I have heard that there is an air baffal inside the intake, on the side of the car.I have also heard that by removeing this,it will increase HP.Is this true?

This is more commonly known as a "water separator". This elusive beast can usually be located by removing the intake vent cover (or holly air scoop) on the drivers side of the car. If you see one, whacking it with a hammer will kill it quickly, it can then be quite easily removed from the car. I have successfully eradicated one from my Formula using this method, but I seldom drive it in the rain.
Note : If you drive your Fiero in areas with extreme rainfall.. (ie.. constant huricanes, etc.) I would not advise doing this.

I highly doubt that any appreciable increase in horsepower is obtained, but it may help a bit, and its free.

Mike

I read somewhere (maybe even in this forum) that air flow tests show that the Fiero intake system as designed is very efficient and really cannot be improved. I would be wary about removing the water separator baffle from the intake system as your air cleaner will get quite damp in even light rain/mist/road spray etc. Eureka a water injection system HORSEPOWER HORSEPOWER

I agree with Phil: the baffle must be there for a reason.

IMO, the only time this thing would deflect any significant amount of water would be from the direct spray of a fire hose. :-) But, as I pointed out above, its very doubtful that removing it would have any effect on performance at all. I do like the increased sucking noise though!

holy cow! You guys here the hissing of suction, too?

I thought it was just my Fiero. Well, thats one less thing I have to investigate.

removing the baffle might not change anything on a stock fiero. Mine being a V6 and with a cam and aftermarket chip does make a difference... I've listen how the car breathes even when I knock out the baffles inside the black box and after I customize a ram air tube that picks up cold air outside the engine - - not inside makes a big difference plus you can really hear the car breathing hard. Even Fiero Doc (Keith Huff of Fiero Motorsports) who got a 3.4 block in his Fiero V6 notice a big change, specially in acceleration....Oh yeah...I don't drive the car in the rain...only on weekends and when the sun is up and shining....

[This message has been edited by 88 Fiero (edited 09-20-1999).]

My formula is not "stock", and I did not notice a difference at all. Perhaps it is more related to wishful thinking than an actual increase in HP.

how did you work on your air intake...Did you completely emliminated the whole factory air plumbing including the box..co'z if not..and you only cut the baffle inside the black box..then you will not notice anything and believe me I've done that..I have a custom ram air tube where the whole damn factory air plumbing including the air filter housing and the black box (baffle) has been take out..I have a cone shape K&N filter outside where it picks up cold air in my mecham scoop and I experience difference in there when I accelerate...I even let one of my buddies that have a stock '88 GT to drive my car and notice a difference..He is in the process of duplicating my ram air tube...

I would really like to avoid the air intake mod debate. IMO, the Fiero V6 intake is fairly well optimized, and it is just not money well spent when you consider the small performance benefits realized. On the other hand, altering the intake to increase the high speed (ie..ram) benefits provided by a side scoop would be advantageous.

I actually thought you were refering to the use of a high lift cam, or higher ratio rockers which increase the airflow demand. With these types of modifications, the removal of the water separator would theorhetically have more effect than it would on a stock engine.

In my case, comparison was made between my formula and a stock 87 GT. The water separator was removed from both of these cars at the same time, and evaluated by myself and my friend. No appreciable change in performance was observed for either car.
A dyno test may have shown some difference, but it was not evident from the drivers seat.

Mike

MW...I understand where you coming from...when you said that you took out the seperator box and did not notice anything...I know what you mean...in my car I completely...remove the whole thing... the factory air filter housing... the air box and any plumbing that comes with it....like I said earlier...I have a custom ram air tube where the air filter is outside the engine bay receiving fresh cold air... and believe me....there is a big difference with this thing on vs. than just taking out the seperator box...try it tho...I mean that... and tell me if you notice any difference...it didnt cost me that much to make a custom ram air in a local muffler shop...

How much is "not much", and could you give details as to the method you or your muffler guy used + materials. Cool idea BTW.

bigg...I got stainless steel tubes that I kept for a while...they are 2 1/2 OD. I paid the muffler shop $35.00 to do the bending and welding for me and to the specs that I wanted...

88, any chance that you could post some images of what you've done. There are probably a lot of people here who'd like to see your modification.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Patrick...I just finish taking pictures of my ram air tube in the engine bay. As well as my new Kid Danger air dam for the GT nose..I did not take a picture of the ram air tube by itself co'z it's a B$#@ to take it out..well what I mean is I have to take my mecham scoop off to pull the K&N Cone Filter out and pull the ram air tube out of the engine bay...I will post the pictures once I get it back once it's process

I slapped a quick page up for 88 Fiero. Go look at his custom ram air pipe and then scroll on down to check out his new front air dam and to scope out his modified Vette style taillights.

http://sites.netscape.net/batboybain/88fiero

Cool car 88. Are those PISA rear tailights? How did you get the intake tube to go around the fuel pipe. Thats the area were im stuck at? I have the same scoops on the passager side I stuck in a oil cooler and cut out a rect hole on the rear fender well.

[This message has been edited by Racer 1 (edited 09-22-1999).]

Heh 88, thats pretty nice! Where did ya get the red distributor cap, does it have brass contacts? Where did your EGR tube go? :-)

Mike

MW....glad you like it...the Distributor Cap..I got it at AutoZone for $16.00 with the rotor's included...Yes...the it has brass contacts...I took out the EGR tube and block it on both sides...It did not affect anything..also the EGR solenoid is also disconected and wires are re-wired to fool the computer thinking it's still there. One of the fiero buddies that I know indicated that it is not needed specially if the car is modified...he thinks there's no need to route the exhaust to the engine and the EGR.. My EGR Valve is only for show, just to make it look like it's functioning...but actually it's non-functional...

Gabe, the pictures you sent me were great of your engine compartment. Nice and clean. However, they didn't show at all where the air filter sits, or what the actual scoop looks like. If you get some shots of these, maybe you can use Cliff's new method of posting images here so that everyone can see 'em. Thanks.

Patrick...the cone filter is posted outside the engine compartment...I will need to take my mecham scoop to take a picture of that which I will in the next couple of days... I finally manage to download Cliff's software so I will be able to post it in here....