My Honest Review of K&N Air Charger CAI

I dropped a K&N "Air Charger" CAI into my 2011 Toyota Tacoma...

Here is my god honest review...

Well the intake took about 60-70 Minutes to completely install. Every bolt lined up and everything fit like it was supposed to, nothing stretching to fit, nothing off. This was quite possibly the smoothest install i have performed on any truck in while.

I took the stock intake out and built the K&N to test weight difference, like expected the K&N was about half the weight and 50% more space efficient.

the K&N heat shield seemed to make a good seal and isolate the filter from the engine.... except the huge hole that the tube goes through... that being said, it probably isnt the most efficient heat shield in the world.

my oxygen sensor fit right in, all the tubes lined up and fit perfect and it clamped to the throttle body just like it should.

so enough on fit and looks, what about performance?

well i drove 4 full tanks with K&N recording distance on two and performance on 1, and the very first tank was to let the computer adjust.

since i dont have a dyno to accurately test the K&N i relied on my trusty Butt dyno... i know my truck better than anyone else and i think it should be about 75% accuracy of what a dyno will read...

MPG's:
well the K&N didnt exactly specify the gain i should look for, but in my real world situation it seemed to only gain 2-3 MPG (circumstantial)
i wouldnt say its the K&N that helped.. maybe it did maybe it didnt... could just be the way i was driving and weather etc..

POWER:
Well lets be honest here... the k7n claimed 13-15 hp was pretty off... i would say about 5-6 hp gain.. but any poney gain is a friend of mine..
the k&n really helped in the top end power around 4-6k rpm's
with none of the gain below 3k rpm

SOUND:
Wow... this thing sound amazing.. anything above 4k rpm is like my trucks engine came alive and wants to eat the next door neighbors dog.. it really growls and howls and i am impressed as sound goes

BOTTEM LINE:
MPG gain?- not really

HP gain- maybe 5-6hp gain

Seem to allow more air flow?- yes it seems to be alot more flowing

Sound- incredible

Would i recommend?- i would definitely recommend it but dont expect the 13-15hp claim

Thank you for reading

Video sample:
speed limit was 45 mphs, i will admit i was doing 50-55

 

Nice write-up Blake, my friend with the same seemed to say the same thing, mostly sound, which he got annoyed of eventually haha - been riding much?

 

Good job man! I remember K&N talking on "Gears", they said something like "K&N doesn't put out a product unless it gets you at least 15 horsepower". They also published stuff about the efficiency of E3 sparkplugs, so I digress.

Anyway, thats basically what we would expect from bolt-on performance. Do you think it's worth gasketing the hole in the heat-sheild?

 

i think if they provided mor of the gasketing tubing for the heat shield it would help a little, that seems to be a big area where heat could come through

 

yep quite a bit, may be heading out tomorrow, not sure where yet though

 

I have this also, but if I could do it all over again, I'd get TRD or AFE

 

I found that the K&N I had on my 98 5.2L Grand Cherokee actually robbed low end power, just like you found up to 3,000RPM the K&N can be a parasite on some engines. All of their power gains on the dynos are around or above 5,000RPM

 

What your experiencing is how long it takes that intake to get the temperatures down to ambient air temps. I used to have a K&N then I got the AFE.