Cai for 2010 4.0 Taco

Hi I'm new to the forum site. I have a 2010 dbl cab with the 4.0 and I'm wanting to put a cai on it. Just wanting to know some of your thoughts as to what kind. I've heard the UDR is a pretty good unit. Or the K&N with the sealing bracket. I want one that actually does what its supposed to. Thanks in advance for the input.

 

Most people here are going to tell you to shy away from them besides its not worth it price wise just remove the charcoal filter and get an safe pro dry and you will have better throttle response

 

I'll be one of those who tell you to avoid the cold air intake setup.

I had a 1990 V6 4x4 (the power of a 4-cyl with the fuel economy of a V8) with a K&N intake. It was loud - very loud - compared to the stock system. Manufacturers spend a lot of time designing intake and exhaust systems to tune the sound that you hear in the cabin. You might think that the sole intent is to make it quiet, with no regard for performance, but that is far from true. Power and fuel economy are directly related, and they care deeply about fuel economy. Free-flowing filters CAN produce more power, but only at the (very high RPM) point where the paper filter begins to starve the engine of air. At this point, you could simply install a paper filter with more surface area to get better flow and not have to deal with the real problem, which is abrasive dirt in the engine.

Intake noise is not the only reason to avoid these systems. If you like your engine, you'll stick to the stock paper filter. I lived and worked in the desert of southern California and Arizona for much of my adult life. I've logged hundreds of thousands of miles of off-road travel in that time. The K&N (and all other oiled-gauze-type) filters are popular there, for a reason that is unique to that environment. The desert environment is filled with fine silt that will clog a paper filter to the point where the engine will not run. Getting home is the priority, sometimes at the expense of engine life. I strongly encourage anyone considering an oiled-gauze filter to pay for an engine oil analysis for at least two oil change cycles using the paper filter before installing the gauze filter, then do another two or more with the gauze filter. I'll bet you will find, as we did, that no matter what vehicle you have, or whether you are driving on or off-road, you will see a sharp rise in silica numbers with the gauze filter. Silica is sand, and to get in your engine oil it had to pass through the air filter. No pre-filter system made this any better. We tried the wrap-around foam things and Donaldson centrifugal units. They do slow the process, but still pass more silica than the paper filter. The Donaldson pre-filter systems did make our paper filters last longer, which we liked a lot.

In this fine-silt environment, weak paper filters can actually collapse and allow unfiltered air to pass through to the engine. A gauze filter lets more silt through all of the time, but generally will not stop the engine from running. Both the gauze and paper filters can be removed from the engine, whacked against the giant front bumpers that we all love, and put back on the engine. If you have on-board compressed air, you can carefully blow the filter (somewhat) clean from the inside out to get your truck running again.

The other good reason to use a gauze filter is off-road racing, and it's no coincidence that you find them on the shelf of every performance shop in the region. Given that the point of racing is to finish first, it is OK (and normally expected) that the engine life is greatly decreased. The engine is just another expendable component of the car.

There is nothing wrong with using a gauze filter, but do it for the right reason. Getting home with gauze is better than being stranded with paper. In all other scenarios, paper is better.

An aside: Oil-bath filters that you find on older cars (when maintained correctly) do the best job of any filter, especially in combination with the centrifugal pre-filter. They are incredibly messy to maintain, but work forever. Unfortunately, they allow small amounts of oil into the intake system, which damages the airflow sensors in fuel-injected vehicles.

Mike

 

Thanks for all the input. I had an injen on my 99 taco, and loved it, and it sounded mean. Well as mean as a 2.4 could sound. Im still leaning towards getting one, and after some research I'm prob gonna go with the Afe stage 2, since its basically what the TRD one is without the extra $. But I've been out of the mod game for a long time. I'm also looking into a full cat back, or just replace the stock muffler. I'm a diy kinda guy. And I can weld soooo any thoughts on that?