2000 Toyota Tacoma 4x4

I am in the process of putting a 6in lift and about to be running 35-13.50s on my truck. I use it as my daily driver and do mostly freeway driving with it, I was looking for some info on a cool air intake.

1) Is a cool air intake worth the horsepower boost?
2) Would it or should it give me that little extra power to get on the freeway with the increased tire size?
3) Should i go with a K&N or TRD cool air intake what are the Pro's and Con's between the two?

 

If you feel like you have money absolutely BURNING a hole in your pocket and just HAVE to have a "mod," those are great modifications. You won't notice any power difference other than a possible "Placebo" effect (AKA, "I just spent 200 bucks, it HAS to be faster, right?). Toyota spent MILLIONS of dollars finding just the right way to do your truck's intake (shape, diameter, length, placement in engine compartment, material, etc), so that it would be just right. The aftermarket stuff just throws on a flashy filter in a random location. In many, MANY cases you will actually LOSE power. Don't trust numbers coming from the manufacturer, those are blown WAY out of proportion in their own tests. Save your money, you'll get much better results (power and mpg) keeping up on basic maintenance.

 

Thank you, its all very good help and its hard to find reliable information out there these days and i have notice pretty good feedback from this site. More info is always welcome i like to intake knowledge about stuff that will always help me build my truck, its better to get it right and affordable then not.. What would you recommend to stable out the power loss for increase tires??

 

the OEM air intake is a real cool air intake as it gets the air from behind the fender. the intake air therefore is cool as it is not heated by the engine.

The only mod then is the piping and the filter itself. so you might like to consider fabricating the piping with polished internals and then replace the air filter with a sports air filter by TRD. you might also like to consider removing some restrictions in the mini-snorkel behind the fender by fabbing some piping

I know that there are some brands that call their products as cold air intake but in reality the sourced air is heated by the engine bay or by the radiator.

 

regarding the tires:
did you mean increased tire diameter and width? if your tacoma feels anemic, then replace the final gear ratio to a lower gear (numerically higher). That will involve replacing the gears in your front & rear diffs

 

Im going from 31-10.50s to 35-13.50s, so is a snorkel bad to use for a cool air intake to get it away from the engine?

 

Yeah, it already *has* a cold air intake.

About the only thing really worth doing on the intake is putting a snorkel in. And that's not really for colder air, just less swampy watery air when you hit a much deeper puddle than you expected. Hydrolocking the motor when the front end dips *way* down unexpectedly is not a good thing.

 

Look up Isr mod and use an AFE dry element filter. AFE makes the air filters for TRD. Just stay away from the oiled air filters as they have a tendancy to dirty the MAF sensor.

 

Ya I would say this is more worth the trouble, cheaper and more effective. And you can close it up for off road driving. Options are niiice.
As you can see my K&N. Haven't switched to dry filter yet.

 

A K&N filter cost the previous owner of my '99 Highlander $200. We'd agreed on a price, but when we met the CEL was on, rich O2 sensor reading. We agreed to take $200 off to cover the cost of a MAF. Not knowing exactly what it was, of course, just making a guess. And indeed, oil soot on the MAF. Some careful cleaning, and taking the K&N back out, and it's been fine for 16K miles since.

Probably just an overoiled K&N, but there's a reason the crankcase vent tube joins the intake system *after* the MAF.

 

Ya they definitely can cause the MAF to be clogged up, but its very easy to clean. And I do it every time I clean the air filter. Ive never had a problem. Very important tip (don't over oil it)

 

You know when you see those "slippery floor" signs in walmart. Doesn't mean you have to fall on your donkey. Just means you can fall on your donkey.

 

I like the idea of the IRS mod but is there a needed reason for the IRS mod, why not just run your intake through the snorkel all the time? Or is there a down fall to run it through a snorkel all the time??

 

Stick with the stock intake with the elbow removed, you will loose power with a "cold air intake".

Here is a back to back dyno on my truck of first the cold air intake then the stock intake with elbow removed. I will let the results speak for themselves, I will say I was very surprised at the results.



Also the ISR mod is for looks not performance. I did it because due to my headers I could not access the transmission dipstick with the ISR in place. Just like I thought there was no noticeable gain in performance of any kind. Nor sound.

The best intake mod is removing the elbow that goes into the fender, that is worth ~8whp. Past that leave it stock.

 

you need to re-gear to at least 1:4.88.. stock FGR is most probably 1:4.10 or 1:4.30 a snorkel should be able to provide cooler intake air.

 

TEXAS,
So if I'm reading this correct, by removing the elblow that goes from the air box to the the fender I will gain a few HP while leaving everything else factory stock?

 

A couple things,

1) REGEAR!!!
2) TRANS COOLER IF YOU HAVE AN AUTO TRANS!!

 

Correct, that is the best performance intake setup for our trucks.

You can remove the ISR for looks if you want, it won't hurt anything and it is cheap, it does clean things up some but no noticeable performance gains.

The deckplate will cost you power if anything but it makes a nice sound if you are willing to give up the performance.

Really it is not worth messing with an NA 3.4l. Boost it or leave it alone.

 

Thanks Texas, think I'll remove it and see what happens according to butt dyno since it's a free mod.

I'm thinking about a turbo in the future but I'll have to weigh the pros and cons between that and a S/C and cost too.

 

Go turbo and dont look back. Cost will be about the same and the performance of the turbo will be far better. Just got to pick the right turbo setup.