Product Review - Halltech TRAP cold air intake.

[McRat]

The guinea pig:

2002 Z06 Corvette, 13k miles.

Existing engine mods:
TB bypass
160 therm
Corsa Comp catback
Zip Tie aircleaner "free mod"
McRat LS1Edit Tuning, delete IAT retard, limiter at 7000, fans on early, 24 deg flat advance, 97% Power Enrichment.
Bosch +4 plugs


We dyno'd the car on Saturday running a 50/50 mix of Union 76 100 octane unleaded and 91 Octane premium. Peak HP 377, 373TQ.

Monday, Wifey drives down to Halltech and has them put on the TRAP intake system. $500. Pics available on Halltech site.

Wednesday, same tank of gas, same air temp, same setup as Saturday PLUS trap. Tie down on same dyno. Best of 2 pulls with water temp 180 deg. 375/366. Lost Power. Especially in low to middle, as much as 10HP.
Next we reduce fuel to 95% to get 02's to the same level as Saturday. 383/375. All gains above 4000rpm, loss below. Needs better tuning in that range.
Last, reduce fuel another 2% to 93%. Big losses everywhere, way too lean.


Verdict. Approx $100/HP gets a C- on the McRat $/HP meter. It runs the engine richer on top than the Zip Tie intake, and will require tuning to acheive that gain. Without tuning, our car lost significant power.

Take it for what it's worth. This is a unbiased product review. Your results may vary.

[Kat]

We will be taking the Meanie to the Drag strip on Saturday. More results to follow

[kumar75150]

Being a CAI, dyno results really do not tell the whole story. I'll always buy the intake that to me looks like gets the most and coldest amount of air to the motor.

For me, its the Vararam.

[Jim Hall]

Thanks for the review. I appreciate your fairness. Some folks would dyno with the same programming and post the results.

I think you can pull even more HP out. Call me.

One thing you did not mention. The dyno done with the zip-tie. Was it done with the hood open? If so, your results are going to show less delta than in real life.

The main purpose of the TRAP is to draw ambient air into the intake track vs. underhood hot air. The TRAP and the zip tie produce much less pressure loss than the stock box closed, but the difference is much more than you indicate.

You might try this:

Dyno the zip with the hood closed, then the TRAP with the hood closed, since that is the way you drive.

At 135 IAT, you will lose 8 degrees of timing (-10 RWHP) with the zip. The TRAP is still seeing ambient. (Both pulls should be with a good fan directing air into the front of the car, as it would be on the street.

Since you are familiar with LS1Edit, you know that pig rich at the top many times results from the COT protection circuit when the EGT is to high, due to new airflow, which causes overheating of the cats resulting in the pig rich condition. You can gain even more hp by changing the COTP to 110%. This elevates the four FE thresholds to eliminate this problem. Rarely, doe this circuit kick in on the road, but GM is protecting their 7 year warranty on the cats.

How did you determine the pig rich state? I didn't see the Wideband readings.

Your numbers are quit good, anyway, since they beat our numbers with the TRAP, LS1 Edit, stock exhaust, Meziere at 382.2 RWHP. Either way the TRAP outflows all other intakes on the market period.

Here is the flowbench result of our system vs. stock:



This was done at Dan Gurney's AAR shop by their airflow guru.

When you get to the track, watch the trap speed. This is a much better indicator of real world HP than the dyno.

One last question. What was the correction factor on your best TRAP pull?

Our customers have seen between 387 RWHP and 397 with the TRAP, LS1 Edit headers, and Stinger exhaust.

Check out this customer's TRAP speed:

georges03zo6
Senior Member




57 posts [100%]
Pittsburg ca

track times for Halltech TRAP and LGM longtubes... 1:29 AM 10/11/2003


"Last week I added the Halltech TRAP intake, LGM longtubes and had the car tuned via LS1 Edit. It did 387rwhp/380rwtq sae. Bone stock the best I could do was 12.6@114mph with a 2.0 60ft. Tonight I ran the following after adding the above mods and also on my stock F1's."
1. 12.123@119.218mph 1.979 60ft
2. 12.124@119.376mph 1.959 60ft
3. 12.186@118.137mph 1.929 60ft

His TRAP speed indicates the real difference. Some of that can be attributed to the headers.

