I was working on my car this weekend and noticed that it will not run at all if the MAF is not in place. I thought that its pretty crazy that it has soo much of an affect on the engine. For example...if the engine is running and you loosen the MAF and begin to pull it away from the tube...your engine will bog down and die. Most cars aren't that affected by an MAF. ALSO....I was wondering where I may be able to obtain an MAF from a twin turbo supra, like gadget. The OEM MAF seems to be very restrictive. Maybe there would even be a chance of finding a group buy for this particular part.

 

Man...am i too going to have to start pulling this being a girl bit to get some replies? LOL.

 

Most cars these days (especially those made by Toyota) won't run unless the MAF/MAP sensor is connected. On my old Camry, which used the 3VZ-FE (same engine in the older 4Runners), I tried installing my own home made intake and messed up the MAF meter by accidentally pulling out the cable connecting to it. BIG mistake which cost me like 80 bucks. Anyway, I imagine it would take more than just removing the stock one and putting in a Supra one. Probably have to change the ECU and do some other electrical work.

Like you said, some cars are able to run without the MAF sensor, though I'm not sure why. For example, an acquaintance of mine said that his S-10 ran without the MAF sensor on. His check engine light was on however. My Camry was not able to run for more than two seconds without the sensor connected.

 

The MAF also needs to have airflow through it to run. I tried running my 4runner in the driveway with the intake hose removed and it would not even start!

FWIW I do think the Supra MAF is a direct swap into the 3.4 engine. It's main benefit is that it's a lot less restrictive to the airflow.

 

Though the Supra MAF will directly plug into the wire harness from the stock MAF, from what I heard, it should not be considered a direct swap because it's signal is different from stock. Therefore, use of the Supra MAF will, IMO, require the use of a device like the S-AFC or whatnot that can alter the signal from the MAF. Further it is questionable what gains you would see without also a supercharger and bigger injectors.....

 

You may know this but. . . MAF stands for Mass Air Flow. The ecu uses the signal that the MAF sends to compute the volume and density of the air coming into the engine and it adds a certain amount of gas based on the signal. Every car that uses a MAF will do the same if you remove it from the airtube, not run, the 4Runner is not special in this regard.

As far as adding a larger MAF to your engine there is no reason unless you have an SC and larger injectors.

 

Well, i know what it is and what it does. But, as far as i have seen on most cars, the engine is not completely dependent on the MAF, but it uses it for improvements on determining the appropriate gas mixture. I just thought it was weird that the 4Runner would not even run without it.