Cold Air Intakes. Debunking false claims.

Hey guys,

I think we can all agree this topic is heavily discussed in many different threads. However, one common trend I have noticed is a lot of members making the following claims about CAI's.

* Waste of money
* Does not increase HP
* Draws in warmer air than stock
* Only for looks
* No different than the stock CAI
* screws up your MAF

The intent of this thread is create a friendly open debate, not to argue. If you have a good point to make, or have some data that supports your claim, please share sources and links. Otherwise please keep the comments civilized.

Well I decided to do a little researching and came to find majority of these claims to be untrue so far. The members making these negative claims are unable to back up their claim with any real data. It appears most members are simply repeating what they read on other threads and resort to name calling or belittling when you challenge them to provide proof. Even Matt at OvTune expresses his doubts and claimed he played with one on a dyno and did not see those results. But did not provide the data to back this claim. Not saying its untrue.... but I am hoping that this thread will bring all this "data" to the public's eye so we can put a nail in this coffin once and for all.

I will also be taking pictures of the stock intake system later tonight or tomorrow to try to point out how restrictive the stock system is, even being a cold air intake system already. I am also very willing to use my truck on a Dyno with stock intake VS the K&N if anyone has access and wont charge too much.


I contacted a tech at K&N and shared these claims with him. Below is the following response directly from K&N. Along with the Dyno chart they sent me.
K&N Tech
3:39 PM (23 minutes ago)



to me


Hello,

Thank you for contacting K&N. We are happy to address your concern.

concern #1. " ""The Tacoma intake system is already a cold air system that draws air from the fender, the K&N cold air intake system pulls air directly from inside the engine bay so this system actually draws in hotter air and robs HP and MPG."

-To answer this question, our intake system does still act like the original airbox set up with a huge amount of less restriction. Starting off with the heat shield itself. We utilize almost stock location to draw in the air from fender and that air comes from the cowling. So air is still rushing through there, colder air. It is blocked off from the engine with our heat shield. What about the top? Once you close your hood, the hood and the liner we use mate up and create a seal. Did we block out ALL heat? No, the stock one can't even do that. We tried our best to eliminate as much heat as possible and still make sure we have surface area for air to flow through. We do not, and will continue not to test for anything but horsepower and torque. We do NOT test for MPG as there is WAY to many variables to accounts for. You will see this brought up again in the email.


Concern #2. "The aftermarket cold air intake systems do not increase air flow in comparison to a stock system with a drop in K&N filter"""

-To answer this question, this is false as the stock air filter replacement, our part number

$90 33-5017 High Performance Replacement Air Filter with Filter Care Service Kit for 2014-2017 Toyota Tacoma/Tundra/Sequoia V6/V8

33-5017 flows 852.2 CFM. Yes that is a good amount of CFM for just a drop in filter. However, it doesn't end there... That air has to go passed the filter and through the Toyota tubing, which isn't straight through like our system in. You can easily see the HUGE resonator on the stock tubing that reduces noise AND air flow speed. Air has to go through the box, the tube, hit that resonator, bounce around then go back into the tube THEN it will go into the throttle body. Our system uses an oversized cone filter along with a velocity stack then coupled to our tubing with no resonators or baffles.


Concern #3. "However I did receive your Dyno print out showing a 18hp gain. I went to your website and noticed it now shows 17hp. Why the change?"

-We see on our website, the 77 kit made on the truck we dynoed 18.81 whp and 13.05lbft of torque. We also see that the 63 intake kit made 17whp and 12.84lbft of torque. We may think you saw the later of the two on the website? Please let us know if you saw 17whp on the 77 kit on our website and we will correct the issue.


If you have any other questions please give us a call at 1.800.858.3333

 

K&N wants to sell you a product...

 

So you did some research with a company that's biased and wants your money?

 

Need independent dyno tests

 

That seal with the coolant overflow is super tight. No hot air gets in that!

 

many of the MT drivers have a value for this due to the added noise helping to guide your shifting just from being able to hear the motor. that's why i bought mine (TRD). actually i could use more noise if i could get it. i don't care about 5hp above 5k where i never go.