Generally you should see .1 and 1 mph for every 10 HP. Your wife's trap speed should be darn close to this customers.

Here are the other results:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=635927

http://www.corvettec5.com/store/?page=shop/dyno

http://www.corvettec5.com/store/?page=shop/tricpics

Halltech TRAP system results.



Let me know how 11 second momma does.

Jim Hall

[Jim Hall]

Could you tell us the HP difference between the TRAP and the Zip at maximum rpm?

It looks like the delta is around 10 RWHP at that point.

The zip tie dies at 5700 rpm, whereas the TRAP continues to make power all the way to redline.

Thanks,

Jim

[Sanford]

To tune or not to tune is not the question.............you must tune to get the most out of what you have.

[Greg Irvine]

What the #$&@ does that mean????????????????????

Greg

[McRat]

Haven't had my morning coffee yet, but let's see

I use the cars 02 sensors to tune. No, not a perfect solution, but when I had the car "widebanded" at another Dynojet facility, it told me I was pig rich (11:1). As soon as I pulled just a little more fuel, the engine fell down.

Yes, the Zip Tie on Saturday for some odd reason had a dip at 5800. That sucks. I'm not sure what caused it yet. Yes, one thing I should have mentioned is that the Halltech pulls harder at 5800-6800. We shift the car at 6800-6900 so that will show up the track.

I might play with a screened (2001) MAF too. Sometimes CAI's show less than optimal readings due to excessive turbulence. The Blackwing runs better with a screened MAF than with the stock 2002 MAF.

I didn't dyno with hood closed. Since I've zero'd out the IAT retard table, I doubt if I'm going to see a difference, but I'll see what I can do.

Yes, the real proof is the track. Especially MPH. We've hit a peak of 116 at the track we are going to, Carlsbad.

I should also point out that licence cover was on. I didn't get time to cut the bumper cover yet, and is another reason I ran the hood open.

I will look into Cat over temp. So far, the car has not hit that circuit at the track.

We did our best to set up a "neutral" test. Thanks go out to Brother's Performance for letting me play on their Dyno longer than I should.

[blacksn95]

$500, wow! I had no idea they were that much.

I gave $80 for a used Vortex and I'd say the differences between it and all the other C5 options are marginal. I liked the snort of my Vortex after I installed in and certianlly could tell a benefit.

I'd be curious to see what your figures would look like doing a swap with another intake (one thats quite a bit less than $500) on the SAME car SAME day SAME dyno SAME operator to view differences.

[McRat]

While it wasn't same day, everything else was identical down to the weather. Same tank of gas, same tires, same dyno, same operator, same dirt on car.

[McRat]

About the $500, note that the Halltech is very attractive and is also an appearance modification. I know guys who switch rims, get zero benefit and it costs $4000.

[McRat]

My long term goal is to hit 400rwhp and mid 11's without touching the internals. You do this 1 HP at a time. Some HP costs more than others.

[Jim Hall]

The track should show more than 5.5 RWHP. The zip tie appears to be a pretty good mod. What is incredible is that LPE came out with a carbon fiber airbox cover back in 1999, similar to the zip tie mod. I had it on our 99 C5, before going into business.

The COTP, will look like a light switch was turned on, when dyno testing. If your PE/rpm was set to around 13:1, the O2 should show 13:1. If it suddenly shifts to pig rich, that is the table affecting the a/f ratio.

I spoke to a gentleman from GM, who was present when our old T-1C was tested by GMs programming guru, Dave Howlet. He asked him if the LTFs had any bearing on the WOT a/f ratio.

Answer: No. The a/f ratio in open loop is only affected by the preset values in the fuel enrichement code. He did say, however, that the COTP code was very sensitive to lean conditions, and to protect the cats, they set the tables on the side of caution.

If you add 10% to that table, and set the PE/RPM at 13:1, you should pick up a few more ponies.

Good luck at the track. Very nice meeting your wife the other day.

Jim Hall

[McRat]

Thanks! We'll do our best.

[EFI-1]

Awesome thread. Thanks McRat & Jim for the info.