MAF swap
 

I know about the rx7 MAF swap, but has anybody else swaped a diferant MAF into their miata. I was looking at a 4.0 ford MAF.

why?

What's wrong with the one you have?

no. just no. I already banned someone today for quality control...

All MAF's suck... and they are expensive.... no one MAF or AFM is less sucktastic than another. Stick with suck, or unsuck it with MS

yeah that's so 2005-2008 ago. It's no longer acceptable to maf/afm.

If my research is correct the RX7 swap is because the AFM has the same response curve as the miata's AFM, and since it's larger, it sucks less. I wouldn't think you could just drop a random MAF in and expect the OE ECU to be able to use it. Especially since the AFM's run 5-0v vs. 0-5v of the normal MAF sensor.

In a turbo miata, I wouldn't look twice at anything other than Speed Density, but riddle me this, why does MAF suck for a non turbo motor? And if it sucks so much why does basically every manufacturer use it?


For the record, I'm running SD on mine, but considering MAF if/when I go to individual throttles and big cams.

every manufacturer USED to use them frequenly...... not seen so much now. and if they DO have them, its usually the heated wire style MAF, rather than the "flapper box" style AFM. I havent seen a flapper box style in a while.... I also do NOT claim to have seen the engine compartment of every car ever either... so maybe some still DO use them. IDK. haha

I'm pretty sure most still do. The only ones I could find that DON'T are the new ecoboost and the Hemi. Dodge does have a history of using speed density.

Agreed on the AFM/flapper boxes. They're LONG gone. But MS and most to all aftermarket ECUs will run a hot wire MAF.

I know MT's groupthink is that MAF's are bad and SD is the only way to go, but I'm just not convinced this is 100% for 100% of miatas.

How does a MAF work with ITB's??? Ive always seen ITB's with just a bell style intake mounted to the throttle body on each cylinder

You need a real, pressure tight housing over the bellmouths.

Ah... onkie donkie... dont know much about ITBs... think they look cool, but never got how they measured airflow

Its not.

Our groupthink is that on a boosted miata, a popular EMS using speed density is a relatively straightforward, effective, and efficient way to go.

Many OEM's still use a maf, but they are much more advanced than our 80's technology BP electronics.

I can't argue with that, though if you're boosted you shouldn't be on 80's electronics.

I guess that's what I/we/you get for having a MUCH better signal to noise ratio vs. CR or m.net. The occasional oddball like me, ski_lover and hingstonwm shows up.

Hot wire MAFs are awesome. I love hot wire MAFs. The effort to reward ratio for putting a good GM maf into a car that didnt have one is too high for me. It lets me have marginally more accurate fueling and spark but requires extra wiring and more time devoted to dialing in transient fueling, and none of the affordable tuning options support transient spark which is kind of important to have in a maf car.

From what Ive read their is a little to gain on the top end with a larger MAF over the stock on my 97 as the flow of the stock is limited due to the size. The MAF is a hot wire as is the ford version. This car is a track toy and spends most of its time 4k-7k rpm so anything I can do to help the top end is a good thing. I am not afraid to experiment so if their is any merit to the idea at all I will give it a shot. One day Ill probably just swap a v6 in it but till then Ill experiment and have fun doing it. If it wasn't fun I would find something different to do. Im not a purest and love the thought of cheap grassroots upgrades.

me?
 

Is this directed at me?

Do be aware that different MAFs have different CFM/v curves. Does your car have an aftermarket ECU? With the stock ECU you'll either be rich or lean all the time. I seriously doubt the car will be happy with a nonstock MAF.

Currently the ecu is stock but I have been shopping for a picky back fuel management with wideband like that from AEM.

why piggyback?

toss the shit ECU and the shit MAF.