loudawg88

Hello All,

Thanks to the excellent instructions here on this website, I decided to give the intake silencer mod a go on our new '03 Taco. Did it this morning in a couple of hours.

Tricky part was getting the correct diameter tube to replace the section of intake. Was not in the mood to drive to larger town to get tubing cut/bent, so looked around shop for cylindrical object that would work. Had empty oxygen bottle for a mini torch set, bottle same size as hardware store propane torch bottle. Guess what? Diameter is perfect. Made sure oxygen bottle was empty and drilled small hole in bottom to blow in some regular air (don't want to be cutting or working something with 100% oxygen in it!). After I was sure the bottle was safe, I cut a 6 " section out of it with my abrasive chop box, then used it as the replacement intake tube for the mod. Very clean! Even left the red enamel color just do be different. Tube made from bottle is nice an roomy, required a bit of effort to stuff in the factory tube, but it went.


If you can't see it in this message, see it here: http://wildsnow.com/images/articles/...lencer_mod.jpg

Oh, and how does it perform? I notice a slight power increase, no dramatic increase in noise, no pinging yet with regular gas, much cleaner engine compartment.

Thanks!

fourunnabilly

I hate to ruin your mod, but you didn't truly perform an intake silencer mod. You see that J shaped piece on the airbox side of the red section you installed? That is the silencer. Once removed, you will very easily be able to notice an obvious increase of tone from the motor. If you have any questions, just reply and any of us could get you thru it.

Billy

loudawg88

Hi Billy and all,

Shoot! I tried <grin.> At least I didn't claim a massive power increase <g>. At any rate, if I just cut and cap the J-shaped unit, will that do the rest of the mod?

Tacoma Dude

Strange... I didn't know the 2003s had a different intake silencer.
loudawg, your ISR mod looks more like the 4runner crowd, I know with the 02s at least that the silencer is a box to the SIDE of the intake and not a whole part of it.

No, he did get the ISR mod right... that little J-tube is nothing.
I removed my ISR mod because I don't want to worry about pinging or having to buy premium fuel. As soon as I put the reducer back in the extra "roar" disappeared. I still have the J-tube removed.
Unless, of course, I'm missing something?

fourunnabilly

Yeah, remove the J shaped piece and find something to cap the hole. I personally have not done an ISR mod on a tacoma, but I think a lot of the guys in here have actually found a piece at the local hardware store that even screws in perfectly to fill the hole...maybe some plumbing or pvc part?? The air resonates with that j-shaped piece, and kills all sound. You'll know once you get it right. Honestly, you could probably cap the hole without anything, but a fitting plug maintains an OEM appearance. Good Luck.

Billy

Tacoma Dude

Just take out the J, find a cap and you'll be set
You're not going to find a massive power increase - maybe a little extra boost with the increased sound.

fourunnabilly

I may be wrong, but I am almost positive that "J piece" robs a bunch of sound and airflow. Before I put the FIPK on my 03' 4.7L Runner, I did an ISR to her and had to remove a peice that is almost identical to his. It is comprised of thick rubber with channels to kill noise and airflow...again I may be wrong as well, but I would promote removing that piece.

Billy

Tacoma Dude

Yeah, I don't know about yours but mine was simple plastic and my "roar" disappeared when I replaced the box. I haven't replaced the J so I'm not sure if I'll lose anything additional.

EDIT
yeah, we could just be talking apples and oranges here... his intake IS different from mine (at least from what I can see in the post mod pics)
Sorry, hope you didn't take my original comment as a flame

fourunnabilly

tacoma dude-

No, dont even hold your breath...that's why we're all here to help each other. Made me second guess myself for a minute, but reanalyzed and came to the same conclusion.

The more help we can give him the better...no flame taken bro. Peace.

Billy

Tacoma Dude

Cool

Loudawg:
When I did my mods the louder roar kicked in when I was in the 3-4K RPMs. Find a stretch of road and accelerate from a dead stop or lower speed and you should hear it climb pretty loud towards the gear shift.

loudawg88

Okay, I'll remove the J and cap it, nothing to loose as I can easily reverse. Truck is on the road at the moment, will do it this evening and report!

BTW, on this 03 Taco I did remove a plastic box that I thought was the silencer, mounted on the side of the stock intake. said box had the vacuum line that went to the FPR. I re-routed that line per the instructions here.

Thanks mucho for all the help!

At the least, this is sure a nice way to get some junk out of the engine compartment, but I hope it results in a slight power increase as some claim. Hope I can help clear up any confusion about difference with '03 once this is all done.

