ok.....could someone please help me in an attempt to convert my original air intake on my 1989 944 non-turbo, into a cold air/mass air intake system. i've always owned vettes that i strived to keep all original, i've never had a car that i could "mess with".

1. what exactly do i need ? ( dont be general. i need things in "seasme street talk". )
2. cold air intake ? mass air flow sensor? mass air flow adapter? mass air kit? mass air flow meter? what the heck does it all mean and what is what?
2. does oxygen sensor have anything to do with any of this?
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The O2 (oxygen) sensor will typically be in the exhaust. I'm not sure where exactly but on most cars it's in or near the catalytic converter. It basically tunes the mixture based on what comes out the tailpipe. You can typically tweak these at the expense of fuel and running rich (Which will cook your catyletic converter eventually)

Your car would be fuel injected so again I'm pretty positive that there is an OEM method of measuring intake airflow. I'm not sure if it's a MAF sensor or not. I haven't gotten that far in examining things. There's really only two methods of measuring that are commonly used, the MAF (Mass air flow) and MAP (Manifold absolute pressure) If it's MAP it uses temperature and RPM readings combined with the pressure to work out the airflow
They both do the same thing more or less, they figure out how much air is going in. The computer then figures out how much fuel it can burn with that air and fires the injectors. The oxygen sensor tell the computer how good it's guess was.

It's like a carb that tunes itself

The intake on these looks fairly well thought out but, there might be room for improvement? From what I've heard though there's not much that can be done that porsche didn't think of already. That manifold is a work of art.


I'm sure someone will give you more info but wikipedia will get you started
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_air_intake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_injection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAP_sensor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_flow_sensor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_sensor

 

If you're looking to put a cold air intake on your car, you should first look at what all is involved with the OEM intake system and understand what everything is and why it's there. It's fairly simple to build, butsome basic wrenching and fabrication skills would help. Or, you could always search around and see if anyone sells a kit.