What are these funky plastic chambers?

Greg · October 21, 2001

When I look under the hood of my new Av, right behind the radiator and above the fan shroud, there is a big plastic thing that hooks into to air feed from the air cleaner and the engine. There was something like this on my '99 Sierra, but this one is huge! I assume it has something to to with canceling underhood noise from the airflow. Right? Will this all get the "heave-ho" when I install a FIPK?

bob · October 21, 2001

I work at the Saturn plant. The plastic bottles are called resinator ( I spelled it wrong) bottles. Your right,it helps keep the air intake noise down. Here's something strange, the 4 cylinder engine has a resinator bottle twice the size of the 6 cylinder engine.

chevy4x4trucks · October 30, 2001

It'll get dumped when you add the FIPK, I was working on a buddies pontiac, making a custom ram air and we dumped the resonator, there's no use for them, and I would guess they inhibit performance.

CMNTMXR81 · October 30, 2001

They are air silencers/suppresors. If you remove them, you'll hear more induction noise. GM installs them in order to keep non-performance customers happy with *quiet* vehicles.

They also rob the engine of power as they generally act as a restriction to the incoming airflow. So not only will you get more noise when you remove them, but you'll also get a gain in power from allowing the engine to breathe easier.

That's the whole concept behind aftermarket cold air induction kits. They have a high flow filter, open airbox and unrestricted/smoother air passages.

xtreme_xformer · November 28, 2001

Just bought my 1500 Av on 11/11 and am reading some of the older posts. If anyone is still checking this one I'd like to know if you have an idea as to the Hp/T/mpg increases due to removal of the suppressor ? Further, what increases could be expected from the addition of cold air induction kit ? Are ther any warranty consequences ?

chevy4x4trucks · November 29, 2001

Just bought my 1500 Av on 11/11 and am reading some of the older posts. If anyone is still checking this one I'd like to know if you have an idea as to the Hp/T/mpg increases due to removal of the suppressor ? Further, what increases could be expected from the addition of cold air induction kit ? Are ther any warranty consequences ?

If you got rid of it the hp, torque, & Mpg increase would be very small and probably not noticeable. I'm guessing it will make everything a little louder. W/ a cold air intake you should see some hp gains around 10-15. I would compliment the cold air intake w/ a new free flow exhaust. And, it won't void the warranty.

CMNTMXR81 · December 13, 2001

The mileage difference will be negligable, the power difference will be dependant on what else you due. If you simply remove the silencers and make you own tube to fit into the throttle body and still use the factory airbox system, you'll most likely only notice a sharper throttle response. Remove the stock airbox and replace with a cold air unit and you'll see another 5-10rwhp (roughly).

As to warranty, this is one of the most commonly asked questions but you'll never get a straight answer as some dealers are cool, and some are dicks. For instance, at ours, we built my LS1 in the Camaro, so when a car (or truck) came across with mods, we didn't care. But I've heard of others that if you put an exhaust system on it, they'll try to deny warranty coverage completely.

BUT with that said, it generally goes like this. The part that fails has to show a direct relation to the modification you did. Anotherwords, if you put a Cold Air kit and remove the air silencers, then your power window motor goes out, the two aren't related and coverage TECHNICALLY can't be denied. However, if after doing those mods, you go in because your engine is knocking, they pull a head off and find a screw inside (or what's left of it and the piston), then chances are that it won't be covered under warranty. Do you follow what I'm saying?