'best, Lou

Tacoma Dude

Ohhhh... so did you cut into the intake?
I guess that's an option. If you look at the tech section you'll see that there are several write ups. 2 specific types though - one type for where the intake silencer is part of the intake tube and another where the intake silencer hangs off the side of the intake tube.
If you did what I think you did - the change should still work fine but you may have some issues with the "easily reversable" part of this mod.

loudawg88

Hi Tacoma Dude and all,

On the '03 what I thought was the silencer is a box that hung on the side of the intake, and had a vacuum line going to the FPR. I could have removed this and capped the hole, but I liked the idea of having a clean, large diameter tube that allowed excellent air flow, so I went for it. If I ever have to reverse the mod, I'll have to buy an OEM intake tube new or from salvage market and put things back to stock that way.

At any rate, by cutting out a section of intake, I eliminated the mystery box (A.K.A. silencer) and added that red chunk of tube in the intake shown in my photo.

I'll go ahead an cap the hole used by the J shaped thingus and see what happens, but the box I removed sure matches descriptions of an intake silencer. It appears to be some kind of resonator, with internal baffles and that hollow echo that an audio resonator would have.

BTW, I was assuming the J shaped thingus was some sort of holder in case some water got sucked in -- just a guess -- and most probably wrong. But with my plumbing background <g> it sure looked like a sink trap <grin>.

Thanks for all the thought and help. I'd imagine once I've removed the J shaped thingus, that's as far as I should go?

'best, Lou

WATRD

BOTH "silencers" serve that purpose, especially the "J" tube. That is the downside to the mod that keeps those of who have no interest in injesting water from doing it.

loudawg88

Aha! Thanks for getting me up to speed. No problem with the water ingestion issue, as this is not a truck for mudding or extreme off-road, and we live in a dry climate (Western Slope Colorado.) I can't wait 'till the truck is back this evening and I can finish the mod! 'best, Lou

fourunnabilly

Yeah, that would be my best guess. Get rid of the J and you should have it handled. In a perfect world, water should be stopped at the filter, though that is not always the case...I don't think the J has anything to do with water collection though. And as tacoma dude said, you will definitely hear it once you get to the 3-4K on your tach. Mine even revved up to just over 5K when I had the ISR on briefly, but even more so, YOU WILL HEAR IT. We've done a great job of confusing a new member, huh? Nah, you'll get er...keep us posted.

Billy

WATRD

No problem. From what I understand, the mod has a possible place on a street only truck or rigs in dry environment such as yours. Enjoy.

If you do a search in past threads, you will run across one where there was a lively debate as to what the designers originally added those boxes for. As you will see from the dozen or so links in that thread, clubs have done that mod to their rigs for years. Some have had good luck, others have decided it was nothing more than a noise maker and still others have had problems with water injestion and have reversed the mod on their rigs.

Good luck with it.

Dr. Zhivago

You know Rob, it's funny you mention being worried about injesting water into your intake since you have a snorkel which extends above your roofline...

I've ran thru waves on the beach which splashed completely over the hood and roof of my truck with the deckplate open and of course with the ISR mod in place. If there was going to be any water injested into the intake, I figure it would have happened then. I've also splashed thru some large puddles and driven thru streams in the woods when goofing around off road with no ill effects. My truck seems to be doing just fine after a year since doing the mod.

But, to each his own.

Welcome to the forums loudawg.

Peace.
G

WATRD

Not funny at all Galen, that is a common misconception amongst those who have never run a snorkel.

The design of the snorkel is such that most water is shunted out through ports in the down tube. My filter is as dry as yours, except that when a drop or two does get by on mine, it has a place to collect and "boil" off into harmless vapor.

As you said, to each his own, if you like it, fine. But it doesn't provide any proven gain except noise and it has a downside.

loudawg88

Hi guys,

I removed the J shaped jingus and capped with a plumbing fitting. Really do not notice any big increase in noise, but I'm not that agressive of a driver so I don't do the RPMs very high, especially since this is an automatic. For what it's worth, I installed the fitting so it's still a bit of a cup for water. I swear the Tacoma now has slightly more pep, sort of like when you drive an older car after a properly done tuneup. But hey, the placebo effect is alive and well so whatever. We've been doing careful gas mileage measurements since we bought this, so will continue and see what that says about this mod.

At any rate, thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow, and at least the engine compartment has less junk in the way...

'best, Lou