Vortec Resonator Box (Random early morning thoughts)

[KCusick81]

Good morning all,

I'm sure this horse has been beaten to death but I had a random thought driving down the road to work this morning and thought I would share... I deleted my resonator box about a month ago because I figured, hell, it's free and if I don't like it, it's easy enough to reinstall. I haven't really noticed much difference one way or the other. Not that I really expected too besides maybe sounding a little different. This morning it occurred to me, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but with intake air flow, turbulence is our friend. Correct? You want your intake air to be turbulent and your exhaust to flow smoothly and unencumbered as possible. Or at least that's what I've always been told. So by that rationale, wouldn't the resonator create more turbulence? Hence the branding of the name "Vortec" (vortex). That in turn, would be a GOOD thing, no??

Just a thought.... what do you guys think?

 

[SUBURBAN5]

Jmo. I dont think the resonator creates a vortec. The name goes for the head design if I'm not mistaking. As for the the box I've been told it creates space for air which makes its quiter, since it's not just forced down the throttle. Anybody body else who chimes in, correct me if I'm wrong... as for what I did. I blocked off the resonator box with a plumbing cap and reinstalled the box just for looks. I noticed a sound difference and I'm good with just that for now.

 

[Schurkey]

The "Vortec" name was first used on '95 model-year V6 truck engines. Has nothing to do with intake design, head design, or any other design. It has to do with GM MARKETING, where they didn't want "Chevrolet" engines and "Pontiac" engines, and "Cadillac" engines, they wanted "GM Powertrain" "corporate" engines they could shove in any GM brand without buyer recourse. Part of that was deliberately destroying the concept that an engine would be associated with Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, Buick, or Cadillac. So it became the first of the "Vortec" engines.

Chrysler did the same with "Ram", when they separated "Ram" from Dodge.

You want SMOOTH airflow into the throttle body. Between the throttle body and the cylinder, some amount of localized turbulence can be beneficial. Specifically, from whereever the fuel is metered into the airstream, and the cylinder. Therefore, a carb'ed application might do with a controlled amount of turbulence farther away from the cylinder than a port-injected engine.

 

[AuroraGirl]

The "Vortec" name was first used on '95 model-year V6 truck engines. Has nothing to do with intake design, head design, or any other design. It has to do with GM MARKETING, where they didn't want "Chevrolet" engines and "Pontiac" engines, and "Cadillac" engines, they wanted "GM Powertrain" "corporate" engines they could shove in any GM brand without buyer recourse. Part of that was deliberately destroying the concept that an engine would be associated with Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, Buick, or Cadillac. So it became the first of the "Vortec" engines.

Chrysler did the same with "Ram", when they separated "Ram" from Dodge.

You want SMOOTH airflow into the throttle body. Between the throttle body and the cylinder, some amount of localized turbulence can be beneficial. Specifically, from whereever the fuel is metered into the airstream, and the cylinder. Therefore, a carb'ed application might do with a controlled amount of turbulence farther away from the cylinder than a port-injected engine.

ECOTEC, DURATEC, DURAMAX, ECOBOOST, just some names of various makes that exploit this same dumbness

In the US, GM never gave the 3800 v6 a dumb name past their "Series __" names and ugly engine covers.

but in Australia, the 3800 was the ECOTEC V6....

Which is just flat out offensive, to equate something like the 3800 to Absolute **** and PISS like the 2.4l I4s or whatever and their v6's which are also **** state side.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

The "Vortec" name was first used on '95 model-year V6 truck engines. Has nothing to do with intake design, head design, or any other design. It has to do with GM MARKETING, where they didn't want "Chevrolet" engines and "Pontiac" engines, and "Cadillac" engines, they wanted "GM Powertrain" "corporate" engines they could shove in any GM brand without buyer recourse. Part of that was deliberately destroying the concept that an engine would be associated with Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, Buick, or Cadillac. So it became the first of the "Vortec" engines.

Chrysler did the same with "Ram", when they separated "Ram" from Dodge.

You want SMOOTH airflow into the throttle body. Between the throttle body and the cylinder, some amount of localized turbulence can be beneficial. Specifically, from whereever the fuel is metered into the airstream, and the cylinder. Therefore, a carb'ed application might do with a controlled amount of turbulence farther away from the cylinder than a port-injected engine.

Vortec was first used back in 1984 to market the 1985 model year 4.3 with swirl port heads.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Frank Enstein]

The intake resonator's job is to reduce intake noise. It doesn't change performance

 

[95burban]

An old trick is to “golf ball” the inside of intake runners for better flow. Just like a boat will be quicker when water has a slight ripple instead of being smooth as glass.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

The intake resonator's job is to reduce intake noise. It doesn't change performance

Personally I would not remove it unless I has tuning software and ability to log the MAF before and after thr change. I have had to tweak the MAF tables in more than one instance from intake changes.

 

[Caman96]

Might wanna get the popcorn going for this one.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[454cid]

Personally, I have not studied the physics behind it, but I've read, a few times, that the boxes do help performance to some degree. I believe it has to do with the air flow not being linear/continuous, but rather pulses.

While looking at cars to possibly buy, I noticed that some vehicjles have huge obtrusive boxes now. One engine, and I think it was GM, or maybe Dodge, had it molded in with the engine cover, making it more difficult to permanently remove the cover..... I don't like engine covers. I want to see my engine.

I still have my Vortec box, but I did run without it for awhile. I eventually re-installed it.

You don't want turbulance in the air intake, in fact the MAF screen is meant to smooth the flow out, for the MAF sensor.