 

You can’t argue against people saying CAIs do not net the gains that companies advertise by then turning around and asking the companies. That is going around in a circle.

 

Sealed?
Someone go to your local dodge dealer and buy the airbox for a 2016/2017 scat pack shaker.
Then order the intake tube.
Modify and make it work on a tacoma. Doooo eeeeetTacoma.

 

I had a K&N short ram in my Celica. While I couldn’t fully say or confirm that I did get the increased gains that K&N state with their dyno it did seem to open the car up a bit more. You could definitely tell it was getting more airflow than the stock airbox. The short ram even sat right in the engine bay open to the heat where the stock airbox obviously was close and drew from the front of the vehicle. I did notice the car pulled with the intake in it when it was cold and never seemed to to that with the factory box. It also did give a little more depth to my exhaust. For the $250 I think I spent on it to me it was worth it. I cleaned the filter a few times and re-oiled it. Never had any issues with the MAF. Unless your drenching the filter in oil it’ll be fine. The only concern I see with them is they will suck in water a lot more easily. Especially the cold air intakes because they usually design those to sit in the wheel wells or somewhere close. Hitting big puddles or driving through water, increases the chance in hydrolocking your motor. I’ve seen a few people do it with cold air intakes. So no doubt they increase airflow over the factory but all the rocket scientists here will dispute that. I say do what makes you happy. It’s your money not anyone else’s if you want to spend $300 dollars on one so be it. They may think it’s a waste of money, but you may think the $800 steel bumper or sliders they put on their truck is a waste. To each his own

 

If you email Chevy and ask if they make the best trucks, I bet they will claim they do.

 

I am still hearing a lot of opinions and absolutely no data or facts that would back up any claims. Even the claim that K&N is lying to get more business. Anyone ever heard of, seen of, or has a Dyno test results comparing one of these to stock? That's the only way to prove that K&N is lying. I bet if they posted a YouTube video of the Dyno some of ya'll would still try to claim the videos is being edited or something haha. Why is it soo hard to believe that you can get a little gain from un-restricting your air intake? lol

 

Then why don't you put your truck on a dyno with the stock intake and then aftermarket, make a YouTube vid and prove everyone wrong.

Since that's what you seem to be doing with this thread with no actual evidence except "Claims" from K&N.

And btw.
Since you started the thread claiming all these wonderful things were true about aftermarket CAI,
Doesn't the burden of proof fall on you?

 

I was going to say the same thing among many others. The burden of independent 3rd party replicable data isn't on the people challenging the claim. OP has a serious misunderstanding of how "proof" works.

But this whole thread needs a

 

Find me a Dyno! I already said im down

 

You're in Socal, it can't be that difficult to locate one on Google. I don't know why you expect someone to do the legwork for you to validate something you want so much to believe. Does it even matter? Go put on a K&N cold air intake on your truck, slap their sticker on your rear window, and let your butt dyno tell you how many HP you gained.

 

http://nicoclub.com/archives/kn-vs-oem-filter.html

 

I seriously doubt anybody will ever be able to perceive 18hp and 13lbs.

I'm not saying K&N is lying, but it's like me saying that I can raise the water level of Lake Michigan by taking a leak in it: technically it's true, but who cares?

 

K&N have a great point about the resonator, in my mind that’s the main selling point of the TRD intake system, that and the “straighter route” not that I’d buy one as the price is not worth it IMO. I have no idea if it actually makes any HP in this engine, but it can’t hurt that’s for sure. I’ve had similar systems on the dyno on different vehicles that have made a few horses, but that was ~20 years ago. it’s so dependent on so many variables than you need to be vehicle specific.
But I wouldn’t personally call any of these CAI, that’s a BS use of the term in my mind for these kinda intake systems.

 

Wut? You want someone who has access to one and do it for free or not charge that much?

A solid shop with a dynojet chassis dyno will charge you $300+ for an initial test run+3 runs.
On top of that....you sign a waiver saying if ANY failure of ANY part fails, it's not their problem.

Ask me how I know.

 

You are on an island, I never hear cai s advertised for that reason