On the 2003 - V6, there is a duct which leads from the air filter box to a plastic housing mounted to the top of the wheel well. The housing protrudes into the sidewall, with the portion in the sidewall looking like a dome with the back half cut off so that the open half faces towards the rear of the vehicle. The closed end faces forward. Just looking into the sidewall, it looks like the only source of air is from the front.

Would there be any benefit or harm cause be cutting off the dome so that the housing butts up against the sidewall?

What is the purpose of the housing mounted on top of the wheel well? It seems you would be able to run a larger diameter duct directly from the air filter box to the sidewall in a straight line more or less.

Has anyone attempted this already?

Yes - I know I already have 245 HP, but as I said in a previous post, there is no such thing as too much HP.

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

Show a pic of what you're talking about and I could offer better advice.

 

Pictures would be helpful.

But, it sounds like you want to do a combination of what the 3rd gen folks know as the Elbow Removal Mod:
http://www.4runners.org/articles/airbox/

And the deckplate mod:
https://www.yotatech.com/~corey/tech.../deckplate.htm

Right?

 

Pretty much any calculated modifcation before the air filter will not harm anything. Just be cautious on the mods that permanently destroy OEM parts as they may be expensive to replace should the mod not work out.

Be a pioneer, go for it! But post some pics first if you are still unsure. We can help.

 

I will work on getting some photos.

From doing a little net research, the box I had a question about is apparently the intake resonator.

Found this site which gave a little overview of intake systems. It was from an Isuzu site but seemed to be applicable elsewhere.

http://www.isuzuperformance.com/isup...ch/intake.html

 

Ahh, then you really should browse the technical article section here. There's a mod there about removing the resonator/silencer:

https://www.yotatech.com/~corey/tech...take/albpm.htm


A lot of folks have done this mod and there is some mixed feelings about it. Most folks are in the camp that it helps throttle response - some are in the camp that there is no difference - others are in the camp that says that removing it could allow moisture (and more substantially, lotso water) to get into the throttle body.

The good thing about the mod is that it's cheap and reversable.

 

Thanks for the link to the writeup.

Not sure if it is a resonator now though, as in the write up for the earlier models, Dr.Z says it is between the air filter and the throttle body.

 

'k... well, like we've said before... we need pictures mahn!

 

Here's a quick picture I grabbed off the internet. Not the best, but give the idea.

 

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Now I know what you're looking at!

Okay, that's what we know as the Elbow which I mentioned above. And yes, it goes through the fender well and sucks outside air in from inside the passenger side fender.

This is done to try to ensure that only one path of air is available to the engine, and that it's as high as possible above the ground (short of running a snorkel) so that you can run through water and not worry about burying the intake (which would be bad).

I dunno what your elbow looks like, but the Elbow Removal Mod that's talked about for the 3rd gens is done because the elbow takes a very tight 90 degree turn after it passes through the fender. It's tight enough that it does restrict the air intake.


Hope that helps, and thanks for finding a picture!

 

Actually, the design as it is now looks to be about the same as the 3rd generation after the elbow mod provided you remove the 90 degree turn.

http://www.4runners.org/articles/air...eassembly.html

The whole box is one piece though and there is no 2nd piece in the fender wall.

The Toyota engineers must have read about the elbow mod.

 

Ahhh! Okay, then I dun't tink there's a whole lot more you can do to get more air into there short of doing some work on enlarging the hole at the air cleaner and replacing the intake tube!