[bbrown450]

Fascinating ... I come from their C6 /7 world and have always had a Haltech on my cars. Aside from the mild gain in HP more numeric than "seat of the pants", the roar you get from both ends is amazing. In the C7 they did a decent job with a "built in" CAI as it would extract air from a chamber that led to front of radiator. It is great to see them with a similar design with that pipe cannon of as tube.
I am very impressed with the Vibe of this site guys, to see a manufacturer step down and share where they are and where they are going ... The way it should be IMO..great group from what I see on here a lot of sharing and far less bickering . Thanks for the floor..

[SPCBA]

The air flaps are interesting, thanks for the writeup

[Mishimoto]

Originally Posted by bbrown450

Fascinating ... I come from their C6 /7 world and have always had a Haltech on my cars. Aside from the mild gain in HP more numeric than "seat of the pants", the roar you get from both ends is amazing. In the C7 they did a decent job with a "built in" CAI as it would extract air from a chamber that led to front of radiator. It is great to see them with a similar design with that pipe cannon of as tube.
I am very impressed with the Vibe of this site guys, to see a manufacturer step down and share where they are and where they are going ... The way it should be IMO..great group from what I see on here a lot of sharing and far less bickering . Thanks for the floor..

Great feedback, very much appreciated. We are definitely aiming to give you guys as much content as possible during our product development, especially on an awesome car like this one. And what Chevy did with this intake system is actually really interesting, that intake inlet is indeed a cannon! We are learning more as we go and as we start heading into testing we expect to show you guys some more awesome behind-the-scenes content. Stay tuned!

Originally Posted by SPCBA

The air flaps are interesting, thanks for the writeup

Our pleasure! Glad you enjoyed the post.

[Sledgehammer70]

Originally Posted by BradfordCamaro

Looks like GM did a great job. Large ports fed with fresh cool air from outside the via a scoop.

Lets see how many companies stick a big filter under the hood and say theirs is better.

The scoop allows hot air to vent, it is not a inlet.

[Mishimoto]

2016+ Camaro SS Performance Intake, Part 2: Prototype Development

Last time we left you with a detailed breakdown of the massive stock intake system of the 2016 Chevy Camaro. Designing a prototype that will keep this big V8 happy has been quite a task, but our awesome engineering team has come up with a unique design for a prototype. Let’s start by taking a look at our components.

Mass Airflow Sensor Housing

The stock mass airflow (MAF) sensor is sandwiched inside an air straightener. This straightener differs from others because it doesn’t take up the entire length of the tube. Instead, it’s pretty much only as long as the length of the sensor. Based on this, we decided to take that element of Chevy’s design and incorporate it into our housing piece.


Prototype Camaro SS Parts


Prototype Camaro SS Parts

Our ability to 3D print many of our prototype components for testing allows us to cut down significantly on R&D costs, production time, and resources. This means we bring you the parts you need in a much shorter timeframe. Unlike most of our straighteners that run the entire length of the housing, we designed this one to run along only a portion of the housing piece.

The filter is also large; the inside diameter measures 4.5 inches. This is the very first time we have used an intake filter that is so big!


Filter attached to prototype Camaro cold air intake

Intake Tube

The intake tube was a big undertaking. We went through a few iterations of what the tube could look like before we decided on a design. In the previous post, we mentioned how tight the space is between the throttle body opening and the radiator. This wouldn’t be an issue if the intake tubing weren’t so large, but due to its size, some expert craftsmanship and an effective design had to be put in place.

At first we tried the simple approach by making the intake tube as straight as possible after the bend, while still accommodating all the attachments.


First version of our prototype Camaro cold air intake

What we found in our testing was a massive loss in power that we suspect was due to airflow behavior. When it comes to airflow, the smoothest stream is always the most effective, so the downfall with this design was the deep bend at the throttle body.

When the stream rushes in from the filter, it loses a lot of speed when it hits that bend, entering the engine in a very erratic manner, and causing a loss in power and poor overall engine performance.

We had a bit more success with our next iteration as seen in the photos below.


Second version of our prototype Camaro cold air intake


Second revision to our Camaro cold air intake up close

We saw better performance with this design. The working theory behind it is that providing more volume in the tube would have a more positive effect on airflow velocity and density directed into the throttle body. This would be accomplished by increasing the outer radius along the edge of the tube around the bend. So we took this idea and ran with it, designing an even larger tube to fill that space. Check it out below!


