I was considering the TRD intake but for the price I just wasnt sure it would yield that much benefit. So I decided to start looking to see if there was any improvement to be had with the stock intake system.
At first thought, looking at the intake tube, I thought there would be lots of room for improvement. I mean really, what's this elephant seal nose looking thing doing on the intake tube? Turns out, that upon closer inspection (IMO) this was not designed for sound but to act as an "air reserve" for the stupidly designed air box. The intake, as designed with those "lobes" actually should not cause much disturbance/restriction in air flow going into the engine. The real restriction comes from the 2.5" inlet into the stock air box.
It seems that in order to add a particle dump on the air box, Toyota necked down the inlet to the box to 2.5" by sleeving a 2.5" by 2" tube into the 3" molded inlet, then on top of that added a factory "Tornnado" air vortexer thingy. Creating a trap for large light stuff that could have been sucked into the intake. All of this is the largest contrinutor to intake restriction (IMO).
The stock TB is 3" in diameter, so how is a 3" throttle body supposed to get enough air when demand arrises, (smashing on the throttle to pass for example) if it's only fed by a 2.5" inlet? Well it really can't so (IMO) Toyota added the extra "air reserve" lobes to the intake to help. Unfortunately I don't really think those hold enough air in reserve to matter and thus we (2010, 2011) guys are stuck with a somewhat anemic truck.
So what is one to do? Well if your me I could care less about the large particle dump because I have an air filter to do that (infact there is an additional filter in the upper air box lid so you really have 2 air filters), so I cut the small sleeve out and removed the "tornado" wanna be vortexer, getting rid of the restriction. I didn't bother replacing the intake tube at this point cause like I mentioned above I dont think it's that much of a restriction.
Does the tuck perform better? Well thats going to be tough for me to say honestly cause the same day I did this, I added my Demello sliders effectively adding an additional 70lbs to the truck, which I think pretty much absorbed the any power increase I would normally have felt. IMO it does feel a little more responsive and I think if there would not have been a weight gain in between before and after, the truck would have felt much more improved.
So, on with the pics to show you what I'm talking about.
Looking into the stock air box with the filter removed you'll see the tiny 2.5" inlet.
Lookig at the outside of the inlet you'll see that it's really a much larger diameter but clogged with the wanna be "Tornado"
The "Tornado" is held in place by a removable clip on piece. Once you pop that guard off you can see the "vortexer" is just slid in, then held in by two little plastic welds. I split these with a pocket knife and removed the vortexer.
With the vortexer out you can see the small sleeved piece.
To get his out I used a hole saw about 2.75" or so and drilled it out from inside the box. Then cleaned up any of the remaining material.
Then reassembled with the piece that held the vorexter in (sans vortexer of course) and reassembled. With a K&N drop-in.
Love to hear everybody's thoughts.
At first thought, looking at the intake tube, I thought there would be lots of room for improvement. I mean really, what's this elephant seal nose looking thing doing on the intake tube? Turns out, that upon closer inspection (IMO) this was not designed for sound but to act as an "air reserve" for the stupidly designed air box. The intake, as designed with those "lobes" actually should not cause much disturbance/restriction in air flow going into the engine. The real restriction comes from the 2.5" inlet into the stock air box.
It seems that in order to add a particle dump on the air box, Toyota necked down the inlet to the box to 2.5" by sleeving a 2.5" by 2" tube into the 3" molded inlet, then on top of that added a factory "Tornnado" air vortexer thingy. Creating a trap for large light stuff that could have been sucked into the intake. All of this is the largest contrinutor to intake restriction (IMO).
The stock TB is 3" in diameter, so how is a 3" throttle body supposed to get enough air when demand arrises, (smashing on the throttle to pass for example) if it's only fed by a 2.5" inlet? Well it really can't so (IMO) Toyota added the extra "air reserve" lobes to the intake to help. Unfortunately I don't really think those hold enough air in reserve to matter and thus we (2010, 2011) guys are stuck with a somewhat anemic truck.
So what is one to do? Well if your me I could care less about the large particle dump because I have an air filter to do that (infact there is an additional filter in the upper air box lid so you really have 2 air filters), so I cut the small sleeve out and removed the "tornado" wanna be vortexer, getting rid of the restriction. I didn't bother replacing the intake tube at this point cause like I mentioned above I dont think it's that much of a restriction.
Does the tuck perform better? Well thats going to be tough for me to say honestly cause the same day I did this, I added my Demello sliders effectively adding an additional 70lbs to the truck, which I think pretty much absorbed the any power increase I would normally have felt. IMO it does feel a little more responsive and I think if there would not have been a weight gain in between before and after, the truck would have felt much more improved.
So, on with the pics to show you what I'm talking about.
Looking into the stock air box with the filter removed you'll see the tiny 2.5" inlet.
Lookig at the outside of the inlet you'll see that it's really a much larger diameter but clogged with the wanna be "Tornado"
The "Tornado" is held in place by a removable clip on piece. Once you pop that guard off you can see the "vortexer" is just slid in, then held in by two little plastic welds. I split these with a pocket knife and removed the vortexer.
With the vortexer out you can see the small sleeved piece.
To get his out I used a hole saw about 2.75" or so and drilled it out from inside the box. Then cleaned up any of the remaining material.
Then reassembled with the piece that held the vorexter in (sans vortexer of course) and reassembled. With a K&N drop-in.
Love to hear everybody's thoughts.