% is hardly noticeable, and that you could lose that 1% with low air pressure in your tires or other variables that occur in your engine---well, what's the point of it?
Also I've seen some CAI installations that are downright dangerous---they are too low in the airstream and there's a risk of hydro-locking.
Having said all that, there may be some cars where it's worth it, maybe the older machines, but I have never seen a really bad design on air intake in a modern car.
And we haven't even talked about people using air filters you oil up, which have been causing grief to MAF sensors and clogging up on dusty roads.
I was once much more in favor of CAI but the more I read and the more pro people I talk to, the less and less I think of them as worth the effort and money. If you gave me one for free, sure I'd try it.
I know the increase is not alot, but if the flow is smother and the air is cooler, meaning the air is cooler outside the engine compartment than inside the engine compartment, than the car will run better and might even get better gas milage.
Further, I don't know how you think you can Dyno air flow. Read all my postings. Kinda hard to Dyno air intake performance from a CAI or Ram Air scoop when the vehicle is sitting still and in a garage.
My car still looks stock. So does the engine compartment. But it has surprised alot of people on how quick it still is and always has been.
I believe you and I should put this thing to rest and state, you have your likes and I have mine. I know for my application, what I have done works great for me. It might not be for everyone.
The claims simply do not seem to hold up to any kind of rational and methodical testing. The evidence is all anecdotal and can't translate onto a dyno or a time slip with any sort of reliability and certainty. Why? The "improvements" are so small as to fall into the normal variables of dyno testing or driver error/skill.
On the other hand, you put a turbo, or a custom intake and larger injectors on a car, and you can measure it decisively.
If people building big HP tuner cars tell me they don't work, I am hard pressed to discount their advice because they know so much more than I do about it.
So I'm just passing professional opinion to you along with my own reading and research. It all tilts to a very high level of skepticism and doubt about claims for significant power increases through CAIs or "free flow" air filtration.
I think I qualified this by saying that the ram-effect cannister systems coming out of Europe are better.
And by the way, if you think that a stationary roller dyno is the only way to measure performance on a vehicle, think again.
So that's an impasse right there.
I dunno what to say. When real smart people who do this for a living adamantly tell me to save my money on this stuff, it's hard for me to ignore it.
But nobody knows everything about everything, that's true.
Now and then a car will fool you. I remember a non-cat Porsche Turbo where a Flowmaster muffler of all things gave some GREAT results. Oddly enough, the completely non-restrictive muffler they tried prior made the car worse, but the Flowmaster, which has SOME restriction, really helped in the high end of the band.
This is not something I would have predicted.
So maybe on a very old car with a big engine, a CAI might give a noticeable improvement. The engine builders tell me that the more the cubes, the more the chances of CAI or K&N registering a couple horsepower.
Steve, Host
what are some of the cheaper things i could do???????
and what should i do in the future to improve the performance of the car in general???????
for any suggestions.
i read some of the messages and still don't understand the real difference between CAI and Ram, could u explain it and is it really worth it??????????????
CAI is really about the placement of the filter, and the RAM AIR is more about the nature, size and routing of the tubing going to the engine's throttle body or carburetor or whatever is gulping in the air to the engine.
So CAI is relying on dropping the air temperature into the engine for more power (denser air has more oxygen) and the RAM systems are about forcing large amounts of air into the engine "for free" as you build up speed. Of course it's not that simple as you don't get more and more pressure the faster you go...and the design, length and diamater of the tubing on RAM systems is pretty sophisticated (or should be) if it's going to work.
One thing I can tell you with some assurance is that while a well designed CAI system or short-ram system may give you some HP (depending on how good or bad your STOCK system is), ....one thing that doesn't work is a simple "drop-in" so-called "free-flow" filter.
So is it worth it, a CAI or RAM system? To answer that you'd have to research some site or contact some person who has done it on your car AND tested it accurately.
Many dyno tests on modern cars are completely wrong because the engines are so complex in computer regulation that the dyno numbers jump all over the place as the engine runs from one "map" to another. I'd imagine that VTEC type engine are particularly difficult to dyno accurately.
But I think, from all the reading I've done, that the very best result you could expect from the best designed and most expensive system (and some of these are difficult to install and quite $$$) might be 15 HP or so, and with a typical CAI running outside the engine bay, maybe 5-9HP. Same-o, same-0 with RAM, depending. I think anything over 15 HP would be exceptional results.
Factors in deciding whether it's worth it would be the difficulty of the particular installation, and whether they place the air intake so low as to put the engine at risk from scooping up water on the road.
A CAI theoretically can improve throttle response. I'm not sure if you can buy an aftermarket throttle body for this car or not, but that's a possible way to go.
single chamber flowmaster
k&n filter (cone)
shocks nothing special but better than stock
he has the same mods except magnaflow exhaust
Well we ran them and the cold air intake didn't help him at all i barley beat him so personally I dont think it is worth it unless you want a show car with little go!
Thom
You want to be careful about noise. What sounds nice at idle or low speeds can drive you nuts hour after hour on the highway.
Chevy Cavalier Forum
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MrShiftright
Co-Host
Long have automatic transmissions been shunned, but they've dominated racing for a long time. Now, of course, top fuel dragsters don't even have transmissions, and some classes of racing require a manual, but many racing cars use [highly modified] automatics, or so called "sequential manuals" which are nothing more than an automatic that lets you select the "gear".
The pros of a manual transmission are they are more easily modified to handle more power, they typically (as is the case with the cavalier) have better gear ratios, and they are cool and fun. Let's not get into the issue of numbers, since while more gears has its advantages, 4 is really all you need (3 works, but is admittedly outdated).
The cons of a manual is that they are suseptable to driver error, and they all but require that you disengage the clutch to shift gears. This momentarily interupts the flow of power to the wheels.
An automatic transmission may not have the same ratios, and it is far too pedestrian for some young folks eager to have a cool ride. But it does all the thinking for you, almost never makes a mistake, and shifts out of one "gear" and into the next instantly, with little or [frequently] no power interuption.
To credit the 4t4oe, its ratios are quite snappy, and it will hold its gear to redline if pushed. It can also handle more power than most people give it credit for.
... and keep local noise ordinances (and your neighbors) in mind too please.