Prototype Camaro SS parts

With the goal of forcing as much air into the engine as possible, we increased the tubes diameter to get more volume in that section and provide the smoothest possible air-stream. Working off our theory, we should see even better engine performance! Check out some shots below.


Prototype Camaro SS parts


Prototype Camaro SS parts

Here it is installed on the car.


Final version of our Camaro cold air intake prototype


Final version of our Camaro cold air intake prototype

Coming Up!


Camaro SS on the dyno

We have more testing to do before we can start releasing data, but the good news is, as you can see above, we’ve already started!

Stay tuned, more to come – and thanks for reading.

[MemBluff23]

Cant wait to see

[neal_zack]

That's cool!

[pinoyscorpion951]

Oh wow. I can't wait to see the dyno results.

[SS 1LE]

Originally Posted by pinoyscorpion951

Oh wow. I can't wait to see the dyno results.

Same here.

[Kracka]

I love seeing legit R&D taking place! Very interesting design. Reminds me of the Comptech intake I had for my S2k and Cobb 3" inlet I had for my Evo X where it bulbs out like that to increase volume in the chamber.

[Sledgehammer70]

I have always laughed at such small (shorty) air filters, while I know the overall design allows more airflow, but do you feel at all a bigger (longer) filter would allow even more air flow? Are we limited in the amount of air available at any moment due to the cramped space?

I am very interested to know if that was ever an item you tested (different length sizes) for. The GM air filter seems 2-2.5x the size in length. I know K&N and CAI Industries go with much longer designs as well. Is that a result of poor engineering or is it a result of better numbers with bigger everything?

I know GM has a fairly large intake tube and it is much larger than many I have seen, so the wider inlet port of the filter was to be expected.

[Mishimoto]

Originally Posted by MemBluff23

Cant wait to see

Originally Posted by neal_zack

That's cool!

Originally Posted by pinoyscorpion951

Oh wow. I can't wait to see the dyno results.

Originally Posted by SUMMIT WHITE SS

Same here.

Thanks guys!!

Originally Posted by Kracka

I love seeing legit R&D taking place! Very interesting design. Reminds me of the Comptech intake I had for my S2k and Cobb 3" inlet I had for my Evo X where it bulbs out like that to increase volume in the chamber.

Glad you're enjoying it! And definitely, more volume in the chamber is exactly what we were going for with this design. You'd definitely need it with the way we plan to route the tube.

[Mishimoto]

Originally Posted by Sledgehammer70

I have always laughed at such small (shorty) air filters, while I know the overall design allows more airflow, but do you feel at all a bigger (longer) filter would allow even more air flow? Are we limited in the amount of air available at any moment due to the cramped space?

I am very interested to know if that was ever an item you tested (different length sizes) for. The GM air filter seems 2-2.5x the size in length. I know K&N and CAI Industries go with much longer designs as well. Is that a result of poor engineering or is it a result of better numbers with bigger everything?

I know GM has a fairly large intake tube and it is much larger than many I have seen, so the wider inlet port of the filter was to be expected.

Great questions! These are all things we plan to have answers for when we are finished with dyno testing.

Theoretically, yes the more surface area you have on the filter, the more air that would be allowed through. But in this application, we are confident that the tube design we have now (including the filter) will max out the amount of air forced into the engine. There shouldn't be any restrictions with this design. Also, like you said, due to the cramped space where the filter is placed, options are indeed limited with respect to the filter size.

We always try to fit the biggest filter possible in the alotted space of our box/shield/or open element areas in all of our intakes. That takes the variable of whether or not a larger size would perform better out of the equation. I can't speak for other companies and their product development methods, but we always gear our engineering towards max airflow potential. Again, great questions. If you have any more please ask!

[Sledgehammer70]

I am sure GM engineers found a reason to need the air straightener, but with your higher volume flow/design and not really a straight design, do you feel it's still needed? It almost seems like you could gain more room for the shield and potential bigger air filter by shortening the sensor tube.

But again, not sure a bigger air filter means anything in regards to performance. But it would be interesting to see tested. Do you plan to test with the air straightener and without?