Mass Airflow dual to single conversion.

[Thowe396]

I apologize for my noob ness here, first post, only dabbled so far with micro controllers and I have extensive 12v DC system experience (automotive). I really just need to know if this project is possible and if I am even thinking about it correctly.

General Idea:

I have a vehicle that I am doing an off-road build on. The vehicle is a V8 with a single throttle body that has a y shaped rubber boot on it going to two intake pipes, each of which have a MAF and filter on them. I want to put a snorkel on it and the dual snorkel set ups I see people building look really dumb to me let alone doubling the chance of a leak, so I want to convert to a single MAF.

How I'm thinking about it:

So we have two pipes pulling air into a single source. So say (these number are completely made up just for the sake of easy math) that there is 10 CFM entering the throttle body, theoretically there will then be 5 CFM going through each MAF. This can obviously vary if one filter is clogged or something but the system will obviously compensate since there is only one manifold/plenum.

My first thought was just to run them in line but if you have that same 10 CFM entering the throttle body you would be pulling it all from a single source and measuring it twice for a reading of 20 CFM. So then I thought well I could just make an air box with a single filter that splits into two pipes and then goes back to one after the MAFs before the throttle body, but space is a concern and I do not think this would fit well.

My next thought is to take one of the MAFs, (probably not the stock one from the car as I'm sure it would not read double its intended range) Make a harness that would go to an Arduino and have two connectors coming out the other side for each OEM MAF connector. In theory if I could take the single MAF signal voltage and have the Arduino split it in half and output the corrected voltage so that the ECU sees two sensors reading half of the total CFM that the single sensor is reading. They make vehicles with the same motor that use only a single MAF so that would likely be the go to for the MAF.

So I am fairly certain that this is possible, I would think that I would just have the signal voltage input and write up some code telling the controller to output half of the signal on input pin X to output pins Y and Z. It goes without saying that there will be some calibration necessary and I know this is slightly over simplified but that's the general Idea. So I really need to know if it is possible, and if anyone has done something like this already with an Arduino. Any thoughts or guidance would be great, Thanks!

[hammy]

This is a difficult one - it maybe better to go for an after market ECU that works off a different mass flow sensor .
The existing ECU’s can detect faults with the mass flow sensors too , and I can see it being hard to fool it and get a high enough quality signal.
You also need to sort out signals from the throttle bodies .

I’d look at the inventive intake piping option , a snorkel up each windscreen pillar may look cool

[Thowe396]

Hammy, thanks for the reply.

Not looking to go aftermarket ecu on this project. Too many dollars and hassles. As far as the ecu faults on a system like this the computer only cares if it is getting a plausible signal if there is an open in the sensor or it’s reading full voltage at idle or something it will know something is wrong but feeding it a half value of a single sensor should be what it is expecting to see. The system is a single throttle so there is nothing much to do there other than change the pipe that feeds it.

The dual snorkel unfortunately does not look nearly as cool as it sounds haha

[Thowe396]

Oh also I figured this would be possible as there are companies that sell basically the inverse. This is a set up for a 300zx that converts from one maf to a dual. NEW! 2nd Generation Selin Dual MAF Translator - 300ZX - Z1 Motorsports - Performance OEM and Aftermarket Engineered Parts Global Leader In 300ZX 350Z 370Z G35 G37 Q50 Q60