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If you own a Pontiac Solstice GXP or a Saturn Sky Redline, one of the most beneficial modifications that you could do for your motor is to upgrade the charge pipes. There are two charge pipes on the LNF engine that carry the air from the turbocharger to the intercooler, and then to the throttle body. General Motors did a pretty good job when they designed this Ecotec engine, but unfortunately they did not mandrel bend the factory charge pipes. What we are left with are factory pipes that look like a gorilla bent them in half over a cinder block wall.
During normal driving the factory charge pipes are not restrictive to airflow, simply because the car is not pushing enough volume during cruising to reach the full potential of the crush-bent factory charge pipes. The problem begins when the factory pipes reach their full capacity, which is somewhere shortly after 5,000 rpms at full throttle on the factory tune. If you have an aftermarket tune, like the GMPP Turbo Upgrade Kit (Commonly called the GM Stage 1 Tune) your charge pipes will reach their full airflow potential even sooner.
To work around this physical limitation, the factory tune and the GMPP Stage 1 tune are programmed to electronically limited to reduce the amount of airflow at high rpms. Well aware of their factory design flaw, GM opted to restrict performance at higher rpms rather than unleash more potential that is left on tap. After 4,800 to 5,000 rpms the stock tune and GMPP Stage 1 tune reduce the turbo pressure, which results in a reduction in airflow.
You can gain some performance, even on stock tune or GMPP Stage 1 tune by upgrading your factory charge pipes to the upgraded charge pipes that we manufacture. Some people upgrade the pipes simply because our color matched products look better under the hood too. If you are looking to get the most potential out of these charge pipes though, we strongly recommend opting for either our Stage 1 or Stage 2 tunes.
Our Stage 2 tune requires the use of our charge pipes due to the higher demanded airflow at higher rpms, and the stock pipes definitely become a restriction. We even raise the rev limiter on the car to 6,750 rpm to really take advantage of the widened power band up top.
We also produce a color code matching Cold Air Intake Kit to match the look and feel of your intake to your new RPM-Motorsports Upgraded Charge Pipes.
