aFe exhaust will work well with aFe intake..:bigthumb:

 

Looks like mine, but on a yellow FJ ;-)

I just put it in a few minutes ago & was wondering about that little red cap that came with mine. It's a cover for a small air scoop on the lower front side of the intake box.

Here's a view of the little rubbery cover that I left off:

Any idea if that's supposed to be on there? I ordered the intake that uses the stock intake off the side of the fender well, but my intake box also came w/ that cover piece and the extra opening.

I'm going to leave it off for now, but I'd like to know if it should be on there long term. I ordered this guy right here:

Toyota FJ Cruiser AFE Magnum Force Stage 2 Cold Air Intake - 2007-2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser - AFE A155481162

if it matters. Yes, I know it is only max 15hp, but I called & they gave me another $20 off

Thanks!

~BC

 

that cap is for personal preference,they started putting them out when people wondered why the trd cai didnt have that hole. So you can leave it off if you like it better

 

I would put the cap on if your doing water crossings or deep mud, leave it off on the street.

My understanding is that the hole is a carryover from their street CAIs to allow more airflow when the engine demands it. Some folks were commenting that it allows water, mud, etc. to get in and that it also allows warm engine air (partially negating the COLD air intake benefit).

But after reading up a little, I think a starved engine is worse off that an engine that gets a little warm air mixed in with the cold...e.g. sufficient air supply is more important than air temperature.

In fact one of the forum members did a test and put a hinged door on the opening to see if the engine actually needed more air than the stock hole above the wheel well would allow. He set it up so the door would stay at the angle the incoming air forced it to. After doing a test run, he found that the hinged door did indeed open most of the way, meaning the engine did want that extra capacity.

So for normal driving, I leave it open. But if I am going out and water crossings or a lot of mud are possible, I pop it in.

 

Looks great! I did a lot of research on adding another port to the CAI and have to agree to keep it open while highway driving. It seems a lot of the Tacoma guys have moded their air box to have a second front-facing port. The warmth of the engine bay is most likely negligible when combined with the colder air from the fender wall. Probably one of the things I'm going to do to my TRD cai.

 

I have a confession to make. I traded my aFe intake box for a TRD intake box. The rest of the parts I kept because they are mine and I have used them, and the parts are IDENTICAL aside from the box besides color and badging. Whoop dee doo.

Now, I did this because I have the snorkel. It was either silicone the plug in to ensure I don't hydrolock my engine one day, or see if someone would be willing to trade boxes.

VDM is my hero, and now I bet she gets better MPG's than me if she keeps her plug out. My truck seemed to accelerate faster with the aFe sans plug, and it definitely got slightly better MPG. So I know the aFe hole works like they claim it did in bench flow testing. But, I need a dry engine when I am crossing BC rivers so I made the trade.

Perhaps you can find someone with a snorkel who will swap the box only instead of cutting into a perfectly good TRD box. Just a thought...

:cheers:

 

Good choice on the intake. One of the reasons I went with the aFe instead of the TRD was because of this extra hole. It is supposed to allow more air into the engine, especially when you have a snorkel but drive under normal conditions. I leave it off most of the time and pop it in when mud/dirt/water could come into the engine bay.

 

Looks sweet!!!! Im thinking of changing out my K&N for one of these. The K&N takes some pretty harsh turns and this is just a straight shot. I like that idea much better, not to mention the fact that the K&N is completely open in the engine bay and probably sucks nothing but hot air, where as this is fed pure outside air..... aside from the hole at the bottom. Thanks for helping me make the decision to spend more money on this money pit. Anyone want a K&N Cheap?

 

How cheap?

 

Nice write up!!! I also got the AFE CAI, but mine didn't come with the cap:mecry:, although I did get mine before the TRD box came out.

 

Thanks for the tip on the plug. I installed my aFe CAI (Stage 2 XP Air Intake System With Pro-Dry S filter bought from AutoAnything.com) about 2 months ago and couldn't figure out what it was for. I actually thought it was supposed to be a grill badge of some kind. Now it's in the glove box in case I go back in the water.

The CAI doesn't seem to have affected my mileage one way or the other but the boost when I need to pass is great. And it sounds so sweet.

 

I want to add a snorkel now and can't find this cap, can't find a replacement part either