Well i can tell you from a wideband readout that mine didnt change more than .2 pts before and after... My MS CAI did increase the volume of air, cooler air at that, into my engine, instead of having to suck through a straw which gave me loads of more power and efficiency.
Ive never seen an intake lean out it on my truck or mustangs in the past either. SO umm, yeah... Whatever. Perhaps in the import arena, companies get away with making bad products that do this, but on the domestic side of things, i havent had any issues.
This must go back to Cobbs reasoning of sucking in hot engine air through their Short Ram Intake and trying to convince consumers theres no difference in hp increased opposed to a CAI... Whatever it takes to sell their products i guess.
On several of my vehicles, ive relocated the MAF into the fender well. Again, no lean conditions or tuning issues. So as far as im concerned, this is total horseshit. It doesnt matter if you move your MAF up or downstream, the air is still being metered.
What people need to consider is the quality of the actual replacement MAF tube. If the sensor ( hot/cold wire ) is relocated into a non factory MAF thats improperly designed, youre going to have a shitload of problems. The sample tubes need to be dead on as these are used for proper calibration to your injectors.
As long as a company designed the MAF housing correctly, youre not going to have any problems. I dont think mazda was willing to sell a CAI manf'd by AEM if it wasnt designed properly and causing the cars to lean out. An airflow straightener would help these cars out because of the volume of air the intake side of the turbo brings in. On a Naturally Aspirated car, this isnt an issue.
Take what you want from the article but i find that this doesnt apply to us, the Mazda community.
