Just finished mine an hour ago and drove around the area.
WOW!

I had no idea it would be like that! I can feel the extra oomph and I have yet to 2nd gear it out of a red light

I was always wondering what people meant by the louder engine and I figured it out. It's analagous to when you make a guttural engine sound effect (mouth open) and then cup your hands around you mouth. Same effect.







So how many of you guys tried that just now?

 

Hey, Tacomadude any words of wisdom for doing the deckplate mod? I see that you and I have very similar trucks ; also would it be worth trying to get an airbox/intake set up from a junkyard to be able to go back to oem setup? thanks in advance gumbo.

 

Words of wisdom, hmmmm.

Firstly, if you want to get another box it'll be up to you but I don't intend to go back. If I need stock results the cap will do nicely. If I need to sell/trade whatever it may be a plus. I'll worry about it then.

Actual assembly itself - well I'm sure other people will tell you the same thing no matter what the model but I'll let you know the problems I ran into.

MAF sensor screws - I accidentally stripped the head of the screw with a power screwdriver. I don't know what I'll do when it comes time to remove it but for the mod I left it in place. The whole time I was worried about it though. I'd suggest you remove it and be careful with a HAND tool

Drilling the whole was a bit hard. I didn't have a very wide hole maker so I used a dremel-type with a gritty metal bit (have no idea what it's called). I ended up with a lot of plastic on the bit and figured it'd be worth the end result.
If you look on the inside of the airbox you're about to cut you'll notice that there's a waffle pattern of support for the box. That made it a little harder to cut.
I used the dremel to cut out the largest chunk out and then used a sanding bit on a power drill to fine tune the fit.
If you do this I'd suggest a vaccuum nearby and definitely eye protection of some sort!

Rather than using screws to keep the plate in place I used philips head bolts with washers and nuts in the back. No particular reason I just like having something in the back to keep it in place.

Those're the only problems I ran into. Wasn't that hard and the gain is SO cool!

No digital camera here so I can't show you my results. Sorry!
Would look the same as everyone else's though

 

Just for fun, put the intake silencers back in, but leave the deckplate out and see if you think the deckplate is still all that.

Without the silencers removed, the engine isn't THAT noisy, nor do you get near the power increase. Doing the ISR adds a considerable boost.

The two together are a great bang for the buck mod though.

My .02
Dr. Z

 

I'm assuming if these ever came loose the filter would catch them?? Congrats on the mod BTW

 

also, youre engine will get louder as the ECU adapts...

 

Welcome to the fun TD!

 

Nice! Glad to hear you finally joined the deckplate cult


Now, watch the gas mileage go down as you floor it everywhere for the first 2 months!

 

HAHA, I can see this happening to me, too. My deckplate has just been finished, thanks for checking out my thread, Tacoma Dude! I have also noticed my engine noise on the freeway with cruise control went down. It was great, and just like Dr. Z said in his write up. It was as if the engine had an easier time maintaining my cruising speed, but will perk right up if I hit the gas. I haven't noticed anything "off the line", but I have at the higher rpms and at freeway speeds. The freeway boost is great because that is where I feel that the 2.7's really struggle.

GUMBO - I was going along the same route that you were asking about, scavaging junkyards for a used air box so I could preserve my own. After not being able to find anything for what I thought was a reasonable price, I just went for it and hacked up my own airbox. Now that it's finished and there's no going back, I have no regrets. The neat thing about the deckplate is you can seal it up and go right back to stock. Plus if I ever need a replacement, now I know where to get them for less than the dealer. Good luck!

 

Yeah, I burned a lot of gas last night while I was driving around.
I've never spun any of my wheels before but I managed to do it last night in BFG muds.
Granted it was a freeway onramp and the ground was wet because of the sprinkilng but it was still really cool to hear

I'm driving to Santa Barbara (5 hours) to help my sister move her stuff - I think I'll be making more gas stops than usual

 

I didn't catch that "cult" part until after I posted.

yeah, it really does seem like it, doesn't it?

Do I get to learn the secret handshake now?

 

No, but you get the undergarmets and the secret name.

 

Dare I ask?
:pat:

 

Study world religions long enough, and you will catch my drift.

 

dang talk about slow on the uptake...

I think I was up too late driving around and burning gas

 

Hey man, you need to update your sig, you've got some new mods!

 

yeah, huh?
Take care of that right after I post this