Here we go from the start of the intake system. This is somewhat simplified, however if any of this is incoerrect someone set me straight.
1)Air travels into the engine compartment. This process varies depending on the vehicle. In our trucks it travels through the driverside grill/headlight area.
2)from there it travels into a intake box that contains the air filter.
3)then it travels through the MASS airflow sensor. Which, you guessed it detects the volume of airflow.
3)Now the air moves through a temperature sensor
4)after that the air travels through a intake tube, which on our trucks is approx. 2 ft in length.
5)the air then enters the throttle body, which reacts to the accelerator pedal by regulating the air fuel mixture.
6)immidiatly after the throttle body is where a space would be placed. The benifit of this is to aid in mixing(atomization) of air and fuel.
7)finnaly the mixture enters the intake manifold and onto the rest of the engine.
-- as far as prices and gains:
- The MAF will cost about 200-300 and give about 5-15hp. depending on the brand/quality and other mods on the powertrain.
-The spacer will cost 50-100 and give about 5hp, however it will give a little more torque.
--For the money I would go w/ these mods as well as a K&N Gen II intake and a cat-back exhaust.
Sorry for the length of the post.:bash: