Greetings!
I bought a used C&L Intake off a fella here a few months ago, but it's been sitting in my garage since I did not yet have the money for a tuner. However, all that changed last week when I ordered my Xcal2 from Brenspeed. It arrived quickly and at a very fair price!

Anyways, this morning I went out to excitedly install my new intake. I'm a mechanical genius, so things are going along pretty darn smoothly. Until I get to the step where I am to transfer the MAF Electronics over to the new housing. The MAF Cartridge fits the new housing just fine. So all is well in stangland, right?

Wrong.

Although the C&L Instructions say to reuse the screws from the stock MAF housing, their thread size absolutely did not match up with the threads in the new housing. The screws immediately started to bind up when spinning into the holes in the C&L Housing.

Now, any reasonable, patient person would simply wait until 9am when the hardware store opens, run the C&L maf housing over there, and find a couple screws that fit.

Unfortunately, I am neither reasonable or patient when it comes to this kind of thing.

So I did what any hack would do. Forced them in.

One of them went all the way in and tightened pretty good. The other one, not so much. The screw broke right at the surface. Those screws seem to be made out of extremely soft metal. No snapping or anything. It came apart smoothly. Thanks to the lovely thick rubber gasket on the bottom of the MAF Electronics block, i still have a good, leakless seal. But it's still not cool.

Since the C&L Maf housing's threads are now wrecked, i'm going to need to either obtain a new one, or extract that broken screw and retap the holes.

Anyways, aside from that, the C&L intake and the Brenspeed tune are GREAT! I started out with the 87 octane tune, since I only had 1/8 tank of 87 at the time, and it was pretty great! The tires started breaking free above about 4.5k rpm in first gear. So I drove that around for a little while, enjoyed it,, then filled my tank up all the way (13 gallons) with 93 octane. Since that 93/87 mix wasn't going to be 93 octane, I then loaded the 91 octane tune (i will load the 93 on my next fillup). Even better! Now the tires are starting to break free from about 3.75k-4k rpm! This is awesome!

So I guess the point of my post here.. Has anyone else experienced their MAF screws not fitting in the C&L Maf housing?

Yes, I know. I'm an impatient fool.

And I lied up there. I'm not really a mechanical genius. I'm pretty good, but my impatience holds me back.

 

I had the exact same thing happen to me when installing a JLTII. One screw went in without breaking, the other one snapped about 1/8" from the surface of the MAS tube. I used a dremel to very carefully grind down the screw post until it was flush with the housing. Then used the smallest drill bit I had and worked my way up to a 1/8" bit and then retapped the hole. I also removed the first screw and chased the threads with the tap just in case I ever needed to take it out. Both screws then went in and came out again without issue. Just take your time and it'll work. It was very nerve-wracking to feel that thing just give like that, on a Sunday morning. Thank God for Lowes!

 

My advice: don't try installing your own vinyl stripes..........



Seriously though, hope you get it out.

 

maybe the threads were gacked before you bought it?

In any case, its probably much cheaper to just drill out the threads and re-tap them or put inserts than to but a new MAF housing

 

That was cold Tom!

 

HA!

 

This is the aluminum C&L intake?

If so, the instructions clearly state *NOT* to use the stock screws that come with the MAF, since they are coarse thread and the C&L has a machine screw thread. They provided two machine screws in a tiny plastic bag taped to the MAF housing.

Looks like the guy that sold it to you forgot to pass on that little bit of info...

 

Even the plastic "Racer" intake has an aluminum MAF housing.

 

Did the same thing. Fortunately, I didn't do it to both sides and was able to get it secured to the housing with one screw that came in the bag. I haven't attempted to get the broken screw out. It seems to be running fine. I figure it's best to leave it alone. Why mess with it????

 

I just double checked the C&L Instructions that came in the box.. They are instructions for the metal intake, not the plastic racer.. They say to reuse the stock screws....

For now, I wrapped a zip tie around the MAF and over the unsecured end of the electronics to make sure it stays secured down. I know a dude that will fix the threads and extract the broken bolt for me the next time I see him.

 

Sorry for bringing up a very old post.. search feature FTL..

Does anyone know what the Ford part number is for the MAF screws?

I broke one installing a C&L Street as well and drilled / tapped the hole. I'm just worried that if/when I have to take her in for repairs and reinstall the factory intake w/o the OEM screws... knowing my luck they will give me trouble over it.

Thanks,
~j

 

i noticed the screws were different. C&L def says to use the stock screws, to the point where the person i bought mine off of told me that he had used the screws. My take is this. did ford have metal nutserts in the MAF housing on the early 05 cars? if so that would explian it. but i saw the difference in the threads and took the c&l housing to home depot motorsports and got screws that worked.

 

LOL, Thats a good one, I like that!