Best Cold Air Intake for a 2012 4.0L engine

Ok,
I am tired of looking through all of the threads, so I am going to ask; what are your opinions for the Cold Air Intake best suited for a 2012 4.0L engine?

 

AFE Stage II or URD TCAI. I picked URD.

 

imho. stock is good. only thing better is going to move it in front of the radiator. the stock intake is behind the splash guard in the wheel well.

 

Everybody is going to tell you what they have is best, I myself love my volant intake. It really is a lot nicer sounding in the 3000 rpm and up range, so when I want to mash the skinny pedal I get to braaap, but when I'm just putting around town, no drones.
I'd agree that putting it in front of the radiator would be the best solution, although it makes water crossings....limited. Depends on what you want your truck to do id say. But the URD TCAI is a great product from what I've read, but then again, so is the snorkel setup. Big difference in function.

 

Stock or snorkel. You wont see any gains in performance or functionality otherwise.

Although, I will say that my K&N drop in filter + Gibson cat-back has brought be back up to stock MPG's with a lift on 33"s.

 

Agreed that stock is your best option for performance and overall quality. No CAI will really produce any noticeable or substantial gains of any kind. Many will argue against this but without dyno results its just hearsay. Toyota spent over $1million designing the intakes for these vehicles ( from what i have read.. source from another thread on TN, no link available but it had actual Toyota data linked) true or not your stock intake is "technically" already CAI. Your paying mostly for the sound, not the performance.

That all being said, I run stock because I can't afford anything else right now, BUT my buddy (another member) has a TRD CAI and it sounds BEAST!!!! I love it and HATE riding in his truck cuz I get so jealous! He admits there is no performance increase, although he is also running TRD catback as well. From what I've read and heard from people who have various different CAI, I believe the majority consensus is the AFE stage II with pro-dry filter as mentioned already. I would love to get the trd cai myself because I have heard it first hand, but ive been told that AFE is the same if not slightly better with the same noise results.just my .02

 

Washable filter & more noise is about all there is to it. The filter in front would not seem to be good idea for water crossings but also less of a good idea for rain, which happens more than water crossings ever will.

 

URD claims rain is not an issue. They offer a hydroshield sock if you live in a very rainy area and also a splash guard if you off road and like to hit big puddles or if you have an open mesh grille that will not protect the exposed filter like a stock grille will.

There's no getting around water crossings though. If you typically ford water at that height, the URD CAI is a bad idea. If you go through water that deep on a regular basis, you should be looking at a snorkel rather than a CAI. Performance-wise, the snorkel will be better also.

 

There's only 2 options for the 12 that I've heard of, the URD and Volant (I think it was volant...).

Since the 12s added an emissions pump in the fender air intake area, many of the aftermarket CAIs don't work, unless you relocate the pump yourself.

 

Stock

 

Yeah, I have the K&N dryfilter thing on my car over the aFe on it but it's behind the radiator core support in the corner of engine bay behind headlight and behind a rubber seal on the hood when it's closed. I sure don't want it or trust it being out in front of the radiator in direct spray of rain going down the highway. It sheds water bigtime but didn't keep my hand from still getting wet when spraying water on it from windex bottle. If it is truly completely waterproof then it is having bad affect on air flow IMO and that would be another plus for just staying stock enclosed and dry.

 

I hear ya man, just repeating what I'd heard and what Gadget stated in a thread in the past. I can't see having the filter exposed like that either which is why I stuck with stock.

 

^ agree X234

 

URD intakes have been proven by DYNO to give more horsepower. just FYI

 

They only reason I said it was cuz the guy stated that none have been proven to give any real increases in power which was not true

and I need that upper end power quite a bit when towing up a hill. (and that is on the street)

 

Even towing up a hill I'm rarely over 3k RPM... You must really like to have the skinny pedal mashed into the floorboards.

 

I tow up a couple "mountains". Living in rockies you have to go up hills that are 40-45ish degrees. im sitting between 4k and 4.5k rpm just trying to hold my speed. The big semis are only going 25-30mph on these hills.

 

Ya that friend of yours is an asshole...damn TRD intake n crap

 

I put an aFe Stage II Si ProDry because I am an idiot. Given the chance, I'd get my money back and keep it stock with a ProDry drop in.

 

I think I'd give the engine a bit of a rest and let it loose a little bit of speed rather than beat the hell out of it making it hold it's speed climbing the Rockies. Towing is already tough on a vehicle, no need to make it unnecessarily harder just because you don't want to loose 5 MPH when climbing a mountain... Your truck but sounds like unnecessary wear and tear to me.