hey guys,

I've been looking into buying a Cervini's (www.cervinis.com) ram air hood and ram air conversion kit. However, It says the conversion kit will not work with the mass air flow sensor. I have the mass airflow sensor, and im not exactly sure what it does.....Do I need it? I'm thinking it knows how much air to put into the 5.0 so it doesnt run to lean or too rich. the hood looks bad a__ and i'd really like to convert my truck into the truck on their website. its bad...seriously so basically what im asking is, is the Mass air flow sensor necessary for my truck to run? or I if i bought a KN intake with the MAF sensor,and the directed ram air hood went over the KN filter (where the airbox used to be) would i be able to notice a difference? thanks.

 

Well, first...you didn't tell us what vehicle you have so I don't know if your truck has MAF or Speed Density. The MAF sensor is something your truck would have already, no parts like that come with the hood. I have the hood, and the extra kit you're talking about is to make the hood actually functional. It doesn't really do much for power but it will make the motor sound a little better. You should call them and tell them what truck you have and they'll tell you if they have a kit for the airbox for your truck. I ordered it for my truck but ended up finding out they're website was wrong and I actually had a kit for a lightning motor but I have a 5.0L...they didn't have a kit for my 5.0 at the time (they might now, iI got it like 2 years ago).

 

It's an F-150. 96 5.0l.

 

i know tha MAF doesnt come with the kit but i just wanted to know if i could remove it (the stock one that i have) and it would still run with the ram air?

 

NO...you cannot remove the air meter, your truck needs that for the engine to run. The hood itself will work on your truck, you just can't use the ram-air kit that makes it a "functional" ram air hood. I believe you will have a turbulance problem which is bad for an mass air motor. In a nutshell, it can make your truck run like garbage.

 

ram air kits if not properly designed will give your vehicle less air than the "normal" way.

This is because as any vehicle pushes through the air, there is a certain amount of air right at the surface of the vehicle that moves very, very little. THis is called a boundry layer. On an F-series pickup, this boundry layer is about 1/4" or so, therefore the bottom 1/4" of your ram air intakes (on the hood) aren't going to be too useful.

This boundry is thicker a few inches back from the hood, and right at the paint at the very very front of the hood, from the air hitting the flat face of the truck and flying over.

This is the same principle why bug guards, across the nose of the pickup, works so well to keep the windshield clear. That little "spoiler" in the front dramatically increases the boundry layer thickness over the hood, and in turn, the windshield.

The ram air intakes need to either be right at the very front of the hood, *or* raised above the hood surface.

This is why most race cars have their snorkels off the top surface of the body. As you increase your speed, the boundry layer gets thicker, which is why race cars have them 4-5" off the surface, whereas on your truck, it doesn't need to be that much at the speeds in which you drive.

 

You can make it functional if you make your own setup...it won't bother the MAF sensor. I had to sorta modify mine to fit as they don't make a kit for mine but I had the lightning's kit.