ok so i had a major brain fart today... i put a cone filter in place of my airbox, and i forgot to tighten the hose clamp (thats the brain fart) and when i got to my destination (like 2 miles away)... my mass airflow sensor was the beginning of my intake. no filter... now my truck is acting funny... its like im pumping the gas pedal when im driving... its surging... could this be a dirty maf? or did i royally f*** myself over?

 

Try cleaning it. If it does this with the airbox or air filter on, something might have hit the sensor. If it does this with it off its ok, you just need an air filter on there. I had a ram air system made for my 240sx and it would stall at highway speeds when you let off the gas. This was due the maf reading all that incomming air while the engine was not rev'ing and would confuse the ECM, causing the car to stall. This might be simialr to what is going on with your truck.

 

Take the MAF out and look at the tiny sensor wires and make sure nothing hurt them. If anything that big got into your engine you'd know it so I doubt it.(I mean your engine probably would have backfired and had a huge spell). I'd try cleaning it just for kicks and grins but you'll probably wanna disconnect the battery for however long it takes to reset the ECU and plug it all back up. I think it's an hour.

 

ok... i cleaned it and it helped a little... now some people are telling me i might be putting too much air through for it to handle? i didn't think that was possible, but maybe not having the screen and the location of the filter (in front of the passenger front tire) is causing too much turbulence?

idk... im thinking maybe a aftermarket maf will help

 

Make sure nothing got sucked in to the TB. one time i sucked a rag up on accident while cleaning the intake, scared the S out of me when i seen what i did.

 

That could be possible but unlikely in this case as he is able to drive it. Did you reset the computer yet?

Also, whoever told you it can only handle so much air is a moron. If that were true you couldn't put superchargers/turbos on them. Granted when you do that it requires tuning but you could easily apply a 1lb. or 2 of boost to it and it still be drivable.

 

thats what i was thinking... i was thinking more of turbulence as the issue... but yeah i reset the computer and im not sure if it was that or cleaning the maf sensor... one of them helped though... still doing it at high speeds and high rpms though

 

That's strange.... wonder if you did suck up something like a leaf or anything like that and it's clogging up some port in either the throttle body or the intake manifold somewhere.....

Does the MAF sensor look okay? Any obvious damages to it at all?(scratches, broken tiny connectors)

 

nope, looks good... im really stumped... i guess ill take everything apart and look for something blocking it