MAP or MAF Which Do You Prefer Tuning

[delcowizzid]

though it was time for a poll most people allready know my thoughts on the whole situation im a MAP tuner and thats the way i like it.I hate MAF even getting covered in fuel tuning carb jets and changing advance springs and weights was nicer than doing a MAF tune.so vote away

[Holden202T]

well i've voted MAP because its all i know but from what i've seen of MAF i think im not going to like it that much

[antus]

Ive voted map too, because it seems to work fine. Havnt really heard of any advantages of maf, and the fact there is a market for mafless tunes seems to back that up too. Are there any advantages to maf?

[XR Pilot]

In the end I voted for map, BUT I was strongly considering voting for MAF too. My background is primarily map tuning ie traditional aftermarket ecu's such as Link, Motec, Microtech (< pet hate), Haltech, Megasquirt etc so map is what I am most familiar with. When it comes to re-tuning factory ecus though there is one particular case where I LOVE maf and that is Nissan ecu's. They are set up with a VQ map which is essentially a voltage lookup table for airflow. Just fitted a bigger maf from another Nissan? No problem, copy the VQ map out of that ecu and your pretty much done and might need minor tweaks. The fuel maps in particular are very easy to tune.

Thats about the only situation where I like maf though, I haven't tried a delco maf tune or even seen one for that matter. I know the megasquirts can do a maf based tune, and you can even blend map/maf for the best of both worlds which apparrently works very well but I am yet to try it.

The biggest advantages of maf are that you don't need to retune for minor mods provided your existing maps have a bit more scope in them for more airflow. You also don't have to worry about calibrating your air temp compensation tables as the extra air density of a colder night for example is measured by the maf. This probably isn't a problem on a chipped factory ecu but on an aftermarket ecu its just an extra thing that needs to be done. In some cases they are also very easy to retune too, like the Nissan example above

The disadvantages of maf's is more complicated piping, and you now have an extra restriction (depending on the setup may be minor or major) in the pipe line. Maf's tend to be a lot less reliable than map sensors, so this is another factor too. They can also be hard to upgrade depending on the ecu, and you have issues on boosted cars running blow off valves when they are venting to atmosphere as you are dumping metered air which results in a big rich spike until the bov shuts again. There are ways around this, but it is another disadvantage.

On the subject of mafless conversions on LS1's etc too, the maf is actually a restriction on those cars. The map conversions work very well, removes a dip in the mid range at WOT which is actually caused by the maf disturbing the air flow (even disconnected electronically). It also means you have more flexibility with piping and can run over-the-radiator intakes etc. I think I've done around 14 mafless conversions on LS1s now